Web push notifications deliver messages to opted-in users on their desktop and mobile browsers. Businesses with or without a mobile app can now engage web visitors with instant, high-value, notification-style messages to meet specific customer needs using Airship Web Notifications.

With use cases ranging from transactional messages (like confirming an order has shipped) to promotional messages (like highlighting the latest product or service offerings available), web push is a channel you’ll want to add to your marketing toolkit. (See more ideas and examples in our Web Notification Inspiration Guide.)

Ready to get started with Web Notifications? Get in touch and we’ll help you get your newest communication channel up and running.

In this post, we offer a tutorial for creating a web notification using our web notifications solution in our Message Composer. You’ll see how easy it can be to create and send web notifications that engage web visitors with relevant and timely messages.

Let’s get started.

Web Notifications: Six Steps to Sending Your Own

Step 1

To begin, create a new message in the Airship Message Composer. We recommend giving your message a name to make it easier to find later in Messages Overview. To do so, click the gear icon in the top navigation bar. 

To send a web notification, select “Web” as the channel. (Note: If you want to send a notification to multiple channels at once, such as Web, App, and Email, enable all your channels on this step). 

Define the audience for your web notification. If you want to send your web notification in multiple languages, you can enable Localization in this step. You can also enable “Generate retargeting segments”, which will automatically create segments that can be used to easily retarget users who did or did not interact with your web notification. 

Next, choose your message type. If you are sending your message to multiple channels, you’ll notice you have a separate tab for each channel, allowing you to customize the content of your message by channel. 

Step 2

Next, it’s time to write your message. Because maximum notification length varies by device, we recommend writing your text in a way that makes sense for all users, including those who will receive your notification on a desktop device.

Web notification character limits vary. If you’re sending to Chrome, we recommend keeping the character count to 180 for the best experience across desktop and mobile devices. Firefox and Opera will display up to 30 characters.

Remember, you can include handlebars in your message to personalize the content your user receives. You can also create your message using a stored template.

Step 3

Next, select where users will go when they tap or click on the notification. For web notifications, you have three options. You can:

1) Send users to the webpage you’ve designated as “Home” in your settings (usually your website home page), or

2) Send them to a different URL — a product page on your site, your Twitter or Facebook page, a form page — any URL will work. To do that, select the “Web Page” action and enter the URL.

3) Send them to an adaptive link to open a Mobile Wallet pass (for mobile web users).  

Step 4

Now it’s time to configure the optional components of your web notification! Here are your options:

Buttons: If you want to add some interactivity to your web notification, you can add up to two buttons. We provide some button pairs out of the box such as “Yes/No”, “Buy Now”, and “Follow”; or, you can create your own custom button(s) on the fly! 

Title: If you want to include a custom title with a web notification, you can add it here. (Otherwise, the title will be the default you set up — usually your company name.)

Media: Make your web notifications richer and engaging by adding a large image. Note: Image support varies by browser and OS. See documentation for details. 

Icon: If you’d prefer to use a custom icon instead of your default logo, you can add it here.

Step 5

The next step is choosing your delivery date and time. You can send your notification right away, schedule it to be sent later on a specific day and time, or set up a recurring message that repeats on a specific cadence (such as, once a week on Friday at 4pm). Our Message Composer also allows you to customize send times for different time zones.

You can also specify certain delivery options on this step as well, such as campaign categories for reporting, ignoring any channel message limits that may be set, requiring interaction on your notification, and more. 

Step 6

The final step is to preview the notification on each channel  with our built-in preview window, review your selections , and send or schedule the notification! If you are sending your message to a subset of your audience, such as a specific segment or attribute, you can also generate the audience count for your message on this step. 

Engage More Customers with Web Notifications

Now you know how easy it is to compose a web notification, to add it to your engagement strategy on the web. You have the tools to deliver timely, relevant messages that surprise and delight your customers — and see higher engagement rates.

Ready to begin? Contact us to get started!

The post How to Create Web Push Notifications appeared first on Airship.

To get started, simply fill out this form by May 31, 2020 and we’ll be in touch with all the details you need to get up and running. 

We’re also offering a series of live “Office Hours” sessions to answer any questions you might have about implementing or leveraging web notifications in your strategy. Once you sign up for the free web notifications offer you’ll get details on how to join those sessions. 

Web notifications do something no other communications channel can: reach your customers with a direct message on their desktop or android mobile device while they’re online — whether they’re actively using your site or not. Web notifications are also simple to implement, and easy to integrate into your overall customer engagement strategy. 

Not sure whether web notifications make sense for your brand? Here are some handy links to help you understand the opportunity, and get inspired by the possibilities web notifications hold. 

• Get ideas and inspiration for the types of web notifications you could be sending in our Web Notifications Inspiration Guide. 
• Learn how web notifications helped  ASDA’s George.com boost traffic and grow transaction value by 7.2% and helped public media network OPB boost audience retention. 
• New to web notifications? Here’s a cheat sheet to get you up to speed. 

We truly hope that this offer will help brands strengthen their connections with customers, especially during the pandemic when timely, direct cross-channel customer communications are more important than ever. 

Questions? Get in touch anytime. 

Give it a try

Get Web Notifications free for 90 days

Fill out the form here

The post Get Web Notifications Free for 90 Days appeared first on Airship.

Web Notifications are a critical piece in a marketer’s tool belt. They allow brands to reach their audience in real-time, whether they are on your website or anywhere else on the web. Oftentimes, a brand’s website audience is its largest, surpassing users opted-in to emails and/or users who have downloaded an app. 

With this power comes great responsibility. Until recently, brands had free reign over how and when they displayed web notification prompts to their website visitors. This often resulted in a user receiving a prompt to opt in for notifications as soon as they landed on a website and before they had taken any action to demonstrate their interest in opting into this channel. Chrome & Firefox are looking to improve this experience, and Airship is here to help you prepare for these changes. 

Here’s What Changed for Firefox

With the latest release of Firefox (v72), website visitors will notice some changes to the way they are asked to give permission to notifications. If a visitor lands on a webpage that prompts for notifications as soon as the user arrives, they will no longer see the browser prompt appear below the address bar. Instead, they will now see a small speech bubble within the address bar that will quickly shake, signaling that there is a prompt requesting their permission to send notifications.

Visitors have a choice to ignore this or click on the speech bubble to reveal the browser prompt asking them if they want to “Allow Notifications,” or “Never Allow” for that website. For websites that don’t prompt users right away, if a visitor takes action on the website, they are eligible to be shown the notification prompt (pending their browser settings). Safari released a similar update in 2019 requiring a user gesture on a website before a notification permission prompt could be displayed.

Here’s What Changed for Chrome

Chrome has made similar changes with its latest update (v80). There are a few different ways a website visitor will be enrolled in the new quieter notification permission UI, and it will vary a bit depending on the visitor and their individual behavior. 

First, any Chrome user can enable the quiet notification UI manually in their browser settings. Second, If the visitor is someone who typically blocks web notification prompts from the browser, Chrome will automatically enable this new setting and will stop displaying these prompts in a prominent way. Instead, they will see a bell icon in the notification bar along with a message saying “Notifications blocked.” If a user clicks on this icon, they will be given instructions on how to enable them if they so choose. 

Lastly, Chrome will also enable this setting automatically on websites with low opt-in rates, meaning if visitors often block notification permissions on a website, fewer visitors will be shown the request in the future. This is something that Chrome plans to enable gradually as they gather feedback from users and developers. Visitors will also have the option to opt-out of this quiet notification permission setting entirely, allowing any website to prompt them for notifications at any time. 

Here’s What You Can Do

Now, more than ever, you need to ensure you are conveying the value of your website and associated messaging to your visitors before asking them to opt into notifications. It is crucial that your visitors know what to expect from your notifications before asking them to grant permission.

With the Airship platform, we recommend always including a “soft-prompt” prior to asking a user to opt into notifications, as well as giving careful consideration to the point at which you ask a visitor to opt in. Rather than sending a prompt immediately, consider waiting until they’ve taken an action such as reading two articles, or adding something to their cart. 

To make this easier to accomplish, we’ve released an update to our Web SDK. Our SDK now includes an option for a custom opt-in prompt that can be displayed to visitors to give them context before asking them to grant permission for web notifications. This feature includes the ability to customize the messaging on the prompt itself, the position of the prompt on your website (eg top right hand corner), as well as settings to control when the prompt itself appears and when to re-display it in the event of a user dismissing the prompt. If web notifications are one of your core messaging channels, it’s crucial that you adapt to this new world and improve the opt-in experience for your users.

For more best practices, check out this article from Digital Commerce 360 that has seven best practices you should be doing for your web notification strategy.

We Want to Help

Let us know how we can help you with your notification strategy

Contact us today!

The post Web Notification Best Practices to Get the Opt-In for Chrome and Firefox appeared first on Airship.

Web push notifications, sometimes called web push or web notifications, provide marketers a way to reach one of their largest audiences: website visitors.

It’s important to have the ability to address website visitors. Why? Because your website drives volumes of visitors and this channel is likely the first touch a consumer may have with your brand.

With Airship’s Web Notify solution, you can create notification-style messages for web visitors (even when they aren’t active on your website). Use web push alongside your mobile app engagement strategy for an omni- channel approach, or as a standalone messaging channel.

Here are three categories of web push notifications brands can consider to deepen connections with website visitors.

Related Content: For even more ideas and inspiration, download our Web Push Notifications Inspiration Guide

Transactional: Deliver Value & Utility

If you’re anything like me, when you order something you want to know where it is at every step of the way — especially when it’s reached your door.

Use transactional notifications to confirm a purchase, provide shipping and order updates, notify a customer of a bump in status — even direct deposit availability or pending transactions.

They can also be helpful during onboarding to illustrate the value of taking an action like registering an account or creating a profile.

Send a notification when a customer has reached the next level of status in a loyalty program. You can even add an interactive button to prompt immediate action. In this example, a button invites the visitor to take advantage of an exclusive discount. Bonus points for deep-linking to a specific page on your site based on their preferences.

Educational: Engage With News & Updates  

Informing your audience via web notifications about key events, just released products or new features keeps them up to date and coming back for more.

For example, a retailer can share the latest lookbook or new apparel that just landed. Upon clicking or tapping on the notification, the user could be deep-linked back to a specific page, such as “men’s new arrivals.” This could be based on tagging (men, women, kids, etc.) or a customer’s account history to see what they’ve shopped most in the past.

Share the latest product releases, events and features your visitor will want to know about.

Educational web push notifications are particularly relevant to organizations who want to deliver notifications quickly at scale — like breaking news, sports scores, or other time sensitive information.

Promotional: Drive Conversions

Promotional web notifications share offers and special opportunities intended to drive conversion.

For example, a brand could send a web notification sharing an in-store event or exclusive, bridging the digital and physical by encouraging a visit to the nearest brick and mortar location. Or, let a visitor know when an item in their cart is low inventory or goes on sale to increase likelihood of purchase.

Drive conversions with promotional web notifications. You can also use notifications to prompt in-store visits — deep link to a page that allows visitors to find the closest location.

Promotional messaging needs to be a win-win for you and your customers. Consider rewarding them for their loyalty by sending, a buy-one-get-one offer or special pricing if they book within a certain window.

We recommend using promotional messages after visitors have visited your website several times and have become acquainted with your brand, and the value they’ll receive.

Use Web Push to Deepen Relationships With Website Visitors

Airship’s Web Notifications support many features to help you optimize the performance of each message, including segmentation, automation, personalization and A/B testing. It also provides custom events to measure ROI based on key performance indicators.

Want more ideas for using web notifications? Check out our Web Notifications Inspiration Guide. Ready to get started? Get in touch anytime!

The post 3 Ways to Use Web Push to Connect With Your Customers appeared first on Airship.

Web notifications have a lot going for them. From a user perspective, they’re easy to opt into (no need to share an email address or other personal information — one click or tap and you’re in)  and they provide a low-risk way of keeping up to date with deals, updates and news.

For marketers, they represent an “owned” channel to reach users directly, with no third party cost or interference. They’re quick to get up and running, and easy to manage.

And now, a new data analysis we’ve done of retailers using our web notification solution is showing some extremely exciting trends.

If you’re a retailer and you’re not already using web notifications, it’s time to revisit this channel. And once you see these stats, we think you’ll definitely want to — before the holiday season.  

(BTW, if you’re not familiar with what web notifications are, they are notifications users opt-in to receive via a desktop or mobile browser – learn more and get answers to web notification FAQs here.)

Ready to be wowed? Here’s a highlight reel from our data analysis:

Opt-Ins to Web Notifications Are Outpacing New App Downloads

• For some brands, the number of Android users who have opted into receive web notifications on their mobile browser is set to be a larger number than their entire Android app audience.

• And it’s certainly a larger number than Android app users who’ve opted in to receive push notifications from the app.  

• Our data shows that web notification opt-ins are not adversely affecting iOS and Android app push notifications opt-ins — making this a net new channel for acquiring and messaging customers.

By Adding Web Notifications, Retailers Have Grown The Total Number of Customers Opted In To Receive Notifications (Counting Both App and Web Notification Opt-Ins) by 2X

• Most retailers have a mature strategy around app messaging, but retailers who’ve added web notifications have been able to double the number of users they can message (aka their “addressable users”) by adding web notifications as a channel.

• For some retail brands, the number of users opted in to receive web notifications may soon be higher even than the number of users opted in to receive app push notifications. We have seen this trend in media, and expect it to continue in retail.

• That makes sense, because the number of users visiting a brand’s website is almost always going to be exponentially higher than the number of users who will download a brand’s app. In their 2017 U.S. Mobile App Report, comScore reports that mobile web audiences are 2.2x app audiences.

Direct Engagement With Web Notifications As High as 7%

• For several retailers, direct taps or clicks on a web notification are up to 40% higher than direct engagement with push notifications from their app.

• Direct open rates (a tap or click on the notifications) range between an extremely impressive 4-7%. (Comparatively, our data shows that the average direct open rate for app push notifications for retail for Q2 2018 is around 3%.)

50% of Web Notification Opt-Ins Are Happening on Android Devices

• Web notifications aren’t available on iOS mobile devices (they are available on Mac desktops). However, Android mobile users make up a significant percentage of most retailers’ customer base. Web notifications create a fantastic opportunity to reach Android users right on their mobile device.

• Of the total number of opted-in web notification users, roughly 50% are opting in on their Android’s mobile web browser (the rest are opting in on desktop browsers) which means brands have an additional mobile channel to reach customers — especially critical for reaching users who’ve opted out of app push notifications, or users who don’t have a brand’s app.

Ready to get started? Get in touch for a personalized demo today; we can help you get up and running now so you can leverage this channel during the holiday shopping season. It’s not a chance you want to miss out on.

And, while there are a lot of sophisticated use cases for web notifications (like automations – and we’re happy to help with those!) even the most basic use cases (sale alerts, etc) are showing incredible results. Let’s get you up and running!

Download our Web Notifications Inspiration Guide today to:
– See use cases you can adopt and implement
– Build smarter, more engaging campaigns
– Spark your thinking about web notification possibilities

Get your copy >>

The post Web Notifications ROI for Retailers Revealed appeared first on Airship.

Web notifications hold a massive opportunity for digital marketers to engage audiences on desktop and mobile web.

In this post, we share answers to some of the top questions mobile marketers are asking about leveraging web push notifications.

1) Why should I care about web push notifications?

Most brands have far more traffic on their mobile websites then they have app users. In comScore’s 2017 U.S. Mobile App Report, they compared the top 500 mobile apps vs. the top 500 mobile web properties and found that website audiences are more than twice the size as app audiences.

(Apps have the clear edge on engagement though — according to the same comScore report, people spend 16x the amount of time in apps as they do on websites.)

So websites offer a huge addressable audience — and a huge opportunity to deepen engagement with those web visitors with notification-style messaging that demonstrates the value your brand has to offer. And that’s an opportunity brands should most definitely pursue.

Check out our top resources on web notifications to learn more about this engagement channel.

2) What exactly are web push notifications?

Web push notifications are notification-style messages sent from web browsers to users on mobile and desktop web. After opting in, users receive web push notifications on their mobile device or their desktop — even when their web browser is in the background.

If you’re using a desktop computer, web push notifications slide onto the top or bottom of your screen. On mobile devices, web notifications are delivered to the notification tray and have a nearly identical appearance to those coming from a mobile app.

3) How are web push notifications different from push notifications sent via apps?

From a user’s point of view, web and app push notifications are virtually identical. The biggest difference is that web push notifications can show up on their desktop, not just on their mobile devices.

From a marketer’s perspective, web notifications offer a way to take advantage of the fact that 73% of online engagement is from mobile search, and global web traffic from smartphones is predicted to reach 70% by 2025.

This means marketers can reach audiences where they’re at — on and off mobile devices. For example, web notifications make it easier to reach professionals who are sitting in front of a desktop computer for much of the work day with an interactive, actionable notification.

4) Do visitors have to “opt in” to receive web push notifications?

Yes. And much like app push notifications, it is possible to present the opt-in dialogue when it will be best received. As with mobile messaging, we recommend digital marketers present a “soft ask” prior to presenting the web push notification opt-in option. The soft ask should explain the value your customers will get from opting in to web notifications.

Learn how the New Zealand Herald uses a custom branded soft ask to showcase the value of web push notifications prior to triggering the default opt in prompt. See their ask and read how they implemented web notifications on their site.

5) Can I send web notifications to a user when they are not on my website?

Yes. Users can receive a web push notification from a site regardless of whether or not they are actively using the website in the moment. As long as the browser is open, a web visitor can be sent a notification and it will appear on their desktop or mobile device screen.

Discover how one Media company uses web notifications to increase page views and drive ad revenue.

6) Do I need to have an app to send web push notifications?

Nope! While web push notifications are a fantastic way to complement app push notifications, you can use one without the other.

In fact, web push notifications are another great way to reach more of your customers on mobile — through web push notifications sent to mobile web.

This is great if you don’t have an app. It’s also great if you do have an app, but want another channel for reaching users who have opted out of app push notifications. (Another great way to reach users on mobile without an app is with mobile wallet.)

7) How would I create a web push notification?

If you’re using Urban Airship, you can use the same Message Composer you use to create app push notifications.

We’ve created a step-by-step guide to creating web push notifications — take a look and see just how simple it is.

See web push notifications in action: request a 30-minute walkthrough and consultation with one of our experts. You’ll come away with ideas for using web push to connect with your website visitors using notification-style messaging. 

8) Can I personalize web notifications?

Absolutely. If you’re using Urban Airship, you have access to much of the same kinds of message personalization you do with our app push notifications. That includes real-time automation triggers as well as segmentation and personalization capabilities. (Heads up, not all web push providers are making it possible to personalize web notifications. If you’re evaluating vendors, be sure to ask.)

9) What do I need to do on the back end of my website to start sending web push notifications?

You’ll need to do three things — all of which are straightforward things your web team can get done pretty easily:

• Install a javascript snippet file that invokes our SDK for web push notifications — a process similar to implementing the mobile SDK for mobile app push notifications.

• Include a service worker file in the root directory to handle the push requests and to communicate back to the Urban Airship platform.
• If your site is not already HTTPS compliant, you’ll need at least one HTTPS page. We provide an HTML file called a secure-bridge to bridge the non-secure sites.

Details on how to implement these steps can be found in our Web Notify Docs.

10) What kinds of messages are best to send through web notifications?

When planning a messaging strategy, web notifications generally fall into the same category as app push notifications — educational, transactional and promotional.

We’ve pulled together a bunch of use cases and examples in our Web Notifications Inspiration Guide; here are a few more:

• New user / first time offer welcome (“So glad you’re here! Enjoy 10% off your next order!”)
• Retarget shopper behavior (“See 5 pairs of hiking boots hand-picked for you!”)  
• Abandoned cart notifications (“You’re just one click away from your boots!”)
• Preference or behavior-based product recommendations (“Because you liked these hiking boots, we think you’ll love these socks!”
• Incremental cart upsell (“You’re $5 away from free shipping!”)
• Price drop on favorited purchase item (“Those boots you love are now on sale…”)

Ready to Get Started?

Let’s get you going! Here are some options for next steps:

• Schedule a personalized demo
• Learn more about Web Notify, our web notifications solution
• Take a look at our Web Notify Docs
• Check out our Web Notifications Inspiration Guide for more ideas and use cases
• Read more blog posts on web notification best practices and how-tos
• Watch our on-demand webinar, Web Notifications: Engage Web Visitors on a Deeper Level
• Get our top web notification resources

Download our Web Notifications Inspiration Guide today to:
– See use cases you can adopt and implement
– Build smarter, more engaging campaigns
– Spark your thinking about web notification possibilities

Get your copy >>

The post Web Notifications: Top 10 FAQs appeared first on Airship.

We’ve pulled together some of our top resources on web notifications to help you better understand what they are, what they can help you accomplish and how to add them into your marketing mix (you can get started today for free). Have questions or something you’d like to see? Feel free to contact us.

1) Use Web Notifications to Connect with Your Customers

Your website drives a high volume of visitors — and it’s probably one of the first touchpoints a consumer will have with your brand. We share three kinds of use cases for web notifications — transactional, educational and promotional — that help you connect with your customers, and provide examples of each type.

2) 11 Reasons to Start Using Web Notifications Today

There are many advantages of adding web notifications into your marketing mix. Here’s just one: if someone is online and they’ve opted in to receive browser push notifications from you, you can reach them. We share 10 other compelling reasons to start using web notifications today.

3) Top 10 FAQs About Web Notifications

Answers to some of the top questions digital marketers are asking about leveraging web push notifications. Our post shares information about setting up web notifications, the differences between a web notification and an app push notification, the opt in process and more.

4) Send Your Own Web Notification In 6 Steps

Ready to try your own? Here’s an easy 6 step tutorial for sending your very own web push notification.

5) Web Notification Use Cases and Examples You Can Use

Our Web Notification Inspiration Guide shares an assortment of use case examples in a variety of industries to give brands ideas they can steal and implement into their own digital strategy. Check out the guide for 15+ examples and details on use cases they support as well as what you get out of the box.

6) How to Add Web Notifications to Your WordPress or Drupal Site

If your website is hosted via WordPress or Drupal, great news — our new integrations allow you to implement web notifications on your WordPress or Drupal site more quickly and easily. We also provide out-of-the-box custom opt in options with both integrations. See how to get set up on each platform in just a few steps.

7) Seeing is Believing: Examples of Brands Using Web Notifications

The proof is in the pudding: don’t miss stories of real brands using web notifications. See how the New Zealand Herald uses web notifications, their strategy and how they boost audience engagement. And, learn how another media company uses web notifications to increase page views and drive ad revenue.

8) 50+ Push Notification Ideas You Can Use

Looking for more messaging ideas? One of our most popular posts shares 50+ push notification ideas that can easily be adapted for web notifications.

9) Documentation

Ready to implement? If you’re not using our Drupal or WordPress plugin, you may need a quick hand from your web team. We’ve made it easy for them to see what needs to be done: here’s a detailed walk through for getting set up.

Want to be the first to know when we publish new how-to content? Subscribe to our blog today, and never miss a post.  

The post Web Notifications Resource Roundup: Information, Ideas and Integrations appeared first on Airship.

The New Zealand Herald (NZ Herald) is the largest newspaper in New Zealand, delivering quality journalism to audiences through print, mobile, and web.

NZ Herald has been using app push notifications to better connect with audiences by alerting them to breaking news for some time. With that channel working well, they wanted to expand their notification strategy to see how their audience would respond to notifications sent via web.  

>> New to web push notifications? Here are answers to the top 10 questions we hear about them from digital marketers. 

Setting A Cohesive Strategy & KPIs

With the overall goal of increasing audience engagement on the website, the team set a target of achieving a 2% clickthrough rate, and a 5% opt-in rate using Urban Airship’s web notifications.

To get there, they decided not to replicate their app push notification strategy — which is primarily about alerting users to breaking news — but to take a complimentary approach.

“For web push content, we’re focusing on stories that are more in-depth from our investigative team,” says Tracey Bond, Senior Product Manager – News, NZME. “It’s helping to remind our audience that we have more to offer than just breaking and spot news — and it’s getting this valuable content in front of more people.”

>> Wondering how web notifications might fit into your marketing mix? Consider these 3 use cases.

This approach is also a way to make sure audiences aren’t getting the same notifications on web and on mobile devices, as well as getting more value from longer feature pieces that require more time and effort to produce.

“By sending web notifications that promote our feature-length pieces, we’re seeing a lot of strong response to content we invest a lot in — like investigative journalism, human interest stories and science content.”

So far, click through rates on web notifications are more than double initial expectations. The audience size is also growing at a rate that puts them well along on the path to hitting their 5% opt-in rate goal, with more website visitors opting in every day.

Implementing Web Push Notifications

The NZ Herald team — including a digital designer, developer and product manager — were able to get web push notifications up and running in just a few weeks. From implementing a secure bridge to designing and deploying a custom opt-in prompt, the implementation was simple and straightforward.

>> Does your site run on WordPress or Drupal? Our integration with these top platforms mean it’s even faster and easier to get started with Urban Airship web notifications. Learn more.

Getting the Opt-In

Making it as easy as possible to opt-in to web notifications is a critical part of maximizing the value of this channel.

In a basic opt-in approach, brands can show the browser’s standard system prompt with no custom interface at all. NZ Herald decided their audience might respond better to a branded, custom prompt.

The prompt the team designed is a great fit with the overall look and feel of their site, effectively explains the value of opting in to web alerts at-a-glance, and makes it very easy to see how to opt in. The prompt is displayed as soon as a new visitor — or a visitor who has not yet opted in to web push — arrives on the site.

On a desktop, visitors who have not already opted in to receive web push notifications see the opt-in prompt in the upper left corner of their desktop.

On a mobile phone or tablet, visitors who have not already opted in to receive web push notifications see the opt-in prompt at the bottom of their screen.

Once a visitor has opted in, a “thank you” page lets them know their opt in was successful, and the window automatically closes after a few seconds before dropping the user back on the NZ Herald homepage.

NZ Herald created a better user experience by removing clicks post-opt-in, instead taking visitors back to the page they were on when they opted in. 

As their high opt-in rate indicates, this approach is really working. The team continues to fine-tune the opt-in process — applying session cookies that will give them the opportunity to re-prompt visitors who said they weren’t interested initially, for example, to improve user experience.

Writing & Scheduling Web Push Notifications

“I’m working on a lot of different projects,” says Bond, “so it’s important that scheduling web notifications in the Urban Airship platform is easy — and it is.” The Web Notify interface is built for marketers, and makes it simple to schedule web notifications days — even weeks — in advance.  

Bond and her team are also watching web notification metrics carefully to see what’s working best.

“We’re getting a lot of interesting learnings on the best send times, the best frequency and the best stories to feature,” says Bond. “Right now, we’re sending three web notifications a day at times we know people have a bit more bandwidth to sit down and read longer pieces. We’ll keep experimenting and iterating to find what works best.”

Web Notifications Next Steps

Right now, the team is establishing a strong baseline for how well web notifications meet their goals — and so far, they’ve exceeded expectations.

As they continue to iterate, Bond and her collaborators will consider incorporating more kinds of stories into web push and trying some segmentation.

“As we’re seeing a great response to web notifications, more and more departments want to use them,” says Bond. “By showcasing the content our talented staff is creating, we’re creating a win/win experience for us and for our audience. We’re looking forward to continuing to evolve our web notifications strategy — and growing the bottom line benefits of this channel.”

About The New Zealand Herald & NZME

The New Zealand Herald (part of NZME Publishing Group.) is the country’s leading daily newspaper with an award-winning website, mobile site and apps. For over 150 years, The New Zealand Herald has connected Kiwis to the nation, the world, and to what matters to them and has a total brand audience of over 2.2 million. [1] NZME is a leading New Zealand media and entertainment business that reaches 3.3 million kiwis [2]. Whether reading, listening, watching, our audience gets the content they want – where and when they want it. NZME offers advertisers a unique opportunity to access its growing audience via a fully integrated multi-platform presence. NZME is listed on the NZX Main Board (code NZM) with a foreign exempt listing on the ASX (code NZM).

[1] Nielsen CMI Fused Q416 – Q317 October 2017 *AP15+, [2] Nielsen CMI, September 2017 fused database: Q4 16 – Q3 17 (population 10 years +). Based on unduplicated weekly reach of NZME newspapers, radio stations, and monthly domestic unique audience of NZME’s digital channels.

Download our Web Notifications Inspiration Guide today to:
– See use cases you can adopt and implement
– Build smarter, more engaging campaigns
– Spark your thinking about web notification possibilities

Get your copy >>

The post Web Push Notifications Help Grow NZ Herald’s Audience Engagement appeared first on Airship.

Now, implementing Urban Airship’s web notification tool is as easy as adding a WordPress plugin or a Drupal module — for Drupal 7 or 8.

We’re particularly excited to offer WordPress & Drupal integrations to help marketers:  

• Implement web notifications on their WordPress or Drupal site more quickly and easily

• Use our out-of-the-box custom opt in options available with both integrations

• Send a web notification right from a WordPress or Drupal page with the check of a box — or use the more feature-rich Urban Airship interface: your choice.

To build the best web notification plugin for WordPress, we worked with the WordPress experts at 10up to create our Urban Airship Web Push Notifications WordPress Plugin. For Drupal, we worked with the experts at Chapter Three to create our modules for Drupal 7 and 8.

How to Add Urban Airship Web Notifications to Your WordPress or Drupal Website

To get going with either WordPress or Drupal, you’ll start by creating a Web Notify account —  or signing into your existing account — and configuring the Web Notify service. (Or contact us anytime and we’ll help you walk through this process!)

Once you have an account set up, you’ll also have full access to all of the advanced features of our web notifications solution in the Urban Airship composer.

For WordPress

1) Head to your WordPress site and search for the Urban Airship Web Push Notifications plugin in the WordPress plugin repository.

2) After inputting your credentials on the settings screen and uploading the necessary configuration files, our plugin will automatically add all the javascript needed to start sending web push notifications to your WordPress site.

3) We’ve also provided some controls in your WordPress dashboard to decide how you want to prompt visitors to opt in to notifications. You can customize and control how many pages they have to visit — and even add a custom opt-in experience by adding a CSS class to any element on your page that turns it into a button that triggers the opt-in prompt.

4) Send! Once your installation & setup is complete, you’re ready to start sending web push notifications!

You can do this through the Urban Airship UI for advanced use cases. But we’ve also made it really easy to send a web notification directly from the WordPress UI with each piece of content added to your site.

To use the WordPress UI, simply add a new piece of content to your site (our plugin works with any public post type, including custom post types), check the “Send web notification on publish” box, and you’re done!

Your opted-in users will automatically receive a notification featuring the title of your post as the notification text. You’ll also have the option to include the the featured image from your new piece of content as the icon in your web push notification.

For Drupal

1) Once your Web Notify account is up and running, search for the Urban Airship Web Push Notifications module in your Drupal account.

2) After installing the module for your Drupal site, enter the necessary credentials, and upload your configuration files.

Drupal 8 settings menu

Drupal 7 settings menu

3) Customize which pages you want to be able to send web notifications from. You have the option to choose what types of content you want to enable notifications for, such as Articles or Basic Pages.

4) Customize your opt-in prompt approach. Decide how and when you’d like to prompt your visitors to opt in — either using the default browser prompt or the custom “soft prompt” provided. Simply customize your preferred opt-in flow using the Drupal UI, and you’re ready to go!

5) Now, you’re ready to send some notifications!

After the module is installed, you’re able to send web notifications from the Urban Airship UI for more advanced use cases — or send basic notifications through the Drupal UI. Our web push notification solution seamlessly blends in with the functionality of Drupal core.

To send a notification from the Drupal UI anytime you publish or update content on your site, simply click the Urban Airship Web Push Notifications menu to include a notification as well. You can use the pre-populated default values, or customize every field including the Notification Title, Icon, Notification Text, and Action URL. You can send a notification upon first saving your piece of content, and/or at any point in the future when editing or updating your content. 

As you can see, we’ve made it really easy to get set up and running with web notifications on your WordPress or Drupal site — and we’ll be further expanding functionality of these integrations over time.

We’re really excited to be joining the massive WordPress and Drupal communities — and helping you reach your prospects and customers on a channel that can deepen engagement and drive value.

Ready to get started?

Take me to the WordPress plugin!
Take me to the Drupal module!

Let us know what you think – we’re committed to continuous improvement, and we’d love your feedback!

The post Introducing WordPress & Drupal Integrations for Urban Airship Web Notifications appeared first on Airship.

Since releasing our web push notifications solution, Web Notify, we’re more invested than ever in the world of web browsers. The newest version of Google Chrome, Chrome 59, was released last week and with it, some important changes to how Chrome push notifications perform on macOS.

(Note: while this support for the notification center is limited to macOS, there are rumours that Google will be adding support for Chrome notifications to the Windows 10 Action Center in a future release.)

Let’s take a look.

Try out our web push notification solution anytime – for free.

Change #1: Chrome Notifications Will Now Use the Native Notification System on macOS

Prior to the release of Chrome 59, Google Chrome notifications used their own notification system on macOS devices.

While this made it possible for Chrome push notifications to offer some features that other browsers didn’t (such as big images), it also meant users had a different notification experience based on which browser they were using.

Web notifications in Chrome 59 now use the same style as native notifications on macOS — they’ll match the notifications you may get from other browsers, or from apps like Slack.

The new updated look includes one line of visible text, the addition of the Chrome logo, and a slightly smaller icon image (plus a new location for it). For a full rundown of all the changes to the look and feel of the notification, check out this post from Google.

User Benefits

There are a few significant benefits for users that come with this change:  

It’s Easier for Users to Find Notifications

First, notifications are now stored on a user’s device —  just like we’re used to on our mobile phones.  

Before this release, Chrome notifications would display on a user’s desktop for about 20 seconds, and then disappear forever. That meant that end users couldn’t get that content back if they missed it — and of course brands were missing out on a lot of customer engagement opportunities.

Now that Chrome push notifications will use the native notification center, users can go there to check out notifications they may have missed and click on the ones they are interested in.

More Consistent User Experience

The shift means all browsers on macOS will use the same native notification center, so the end user experience will be the same for all browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.

More User Control Over Web Push Notifications

Another benefit is that a notification in Chrome will now respect the “Do Not Disturb” setting in the notification center.

Giving users the control to do this means that they can turn off Chrome notifications when they want to (during a meeting or a presentation) and turn them back on later. It’s better for the user to be able to control web push notifications this way — rather than opting out entirely.

Change #2: Opt In Permissions Dialog

The second big change in Chrome 59 revolves around the permissions dialog for asking a user if they want to receive notifications.

The way in which you ask a user for permission to send them web notifications — as well as when you ask them — has just become a lot more important on Chrome for Mac.

That’s because, In Chrome 59, Google introduced a new feature that prohibits a brand from asking a user’s permission to send web notifications for one week after the user has x’d out of the opt-in dialog box (instead of clicking block or allow) three times.

It’s essentially “three strikes you’re out (temporarily)” for brands. After one week has passed, you may request their permission again. But if they dismiss the permission dialog again, you will be blocked once again.  

Opt-In Best Practices for Web Notifications

With this change, it’s going to become even more important to make sure you are requesting a user’s permission at the right time and in the right way.

Determine the best time to present the opt-in dialog: With our web notification solution, Web Notify, you can decide when to display the opt in dialog. This could be after a user visits a certain page, or upon completing a task such as reading two articles on your website.

Get more opt-ins by communicating the value of your notifications in a “soft ask”:  We recommend presenting the user with a “soft ask” for opt-in on your website before presenting the browser-based opt-in dialog. The soft opt-in can look however you want it to — whether it’s an interstitial, a banner, or your own on-site notification center.

This is the place to provide some context on what users will get out of the web notifications you’ll be sending — users are more likely to opt in if it’s easy for them to see the benefit.  

Last Thoughts…

That’s a wrap! We’ll of course be keeping an eye out for future browser updates that impact web push notifications. Get in touch anytime with questions, or to share what’s working for you! Leave a comment below or find us on Twitter. And try out our web push notification solution for free anytime!

Download our Web Notifications Inspiration Guide today to:
– See use cases you can adopt and implement
– Build smarter, more engaging campaigns
– Spark your thinking about web notification possibilities

Get your copy >>

The post Chrome Push Notifications Updates: What’s New in Google Chrome 59 for macOS appeared first on Airship.