WordPress Push Notifications: How to Set Them Up

WordPress Push Notifications How to Set Them Up

WordPress push notifications have risen in popularity over the years, and chances are you have come across them severally. Most modern websites have them.

Have you ever seen a popup box, asking your permission to send notifications? Those are web push notifications or WordPress push notifications as we will refer to them in this article. Browsers like Chrome, Opera, Firefox and Safari, support them both on mobile and desktop.

The idea behind WordPress push notifications is to encourage repeat visits from your visitors. To achieve this, it sends push alerts to subscribers whenever you publish something new on your website. The end goal, of course, is to drive more website traffic.

In this article, we will look into what WordPress push notification is all about. Not only that, we will also walk you through how to set it up on your WordPress website. You don’t have to write any code – WordPress push notification plugins will do the work.

In this article:

What is WordPress push notification?

This is how WordPress push notification looks like:

Browser Push Notifications

Push notifications are popup prompts that appear whenever a visitor lands on a website. If the visitor clicks Allow, he/she will get an automatic notification any time new content is published on the website. Even if the visitor isn’t currently on the website when new content is published, he/she would still get an alert. However, if the visitor clicks Block, no notification will be sent.

Basically, that’s how push notifications work. They work well both on desktops and mobile devices.

Benefits of Adding Push Notifications to Your WordPress Website

Building loyal, enthusiastic followers to your website is no easy feat. This is because most people visit a website once, never to visit it again. Your biggest challenge is converting these once-in-a-while visitors to repeat visitors.

Thankfully, there are a couple of marketing channels you could use to overcome this challenge. Email marketing, social media marketing, and web push notifications are the most common.

Email marketing works, for one thing. No doubt about that. What you may not know is that push notification, if done right, is as effective. Any visitor that permits your notifications has an interest in your website. They will likely come to your site when they receive a notification. That means very little marketing effort on your part gets you more engagement.

Other benefits of adding push notifications to your website include:

  • Very little upfront investment of time and money
  • Effective for driving real-time traffic. Let’s say you are offering a product on your website, and visitors have limited time to make a purchase. With push notifications, you can drive traffic quickly to your website.
  • You can get it up and running quickly, and see results immediately. Email marketing, on the other hand, requires a long-term approach.

Times When You Need Push Notification

Here are the best instances when web push notifications will be of great help:

  • You run an eCommerce store and want to send out coupon deals from time to time.
  • When you are about to launch a webinar and want to alert your visitors about it.
  • You just made a social media update, and wish to get many eyes to it.

It’s important, however, that you use push notifications moderately. Otherwise, you risk annoying your visitors.

Implementation Challenges and Solutions for WordPress Push Notifications

Implementing push notifications on a WordPress site can be a straightforward process with the right tools and plugins. However, like any website feature, you might encounter a few challenges along the way.

Below, we’ll explore some common obstacles website owners face when adding push notifications to their WordPress sites and provide practical solutions to overcome these hurdles.

Browser Compatibility Issues

One of the primary challenges with push notifications is ensuring they work seamlessly across all popular browsers your audience might use. To address this, choose a push notification service that offers broad browser support.

Regularly test your push notifications on different browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, to verify they’re being delivered as expected. If issues arise, consult your push notification service’s support documentation or reach out to their customer service for browser-specific troubleshooting advice.

User Opt-In Rates

A low opt-in rate for push notifications can limit your ability to communicate with your site visitors. To improve opt-in rates, customize the prompt message to make it more engaging and clearly communicate the value your notifications will provide.

Consider the timing of the opt-in prompt as well. Allowing visitors to engage with your content before prompting them can lead to higher acceptance rates. A/B testing different messages and timing can help identify what works best for your audience.

Notification Overload

Sending too many notifications can overwhelm users, leading to higher opt-out rates. Develop a strategic notification schedule that balances keeping users informed without bombarding them.

Segment your audience to ensure that notifications are relevant and targeted, which can reduce the likelihood of users disabling notifications. Monitoring engagement metrics will also help you adjust frequency and content based on user preferences.

Ensuring GDPR Compliance

Compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR is crucial when implementing push notifications. Ensure your push notification service offers features that support compliance, such as easy opt-out options and transparent data usage policies.

Include a section in your privacy policy that explains how and why you use push notifications and how users can manage their preferences. Regularly review your push notification practices to ensure they align with the latest privacy laws and guidelines.

Technical Integration Issues

Integrating push notifications with custom themes or plugins can sometimes lead to technical challenges. If you encounter conflicts or issues, start by deactivating other plugins temporarily to identify any incompatibilities.

Consult the documentation of your push notification service for integration tips, and consider reaching out to the support teams of both the push notification service and the conflicting plugin or theme for assistance. In some cases, custom development may be needed to ensure smooth integration.

With that said, let’s see how to set up push notifications on your WordPress website.

How to Add Push Notifications in WordPress Website

Push notifications are quite easy to set up, and just about anybody – developer or non-developer – can set it up.

An efficient push notification plugin solution is all you need, and there are a couple of them out there. The popular ones include:

Most are free, but there is a catch: you get to pay once your subscribers exceed a certain number. PushCrew, for instance, is free, but once your subscribers exceed 2000 you start paying.

Let us walk you through the process of setting up push notifications via PushCrew.

How to Setup Push Notification via PushCrew

PushCrew offers a 14-day trial on all its plans, after which you can decide to continue or discontinue. To test the waters, start with their Startup Plan – it’s free.

Step #1: Create a PushCrew Account

First things first, head over to PushCrew website and create a free account. Not to worry, you won’t be asked for your credit card details.

pushcrew

 

When creating an account, be mindful of the format of your domain – HTTP or HTTPS. Once you have typed in all the needed information, click Create Free Account.

Next, fill out the required information in the popup box.

Note: The name of the company can’t be changed once you click the save button. Also, in the Subdomain field, type in your website’s domain. Say your website domain is mytestwebsite.com, type in “mytestwebsite” in the subdomain field.

subdomain page

Step #2: Customize the WordPress push notification popup box

PushCrew lets you add a custom logo and message to the popup box. While still signed in to your PushCrew account, navigate to Settings>> Opt-in.

Customize the push notification popup box

From here, you can add a custom logo and change the title as well as the subtitle. You can use different messaging for the title on mobile devices if you wish to.

Don’t forget to click the Save button at the top right corner once you are done.

Step #3: Add PushCrew to Your Website

There are two ways to add PushCrew notifications to your website: one is adding a snippet of code between the <head></head> tags on every page of your website. The second is using a plugin. Since the latter is a lot simpler, it makes sense to go for it.

While still logged in to your PushCrew account, click the Account button at the top bar. Here you will see your account’s id, copy it.

Add PushCrew to Your Website

Now log into your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Plugin >> Add New. Search for PushCrew, install and activate it.

Plugin >> Add New

Once installed and activated, navigate to Settings >> PushCrew. Next, paste your PushCrew ID in the given box and save the changes.

Settings >> PushCrew

Step #4: Send Notifications

If you’ve followed the steps so far, you should have a notification popup on your website that looks like this.

Send Notifications

Now you surely have the push notification up and running. It’s about time you send out your first notification.

Head back to your PushCrew account, and click the One-Time button in the dashboard panel.

One-Time button

Set the title, message and landing page of your notification. Click Next. On the next page, configure your notification and click Send Now.

One-Time button - wordpress push notifications

That’s it, you are done!

PushCrew is quite easy to implement. You can always upgrade your plans at any time. Check out PushCrew’s pricing page for more.

Other Push Notification WordPress Plugins You Could Try

You are not limited to using PushCrew – there are other plugin solutions that work pretty fine. Let’s see some of them.

Push Engage

Push Engage

Push Engage has a free plan which you will only have to upgrade once your subscribers exceed 2500. Their business plan starts at $29/month and can be used on up to 3 multi-sites.

Push Engage supports all major browsers, including Microsoft Edge. They offer a 15-day free trial period.

OneSignal

OneSignal - wordpress push notifications

OneSignal really went up and above with their free plan. Their free plan has a bandwidth of 30,000 subscribers on desktop and unlimited on mobile. That’s huge! Excellent solution if you have a large following, but don’t want to make any upfront financial commitment.

In addition, you can use OneSignal to set up an email campaign. That’s the price of two for one!

You can get started right away for free. However, their starter plan starts at $99/month and the Pro plan is $600/month.

PushAssist

PushAssist

PushAssist, just like its predecessors, has a free plan which accommodates up to 3,000 subscribers. There is no limit to the number of notifications you can send, both on mobile and desktop.

Their Starter Plan has a price tag of $9/month, Business Plan starts at $25/month and Elite plan starts at $299/month. Though seemingly cheaper than the rest, you are restricted to 3500 subscribers in the Starter and Business plans while the Elite plan is 75,000. So, look before taking the leap.

Pushalert

Pushalert - wordpress push notifications

The last on our list is Pushalert. Pretty much similar to other plugin solutions – a 15-day free trial period, a free plan with a bandwidth of 3,000 subscribers.

Performance and Optimization for WordPress Push Notifications

While integrating push notifications into your WordPress site can significantly enhance user engagement, it’s crucial to ensure that this feature doesn’t detract from your site’s performance or user experience.

In this section, we’ll cover essential tips on optimizing push notifications to maintain a swift, seamless website while delivering value to your audience through timely updates.

Optimize Loading Times

Push notification plugins or scripts can add extra load to your website, potentially affecting page loading times. To mitigate this, select a push notification service that loads asynchronously, ensuring that the loading of notifications doesn’t block or delay your website content from rendering.

Additionally, review the plugin’s impact on your site’s performance using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, and consider leveraging caching solutions to further enhance loading times.

Streamline Notification Delivery

The mechanism behind sending push notifications should be as efficient as possible. Opt for a push notification service that offers an optimized delivery system, capable of handling high volumes of notifications without causing server strain.

Implementing a Content Delivery Network (CDN) can also distribute the load, ensuring that notifications are dispatched promptly without affecting your server’s performance.

User Experience Considerations

The frequency and timing of notifications are critical to maintaining a positive user experience. Bombarding users with too many notifications can lead to annoyance and opt-outs.

To prevent this, strategize your notification schedule based on user behaviour and preferences. Employing user segmentation allows you to tailor notifications to specific groups, increasing relevance and reducing the likelihood of users finding them intrusive.

Mobile Responsiveness

With a significant portion of web traffic coming from mobile devices, ensuring that push notifications display correctly and unobtrusively on smaller screens is paramount.

Test your notifications on various devices and screen sizes to ensure they are clearly visible without obstructing content or navigation. Responsive design techniques can help achieve a seamless experience across all devices.

Prioritize Consent and Customization

Respecting user consent is not only a legal requirement under regulations like GDPR but also a best practice for maintaining trust.

Provide clear options for users to opt-in or out of push notifications and offer customization settings where users can choose the types of notifications they want to receive. This approach respects user preferences and can reduce the likelihood of users disabling notifications entirely.

Monitoring and Adjusting

Regularly monitor the performance of your push notifications in terms of click-through rates, opt-in/opt-out rates, and user feedback. Use this data to adjust your notification strategy, fine-tuning the frequency, content, and targeting to better meet your audience’s needs.

Continuous optimization based on real user data will help you maintain an effective push notification strategy that enhances user engagement without compromising site performance.

User Engagement Strategies with WordPress Push Notifications

Leveraging push notifications as a pivotal component of your broader user engagement strategy can transform how you interact with your audience on your WordPress site.

This section delves into the art of crafting compelling notification messages, the science behind timing your notifications for maximum impact, and the analytics behind measuring the success of your push notification campaigns.

Crafting Compelling Notification Messages

The key to an effective push notification lies in its ability to grab attention and prompt action. Keep your messages concise and focused, ensuring they convey value within the limited space.

Use action-oriented language and personalize the message to resonate with the recipient. For example, “Hey [Name], your favorite blog just updated! Check it out now!” is more engaging than a generic “New blog post published.” Testing various messages can help identify which ones resonate best with your audience.

Timing Your Notifications for Maximum Impact

The timing of your push notifications can significantly affect their effectiveness. Analyze your audience’s online behavior patterns to identify peak engagement times. Many push notification services offer scheduling features that allow you to deliver messages at the optimal moment.

For instance, sending a notification about a new blog post in the morning might catch your audience during their daily routine checks, while an evening schedule might work better for promotional content.

Segmentation and Targeting

Not all notifications will be relevant to your entire audience. Use segmentation to categorize your users based on their interests, behaviour, or demographic data. Tailored notifications to specific segments can dramatically increase engagement rates.

For example, notifying users about a discount on a product they’ve viewed on your site can be more effective than a generic sale notification.

Interactive and Rich Notifications

Modern push notification services allow for richer content, including images or action buttons. Utilizing these features can make your notifications more interactive and engaging.

For example, a notification about a new fashion blog post could include an image from the post, along with buttons like “Read Now” and “Bookmark for Later.”

Measuring Success and Analytics

To continually refine your push notification strategy, it’s essential to track their performance. Key metrics to monitor include click-through rates (CTR), opt-in rates, and conversion rates.

Most push notification services provide analytics dashboards to help you track these metrics. Analyzing this data will help you understand what works and what doesn’t, allowing for data-driven adjustments to your strategy.

A/B Testing

A/B testing, or split testing, is a method to compare two versions of a notification to see which performs better. By changing one element at a time, such as the message, timing, or imagery, you can determine which variations yield the best results. This continuous testing loop can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your notifications over time.

Feedback Loop

Encourage and monitor feedback from your audience regarding your push notifications. This can be done through direct feedback channels on your site or by analyzing engagement trends.

User feedback is invaluable for fine-tuning your approach and ensuring your notifications remain a welcome touchpoint rather than an annoyance.

Conclusion

All the push notification plugin solutions we looked at in this article generally work fine – it just depends on what you are looking for. Some allow you to schedule notifications while others let you run email campaigns from the same dashboard.

Integrating any of these plugins is quite straightforward. We already showed you how to integrate PushCrew into your WordPress website. Other platforms and even custom sites basically follow a similar process.

We hope you found this article helpful. Should you run into hiccups in the process, don’t hesitate to reach out and get WordPress help. If you found this article helpful, kindly share. You might be helping someone.

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