Push Monetization Blog
Since it’s such a recurring theme in our world, we thought we would go ahead and compare the advantages and disadvantages of traditional email marketing compared to push notifications. When you take into account the benefits that one has over the other, it gets truly interesting.
Read on to find out which one came out ahead!
As you could expect, both of these technologies each have their own fields of strength and weakness, it is therefore very important that the comparisons that are drawn are useful and objective. Spoiler alert! If you truly want to be a great marketer or business, you will want to use both.
With that said, we are going to be looking at how these technologies compare in the ways that the bring users on board and how good they are at keeping them engaged and happy.
Web Push Notification Sign Up: 
Going from visitor to subscriber only takes users one single solitary click. You’ve seen the process and likely have subscribed to a few sites yourself: you get the small, unobtrusive window on the top of your browser asking you if you want to allow the site to send you notifications. Click “allow” and it’s a done deal.
Why This Is Good & Bad:
- The whole process in order to become a new subscriber takes all of one click.
- It’s a quick process, it takes less than 5 seconds flat.
- It requires no big thought process on the part of the user.
- The user needs to give no personal information in order to participate.
- No longer getting the notifications is as simple as blocking them direct from the browser, a process which is quick as well.
Email Newsletter Sign Up:
Let’s be real, becoming a subscriber to any newsletter is an ordeal nowadays. You have to go through an entire time-consuming process which will allow the person to have access to several points of information about you.
Why This Is Good & Bad:
- You have to be willing and able to give out a lot of information in order to just get in. This can range from your name, real address, phone number and sometimes even more than that.
- It’s a slow process that takes time and frustrates the user who all he wants to do is get the newsletter and be done with it.
- You have to fill out the form field by field, which sometimes are small but most times are comprised of several fields.
- Once submitted, you have to go check your email to see if you got the confirmation email which will then enable you to subscribe.
- Once you’re there, you have to sometimes accept certain terms and conditions and the confirm your subscription for a third time.
- Unsubscribing is also an ordeal which can take several days for the person to go through in the servers of the company that they’re subscribed to.
- You can give the users more information than with a push notification using graphics, audio and video as well as text.
Which One Gets You More Eyeballs?
So, the funny thing about this point is that it is not even a contest. One firm did a study that found out that, on average, push notifications have a subscription rate of over 15%! If we put that into perspective, that’s over 10 times what the average newsletter subscription form gets.
How’s the Engagement When Using Web Push Notifications vs Email:
Since the users get all the push notifications just a few moments after they are sent, regardless of what activity they are doing at any one time, the messages will be seen on a big scale and with almost 100% visibility rate.
If the user closes their browser momentarily, they will be sure to get the notification once they open it back up.
Since the messages are so quickly and briefly delivered, they are rather easy to digest and consume. In fact, there have been studies showing that as much as 40% of the people who are subscribed are able to respond right away and without hesitation!
Now, if we compare that with email, in which the average time before opening is nearly 7 hours, there is not a lot to discuss. The engagement rate once they are subscribed is not great either, in fact, most companies find that only a 2% to 3% of their subscribers even gets to the point where they click on a link of theirs.
Another little bit of bad news if you are in the ecommerce industry, your opening raters are the lowest of any industry. On average, only 16% of the people who are subscribed to you will even open the emails you send them, let alone click on the links contained.
Conclusion:
Technology That Users Find Easiest to Use | Web Push Notifications
Subscription Rates | Web Push Notifications (by 10x times the difference)
Rate of Engagement | Web Push Notifications
Easiest to Engage With | Web Push Notifications
Opening Rates | Web Push Notifications
As you can see, it was not even close. Web push notifications smoked traditional email marketing on every respect and it looks to be the way of the future!
