8 Factors to Consider When Choosing A Push Notification Platform

For every online website, customer engagement is very crucial. It has a direct impact on website ranking, traffic, customer satisfaction, and overall revenue. As per the study, 63% of marketers view customer engagement as customer renewals, repeat purchase, and retention. To increase customer engagement, you need to bring them back to your website. One of the best tools to increase customer engagement is web push notifications. The reasons are:

• Visitors can subscribe without sharing any personal information
• Notification delivered instantly
• Subscriber receives notification even when they are not on the site
• No need for any app to use push notifications on mobile. Notifications are delivered right on the browser, both in desktop & mobile.

Push Notifications has come a long way to serve the need of the online website. There are now many push notification platforms in the market. You can register with any and start using web push notification. However, before signing up with a push notification platform, do check the below facts. Otherwise, you may miss the power of push notification in re-engaging customers.

Installation

Check the installation process of the push notification service provider. Does it require too many files to install? For e.g platform providers may ask for a service worker file, manifest.json, JavaScript, create your own firebase key for GCM settings, and more. The above was required earlier. With the advancement in push notification technology, push notification integration requires:

• addition of a service worker file in the header section
• JavaScript of the push notification provider 

If your service provider is asking to install more than the above files, then you should avoid them. Moreover, too many files can affect the website speed as well. Also, that will mean that the service provider has not upgraded their product with the latest technological changes.

In case of using features like cart abandonment, browser abandonment, additional code needs to be added to the page. One way to simplify the process is through GTM (Google Task Manager). Using GTM, you can easily do all the changes. Check with the service provider for the same.

Also, check the amount of involvement needed for a developer. Many e-commerce websites depend on external developers for implementation. If the installation process is too long or complex, it will add up to your cost.

Portability

There are many ways to implement push notification. In a few cases, subscriber portability may not be possible. Check with the service provider if their system has a subscriber portability feature. In the absence of this, you will be locked in with the same provider. If in case you switch to another platform, you will lose all your subscribers.

Subscriber portability is a must check before signing up with any push notification platform. In the future, if you do not wish to continue with them, you should be able to take your subscribers to other platforms. Service providers usually do not say this beforehand so that you cannot move to other providers. To avoid being vendor locked-in, always check for the portability feature.

Language Support

We all know the impact of the local language in marketing. Check with the service provider if they provide local language support. Language could be a barrier in promoting your product to a country. With local language in your push notification, you can connect to a huge target audience. Most of the e-commerce websites have a multilingual feature and the reason is to connect with a larger audience base.

Similarly, you can send push notifications in the local language. People are attached to their language and if you send a notification in their language, it will create a brand impression as well. Before signing up with a push notification platform, check if their platform supports multi-language.

Support

Web Push Notification is a techno marketing product. You may run into issues while using push notification. Check with the provider for their support timings and ways to connect with them. Imagine a situation where you are running a big sale event during Christmas and suddenly you are not able to send a notification. You will miss out on a big chunk of revenue. 

Check if the service provider offers assistance 24×7. Ideally, you should be assigned an account manager who will be responsible to solve your queries.

Reviews & Case Study

Always check the reviews of the service provider. There are many third-party review websites where customers share their experience with the push notification service provider. Some top review sites you can check are G2Crowd and Capterra. See what other customers are saying about their services. You will find the detailed review right from the product features to the support.

Another thing to look out for before signing up is the case study. Push Notification Case studies help you know how other clients have benefitted. It will also have a detailed picture of how the websites have used push notifications to solve their problems. A good service provider will always have case studies and reviews.

Pricing

You should always evaluate the Return On Investment (ROI) before signing up. Check out their price and plan. Service providers usually charge based on the number of subscribers. Check that the charges are on Active subscribers and not total subscribers. If you miss this, you will end up paying for those subscribers who are inactive or dead.

There are push notification platforms that allow you to use their platform for free but they will use your subscriber base for other purposes. Depending upon your business goal, you can decide whether you want to go for all free or paid plans.

Integration Platform

Nowadays there are many platforms to create a website. Your website can be on Shopify, WordPress, Prestashop or other platforms. Check with the push notification provider if they support integration. Go through the complete list of platforms they support. In the future, if you plan to switch from Shopify platform to WordPress, the provider should support the new platform as well.

Many of the service providers offer App or Extension to make the push notification integration easy.

Features

If you’re looking for a Push Notification, you must have some marketing goals or problems. Before signing up with the platform, check whether it can solve your problem. To do this, check out the features supported on the platform. To reach your marketing goals, you need to create push notification campaigns.

A good list of features is a must when creating successful campaigns. Some of the top features to check for are:

• Image support: Push Notification supports images. This allows you to add images to your push notification. You can also add emojis too.
• Cart/Browse Abandonment: This is the most impactful feature for every e-commerce. It offers a high conversion rate. This campaign runs in auto-mode.
• Price Alert: Customers are price sensitive. Study by Rare Consulting has found that price to be one of the most influential factors in customer engagement. Using the right pricing tool you can easily optimize prices. Send notifications to users whenever there is a price drop to increase engagement.
• Trigger: Best way to re-engage customers is during some action. Trigger allows you to auto send push notifications based on user action.
• AB Test: Without AB testing you will never know which type of push notifications are favored by your subscribers. It allows you to find the best performing push notification.
• Drip: One of the best ways to build a brand is to use a drip campaign. It automatically sends push notifications to users once they subscribe. You can create multiple targeted campaigns using this feature.
• Segmentation: You can segment your push subscribers based on different parameters. This allows you to send targeted push notifications that lead to high engagement rates and low unsubscribes.

Check the above features with your service provider. These are the most impactful features and it allows you to create multiple push notification campaigns depending upon your business goal.

Many online websites have now started using push notifications to re-engage customers. This has also given rise to a lot of push notification providers. Every platform has advantages and disadvantages. However, the above points are very crucial for the success of push notification.