Web push notifications have been around for a while already. Chances are, if you are reading this article, you have already implemented them on your website or at least you are planing to do it soon. Continue reading and I will reveal how did it go for my first web push notifications campaign.
In fact I'm new to web push notifications. I first installed and enabled web push notifications for my blog just few days ago. See: How To Setup Web Push Notifications for Drupal or Any Site using PushEngage. In four days I gathered 300 subscribers and first campaign was sent out.
Get a free account at PushEngage (Free for up to 2500 subscribers)
Here are few tips (observations) after my first sent campaign:
Dashboard at PushEngage
My idea for push notifications at start was simple - set and forget - let me explain. PushEngage offers to use RSS auto push feature, which basically means - enter RSS feed once and set all to auto mode. I was looking for following behavior - RSS auto push will grab the title from article, and description. As of now - PushEngage doesn't offers options to use thumbnail from post, so I manually upload a picture of my face, the same I'm using on Facebook page.
The Result:
Default RSS push notification
My expectations were wiped - the auto RSS push sent RSS with my name in title and post title as description
My first push notifications was sent out to 300 subscribers, 12 decided to un-subscribe (block notifications), I got 190 views (that's more than 50%) and 23 clicks (7.7% CTR)
In fact - I would say - that's pretty decent result for the very first campaign. I would love to see unsubscribe rate less - but I understand, that it's normal.
Here are few my suggestions:
- Don't use RSS - AUTO push for your first campaign, give it a try with handcrafted notifications.
- Reach pretty solid audience before you reach out. 300 subscribers seems fine, but I would suggest to reach at least 1,000 before sending out. That of course depends on how many subscribers you can get in a short time. Set this limit smaller if you can't gather subscribers fast enough. P.S. I got 300 subscribers from about 8,000 unique visitors in 4 days.
- Use attractive picture for your notifications
- Try to add text like Click here or Read more at the end of your notification to increase your CTR rate.
Now it's your turn - what are your suggestions or experience for first web push notifications campaign? Leave a comment below.