It seems that the secret is out about the power of web push notifications for bringing people back to your website time and again. But, as we so often talk about with our customers, it's critical that you build a relationship and trust with those to whom you are sending pushes. There are few better ways to do that then by creating a welcome drip for people that subscribe to receive updates from your website.
As a relationship building channel, web pushes can help you to earn loyalty, create trust and have a way of regularly communicating to your audience. Pushes are short and sweet and pack a lot of information. They are easy to engage with for users and they are specific and purposeful.
But, like any relationship that you are trying to build, earning trust early and often is critical. A web drip is a way to earn that trust from a person right away and ensure that your push audience will look forward to your future pushes rather than be annoyed by them.
We support this trust building through our welcome drip feature. The feature allows you to automatically create browser push notifications that are sent out at specific intervals after a visitor to your site has subscribed to receive updates. These initial pushes commonly get high click through rates and, if you provide value, set the stage for a long and fruitful relationship with your browser subscribers.
In order to get the most out of browser push notification welcome drips, we have put together this handy guide for successful welcome drips using the platform.
Tip #1: Send Your First Welcome Drip Soon After Somebody Subscribes To Your Browser Push Notifications
Think about any relationship - you have met somebody new and you are excited to get to know that person. If you meet somebody and then you don't hear from them for days or weeks on end, the initial excitement about the relationship wears thin and the momentum of the relationship sputters out of the gates. You don't start to make time for that relationship and you begin to wonder if the relationship is worth it or is ever going to happen. So, weeks later you get a message and you are a bit annoyed. It starts to feel like the other person isn't as excited about the relationship as you are and you wonder where the relationship is going.
Believe it or not, browser push notifications are exactly the same. The minute somebody subscribes to your pushes, that person is excited about your site and what you offer. They want to know more and they are open to having a more meaningful relationship with your site. And, while you don't necessarily have to send a push notification the minute somebody subscribes to your site, you should send one within the first 24 hours.
Tip #2: Add Value Early With Your Welcome Browser Pushes
You need to build a rapport with your audience. You want your audience to trust you, to look forward to more pushes to come and to not instantly unsubscribe by thinking you are just trying to yell at them or sell them something when they receive their first push. You should provide them with something of VALUE in your welcome push. This can include something of monetary value if you are an e-commerce company (a coupon is a good idea), but it doesn't have to. How about sharing a really popular blog post that your audience has loved over the years. Or, how about access to a great tip or idea? Or, how about something inspiring that shows what your brand is all about?
Tip #3: Add Value Often With Your Welcome Browser Pushes
Again, like any good relationship, you have to regularly be adding value. People just don't like a constant barrage of requests or "take, take, take" interactions. So, while it is critical that your first push provide something of value, it's equally important to make most of your welcome drip pushes also very valuable to your audience. You can continue to offer tips and tricks or useful information. In doing so, be sure to pick popular blog posts or information that you have seen really resonate with your audience. You want your browser pushes to really highlight the best of what your site offers and give your audience a taste of why they should be regularly coming back.
Tip #4: Test, Test, Test A Bunch of Different Welcome Browser Pushes
Across our platform, welcome drips get some of the highest engagement rates of all. Many of our customers are enjoying high single digit (or even double digit) click through rates on these pushes. The key to achieve such high engagement rates is to test different pushes and content and offers within these welcome pushes. Setting up welcome drips within the Subscribers app is very simple, so adjusting a couple of steps or the overall drip is quick and easy. Keep track of performance and don't be afraid to test, test, test.
Tip #5: Use Headlines That Include Highly Effective "Trigger Words"
With browser push notifications, you only have a small number of words to create action from your audience. Therefore, each word needs to carefully crafted and you should always include "trigger words". Trigger words, sometimes also referred to as "power words" are those that create action and you can find lists online of the most effective and powerful trigger words. When used well, these words help drive up conversions and get audiences to take action. Some popular trigger words include "You", "Discover", "Free", "Secret" and "Increase". Again, the key is to test, test, test and you can mix different trigger words into your headlines to see how they impact performance. Here is a great list of trigger words: and you can also find a more thorough list and description of highly converting trigger words here.
Tip #6: Use Pictures Wisely In Your Welcome Browser Pushes
With Subscribers you can choose to include small icons or larger pictures as part of creating a rich push. You should choose images wisely and don't assume that a bigger or more bold picture isn't always the best. Instead, you want to include a picture that gives the viewer a good idea of what they will see when they get to your site by clicking on the browser push. If you are featuring a product, for example, keep it simple and highlight the product. If you are including a blog post, include the headline image of the blog post. In our experience, it's good too to brand your browser pushes. Therefore, we recommend including a clean and easy to read logo design or brand element like logo mockups.
Tip #7: Don't Swamp Your Audience With Too Many Welcome Browser Pushes
How many browser pushes should you include in your welcome drip. While not an exact science, we do know that too many pushes (as well as too few) can lead to low engagement and high unsubscribes. We have seen customers try to do 30 pushes in the first couple of days of somebody subscribing. This is a sure fire way to get people to unsubscribe because your pushes feel downright spammy. We have also seen people only send a couple of pushes out over the course of the first month of a user subscribing and we have seen the overall audience engagement rate stay low across the life of those subscribers. We generally recommend that you aim to send out 4-6 pushes in the first 1.5-2 weeks after a person subscribers to your site. This means sending one out in the first few minutes and then a day later and then a couple of days after that and so on. If you add value with each, this amount isn't overwhelming and creates a habit in the mind of your subscribers to keep an eye out for your pushes.
Final Word On Welcome Drip Pushes
Generally speaking, those customers of Subscribers that take advantage of our welcome push feature, tend to see higher overall success with the platform. Their unsubscribe rates are lower, their engagement rates are higher and they see greater performance of their web pushes. Setting up a welcome drip is quick and easy and while we don't necessarily recommend setting a drip and forgetting it (because, again, you should be testing, testing, testing), you certainly can.
