Imagine spending a mere 30 seconds of your day composing a notification that has the potential to send hundreds, if not thousands, of visitors winging their way to your website.
Sound too good to be true?
Then you haven’t heard of PushCrew…
What Is PushCrew?
PushCrew is a new tool for online marketers, brought to you by Wingify, the same guys who produced the A/B testing tool, VWO.
It’s a cloud-based tool that lets you send instant, real-time push notifications to your subscribers, even when they’re not on your website.
The notifications reach people in the form of clickable messages on desktops and app-style notifications on mobiles and tablets. When clicked on, they transport people straight to your website.
Despite being a relatively recent tool, PushCrew already has over 2,500 active users (as of June 2016), who enjoy an average click-through rate of over 20% – a substantial improvement on the average email marketing campaign.
The beauty of PushCrew is that visitors choose to opt-in. This means they retain control over the notifications, so those who choose to receive them are naturally more engaged and more likely to click through.
PushCrew is currently compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Android mobile devices, and it’s one of the easiest sources of traffic control to your website. What’s more, it’s free to try and free until you reach 500 subscribers.
PushCrew Case Study
Why should you take my word for it?
I recently added PushCrew to my website, ClassicCarLabs, and I’m already benefitting from some incredible results.
The tool is surprisingly effective at attracting new subscribers – I’m averaging between 20 and 50 sign-ups on a daily basis which will only increase as my Facebook community grows (at a rate of 6000 a week) and my organic traffic increases. But it’s the click-through rates that really impress me.
On average, I’m seeing click-through rates of between 20 and 30% for each notification I send. This is a vast improvement over my emails, which attract only 2 to 3%. Below is the stats for one of my early posts.
Now imagine its potential…
Assuming my lowest CTR of 20%, once I’ve reached 10,000 subscribers, that means I can send 2,000 visitors to my website each time I send a notification.
And if I have 100,000 subscribers, that’s an average of 20,000 visitors!
Although it doesn’t tackle the issue of passive organic traffic, that’s a suitably impressive ROI for a mere 30 seconds work.
How to Use PushCrew
The sceptics among you may be wondering if there’s a catch – perhaps it’s complicated to set up.
Well, I can assure you that not only does it take a mere 30 seconds to send a notification, it was super easy to set up in the first place – and if I can do it, anybody can!
Once signed up, simply add a snippet of code to your site, or, if you’re running a WordPress site, use their plugin, which makes life even simpler.
Next, customise the text that appears in the opt-in box to add a flavour of your brand personality, adding your logo if required. Finally, choose a time delay before the opt-in box appears – anything up to 20 seconds. This is especially important if you rely on ads for income, as you don’t want to detract attention from these immediately.
All this takes approximately 5 to 10 minutes. Then, each time somebody lands on your site they see the opt-in box, simply click on ‘Allow’ and they’re on your list.
Notifications are quick and easy to set up too. They take about 20 to 30 seconds, and can be used for a variety of reasons, from abandoned shopping carts to last-minute or limited offers, or to advise people when you publish new content.
Simply open up the notification template:
Add the details:
Check the preview:
And press send.
Costs
Anybody can set up a free PushCrew trial, which makes it a no-brainer for businesses, especially start-ups, as there’s nothing to lose.
The service is free until you reach 500 subscribers, then you need to sign-up to the paid product. There are three levels of paid product, depending on your requirements: $25 per month for Premium, $75 for Business, and an Enterprise product for which you need to obtain a quote.
(These figures are correct as of June 2016.)
Why Your Business Needs PushCrew
It’s no secret that building a substantial email list is essential for any business – and the bigger the list, the better. But many people are reluctant to give their email address for fear of being spammed, or simply because they’re too lazy to sign up.
Push notifications offer the perfect compromise, as people can opt in at a click of a button without having to provide any details. Plus they’re familiar to anybody with a smartphone or tablet, where apps send notifications directly to the device.
But push notifications for websites provide something unique. They send notifications to desktops, as well as mobiles and tablets – something not to be sniffed at as desktops still account for 42% of internet usage.
They offer a much better ROI for businesses than building a mobile app, something that’s particularly important for eCommerce ventures as it allows small or medium-sized enterprises to reach their customers via notifications, without having to invest in an app – which puts them on a level playing field with the big boys.
Plus, unlike mobile apps where notifications are usually sent by default, PushCrew requires users to opt-in, which makes people far more receptive to engage with your notifications.
Essentially, PushCrew provides a low-cost, fast, reliable method for businesses, large or small, new or long-established, to gain traffic on their websites. They have a high sign-up rate, an excellent click-through rate, they’re unobtrusive for users, and less than a minute’s work will result in a lot of traffic for your site – seriously, what’s not to like?
Tips to Optimise PushCrew Notifications
Before I sign off, I have a couple of quick tips to share to optimise your PushCrew notifications:
- They’re a high-engagement channel so, although you can send unlimited notifications, that’s a really bad idea as you will soon drive your subscribers nuts (and have them unsubscribing in their droves). Once or twice per day should be the maximum. Less is more – trust me on this.
- Push notifications require an immediate response, so think carefully about the optimum time to send your notification and remember to check the time zones of your subscribers.
- Like Twitter, your notification message has a character limit so make sure yours is squeezed into a small but effective package. When composing your message, remember that you want people to click through so always demonstrate the value they will gain from doing so.
- If you run a B2C website, like my Classic Car Website, always add an image, as the notification tends to be more effective.
PushCrew is still fairly new technology and there’s little hard data to work from. So, like anything, use your common sense, monitor your CTR, bounce rates and opt-outs, and test, test, test until you find the winning formula.
Now, what are you waiting for?