Are you a web-based business? Did Apple phones make your life difficult by ignoring your need for web-based push notifications? Are you missing out on valuable engagement with your leads and customers who use iPhones because the mobile browser, Safari, doesn’t allow web push notifications?
You have every reason to be upset about it. Apple has denied you the opportunity to send web-based notifications to mobile phone users. It’s frustrating because Android phones all along offered web-based push notifications to mobile web users. Given that Apple holds just over half of the global market share, the lack of this feature has had a great impact on your business.
The good news is, it’s about to change. At its 2022 Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced it will support web push notifications on its mobile iOS16 devices, starting in 2023.
What does the concept mean, and what does it mean for your business?
Web push notifications: the problem
Engaging users on their mobile devices is the goal of every company these days. Those who developed mobile apps can reach their mobile customer base via those apps. As a web-first business, however, you don’t have a mobile app that can send push notifications to your users. You could develop it, but it is costly and doesn’t fit your business model. Instead, you rely on your user base visiting your website or web-based app. And you would like to interact with your users via that web app on their mobile devices – not just desktops.
Because the feature was lacking on Apple devices, as an alternative, you had to ask your users to opt in to receive SMS or emails from you. That’s not the most ideal or immediate way to engage your base, especially given that emails have much poorer conversion rates compared to push notifications.
Now that the feature will be available to you, let’s talk about what it is, how it works, and how you can capitalize on it.
Web push notifications: the good news
First, let’s make it clear what we are talking about. We are talking about notifications your website would send to iPhone users who use an Apple web browser – Safari – on their mobile devices. It’s similar to the way mobile apps send push notifications to mobile users.
The notification – a message from your brand – will appear in the upper right corner of the mobile screen, while the user is browsing the web on their phone. When the user clicks on that message, they will be taken to the page you defined in that push notification.
Be aware that the push notifications will not happen automatically. To receive your notifications, the user must give you permission to send them via their browser.
Permission to push
Pushing without being pushy is key to a successful implementation of your mobile web push notification strategy. When considering your audience, think about when they might be more inclined to opt in to receive push notifications. A blanket approach will not give you the same results. By crafting a personalized message and timing it well, you can increase your opt-in rates.
Appearance
Default (or native) mobile web push notifications delivered via a mobile browser take up the whole screen. To customize the appearance of your push notifications, use a platform such as Pushly.
The Tech
Each mobile browser uses its own delivery service to deliver push notifications. But they all use a notification API and a push API. To have the ability to serve web push notifications on mobile browsers, you need to install a web-based SDK from a web push service on your site. If you are not sure how to do it, reach out to our experts at Pushly.
Applications
If you have been using web push notifications for desktops, you know their value. You engage with your audience, staying on their radars. You provide valuable content to them at the right time. The versatility of a platform such Pushly allows you to customize your push notification campaigns with precision. You can segment your audience and then not only target it but also set times at which the notifications go out. Of course, we never lose sight of the ultimate goal you as a business have for implementing push notifications: monetization.
Whatever your business is, you can find a way to deliver useful content to your audience and notify them about that content via web push notifications. Whether you are a catering company, publisher, or manufacturer or furniture, you can reach the intended audience, increasing your CTR and ultimately revenue.
TLDR
Apple’s announcement to allow web push notifications on mobile phones extends your ability to reach that segment of your customers in a very effective way. If you are already using web push notifications for desktops, it will be easy for you to incorporate the feature for iOS phones as well. If you haven’t tried web push notifications, consider adding it to the mix of your customer-facing channels, including web push notifications for mobile browsers that now will include Safari.
The uses for web push notifications are endless. You are limited only by your imagination.
Web push notifications will allow you to reach ad-blind customers who ignore most Facebook and Google ads, email, and social media. Chances are, you will experience increased CTR and hence increased revenue. And isn’t it what you are ultimately after?
