For digital publishers, content is their product. It’s the lifeblood of engagement and the byproduct of their hard work that allows them to have a business at all. So why are many publishers ignoring the web audience they have invested so much to obtain?
Now more than ever sites are experiencing a surge in traffic as consumers seek the latest news developments and brand messaging regarding the impact of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. In the first half of March alone, nearly 50% of web push notification content from news publishers in the Pushly network was related to coronavirus updates.
Over the last decade, publishers have focused primarily on driving app downloads, email conversions and engagement across display and social media channels as the primary means of audience acquisition and retention. For subscription-oriented publishers, the paywall has spared their bottom line. But food and lifestyle blogs have little chance of surviving on subscription revenue alone.
For publishers challenged by revenue generation and audience retention, the growing channel of web push notifications has enabled them to recapture direct traffic and drive a seven percent lift in visits from audiences that wouldn’t normally return to their sites.
The Right Way To Retain Web Audiences
Driving previous visitors straight down a funnel to download an app that will likely be uninstalled within the first week of use, or attempting to convert an email subscription that will probably get buried in inboxes is often a lost (and expensive) cause. Instead, publishers are getting an average of five percent of visitors to agree to receive push notifications by simply asking for permission.
With a push deployment, publishers have the opportunity to reconnect with past visitors on a regular and more relevant basis, which is generating between five and ten percent CTRs — all incremental site traffic that belongs to them and could not have been easily reengaged through other channels at a later time.
While other platforms like Google and Facebook focus on driving traffic TO a site, push notifications bring it BACK, creating a custom channel exclusively for audiences predisposed to publishers’ messages. Imagine the impact on the material growth of return visitors that could have on your site.
The Aha Moment
Push is especially useful for audience retention teams, most of whom haven’t had access to a new tool like this in more than ten years. With Pushly, these teams can send notifications about highly-relevant content to bring their typically “one-and-done” visitors back to the site. In fact, the number one ranked online food website saw a 16 percent lift in monthly visitors with web push.
There is so much value to be gained by inviting users to opt-in to receive push notifications. For publisher business operations, it’s a matter of putting resources toward a direct communication format rather than conventional channels that rely on disappointing email engagement rates and messaging that gets lost in noisy social media feeds.
Pushly increases the likelihood of re-engagement with past visitors, creating a unique opportunity to turn them into loyal subscribers. Premium publishers have enjoyed powerful features like an intuitive platform, audience targeting and segmentation, A/B testing and automated campaigns and reporting, all supported by a dedicated account manager.
If your team is overlooking the option to employ push notifications to re-engage your website visitors, you might as well be ignoring your audience. Learn how Pushly can deliver significant incremental audiences by reaching out to speak with a member of our team.
