Best practices to create a delightful subscription experience
In this era of algorithm updates and unpredictability, a publisher’s mind is a potent cocktail of anxiety. And in times of uncertainty, nothing beats the assurance of building an audience that you own; an audience you have complete control over and engage with whenever you want to. No buts, no ifs, no questions asked. But first, to start engaging, you need to build an audience.
By leveraging web push notifications, you are building a marketing list that you will forever own, build and develop. While you might be getting yourself some decent number of subscribers every day, imagine what would happen if you provide users with a delightful subscription experience.
Quick question – Why settle for less, when you can have more?
Best Practices For Creating A Stellar Subscription Experience
Interrupt politely
Nobody likes interruptions. Bombarding readers with a subscription prompt on page load will annoy them. Give them some breathing space before you display the prompt.
Set expectations
Back the notification prompt with some context. Tell them exactly the kind of notifications you will send and what they can expect from you.
Deliver what you promised
Send notifications that are contextual and relevant. Live up to the expectations you set when you had asked them to subscribe.
Capture user preference from day 0
Displaying the notification prompt on page load is a big no
When should you ask the user?
Don't show prompt on page load
Look at your avg session time on GA. if its around a min, adding around 5 secs of delay helps. if the session time is more around 2-3mins, you can actually further extend it to 10-15secs of delay.
On page scroll
Nudge on 20%-30% scroll of a page (You can do this using Google Tag Manager and set triggers and show the push notification opt-in once the user has scrolled to a certain point on the page)
When clear intent is shown
For every article completion, place a call to action button at the end of the article asking them to subscribe. Since they have read the article to completion, then chances of them subscribing are more.
Trigger prompt on exit intent
Display the prompt when the reader plans to abandon the website. This grabs thier attention and if you craft a catchy copy, you can make them subscribe to get updates even when they are not on the webiste.
Don't show prompt on page load
Look at your avg session time on GA. if its around a min, adding around 5 secs of delay helps. if the session time is more around 2-3mins, you can actually further extend it to 10-15secs of delay.
On page scroll
Nudge on 20%-30% scroll of a page (You can do this using Google Tag Manager and set triggers and show the push notification opt-in once the user has scrolled to a certain point on the page)
When clear intent is shown
For every article completion, place a call to action button at the end of the article asking them to subscribe. Since they have read the article to completion, then chances of them subscribing are more.
Trigger prompt on exit intent
Display the prompt when the reader plans to abandon the website. This grabs thier attention and if you craft a catchy copy, you can make them subscribe to get updates even when they are not on the webiste.
Jagran is on a roll!
Where should you ask the user?
Don’t ignore your high traffic pages
Make use of contextual prompts
Don’t stick to native prompts. Give users more context as to what they can expect from you if they subscribe to notifications.
For different news categories
Customize your prompts and display different prompts for different categories like Sports, Politics, Technology
Prompt in the languages you have content in
Reach out to readers in a language they are familiar and comfortable in.
Add the user's location tag
Create the prompt that are location specific to catpure interest and encourage subscription.
For different news categories
Customize your prompts and display different prompts for different categories like Sports, Politics, Technology
Prompt in the languages you have content in
Reach out to readers in a language they are familiar and comfortable in.
Add the user's location tag
Create the prompt that are location specific to catpure interest and encourage subscription.
Which non-native prompt performs the best?
What should you do when someone subscribes?
Send them a welcome notification
Show them how the web push notification experience is going to be. Share a popular article, take a poll on what they like to start sending them relevant notifications, and so on. If your website has a newsletter and subscription model, you can redirect the subscribers to those pages as well
Good to know -Make sure the landing page on the welcome notification is different from the homepage.
How to measure the effectiveness of the subscription experience?
User interaction with the prompt
Are you a iZooto customer?
