What are Web Push Notifications or Browser Push Notifications:
Web push notifications are messages that come from a website. You get them on your desktop or device even when the concerned web page is not open in your browser. They are a brand new/ nascent marketing channel to re engage your visitors without knowing their email or other contact details.
NOTE:
- The only fact that needs to be kept in mind is that these notifications work only on SSL sites (https).
- This is a great feature for people who have to launch mobile apps just to get advantage of push notifications.
Which browsers provide support for web push:
Safari 7.0.3 (With a market share of 5-7%) was the first to provide support for web push. It was followed by Chrome 42 (market share 40-50% and growing) that provided support for both desktop and android. Mozilla Firefox (market share 16-20%) will be soon announcing its support for web push.
What are chrome push notifications and safari push notifications:
Based on the browser on which web push notifications are delivered, they are named as Chrome push or Safari push notifications. In principle, they all are web push notifications only.
Web push notifications are not Web notifications (On site notifications):
Web notifications are also messages delivered to user’s desktop or device to re engage him. But unlike web push notifications, here, the concerned web page should be open in the browser. If the user is active on some other tab, he will still get messages from the concerned web page. Also, for this, website doesn’t need to be ssl. It works fine for both ssl (https) and non ssl (http) sites.
Why should you use Web Push Notifications – What are the advantages:
- No need to have a mobile app to get the benefit of mobile push notifications: Chrome push notifications work exactly like the native mobile push. So, you don’t have to create an app just to get the benefit of native push notifications on mobile.
- Wider reach across browsers: Safari, Chrome and Firefox when combined have a market share of about 61-77%. With these browsers providing support for web push the reach of web push notifications is immense.
- Access to users who are not on your website: Using web push notifications, you can reach out to those users who are not on your website
- Ability to re engage users without knowing their contact details: Web push notifications don’t need a user’s email or other contact details. If a user who once visited your website and has given his permission to send him notifications, he can be sent notifications anytime without needing his email
- Higher opt-ins as compared to emails: Since the users don’t need to give their email id or other contact details and they also have the ability to unsubscribe from receiving notification easily whenever they want, the opt-ins for web push notifications are higher than emails.
- Lower unsubscribe/ opt-out rates: Studies have shown that less than 10% of the subscribers who opted for notifications from a site, unsubscribed in a year. The number is still less.
- Prompt and assured content delivery: The moment you click on “send notification now”, it will be delivered to the users immediately. Unlike emails that sometimes fail to deliver or go to spam folder, these notifications are for sure delivered to the user.
- Higher conversion rates: Studies have shown that web push notifications have 30 times higher conversion when compared with mail.
- Greater mindshare of users: Sending notifications even when the users are not on your website, helps you capture their mindshare and then as the saying goes market share follows!
- Tech savvy user base: Since this is a nascent technology, it is safe to assume that your content will reach to the most tech savvy user base.