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One of the most effective ways to grab your visitor’s attention is with an email popup. So while planning out your BFCM marketing strategy, you also need to optimize your popup for more conversions. After all, every store out there is going to be offering competitive deals, so you need to be sure that every visit counts!

So in this article, we’re sharing a BFCM email popup strategy with you to that maximizes your conversions during the sale.

The email popup strategy for BFCM marketing

1. Create hype around the upcoming deals 

Not every visitor turns into a customer. Some are just out there exploring deals – especially when BFCM is around the corner. They know that certain brands will be offering discounts and are exploring all options.

So instead of waiting for the last minute, include an ‘awareness’ campaign in your email popup strategy.

Change your messaging to reflect the biggest discount that is coming up during BFCM or the brands that will be included. It gives your visitors something to look forward to and their curiosity has them converting on your email popup in no time.

2. Use an eye-catching design 

Yes, the conventional-looking email popups work. But when the BFCM deals are unmatched by those that you offer through the year, your strategy should include making them ‘look’ special too!

Design an email popup that is sure to convert. Make sure the color of the popup stands out from the rest of your site design during this period. Use a font color, type, and size that further makes people want to engage with the email popup. Format your popup copy well to make sure the message is easily consumable.

3. Link to a dedicated landing page for BFCM deals 

Your email popup will do the job of capturing the visitor’s attention. But if it isn’t easy for shoppers to find the products that are on discount during the BFCM sale, you’re not going to be able to turn them into customers.

That’s why you need a dedicated landing page for your BFCM deals.

This landing page should list down all the discounts available as well as the products that are on sale. You can further help the shopper to filter them out based on categories and more. The easier you make it for the shopper to find products, the higher are your chances of converting them.

4. Countdown to the BFCM sale 

As time comes close, change your BFCM marketing strategy on the email popup. You should now focus on increasing the FOMO in visitors – so much so that they don’t leave your site without at least signing up for your newsletter or for notifications on when the sale goes live.

You can create a simple countdown to BFCM by changing the popup copy. Let them know that their favorite brands are going to available on a huge discount in just a week’s time.

A good email popup strategy here would be to promise these visitors that you will be notifying them of the live discounts first. The more exclusive they feel about the discounts, the higher are the conversions you’ll be seeing.

Also read: How to write a popup copy that turns shoppers into customers

5. Gamify the BFCM deals 

Typically, an email popup promises to share the discount coupons in lieu of their email address. But that’s a strategy you’ve been using for ages, all through the year. Let’s change it for BFCM marketing!

Gamify your email popup with WooHoo. Nudge visitors to participate in a game like the reel of coupons, spin the wheel, a game of cards or picking a gift. They’ll need to share their email address to participate and win the ‘biggest’ discounts for BFCM. Such a gamified experience with your store will make the visitor more likely to shop from you.

While your shoppers win discounts, you get to grow your email list. This is surely a win-win situation for both parties during BFCM!

In fact, stores like Ikonick used a game of cards by WooHoo to engage their store visitors. The game actually resulted in them growing their email list 10x faster.

Also read: How to implement gamification to increase Shopify sales

6. Target the active shoppers on your store  

Typically, you’ll see email popups targeting every visitor on the store. Be it a new visitor or a returning one, the strategy is to be able to nudge them into sharing their contact details before they leave.

While the strategy of bombarding all the visitors works in most cases, BFCM marketing needs a little attention to detail – targeting those shoppers who are actually interested in making a purchase from your store.

Target your email popup at only the active shoppers. These are visitors who are actively browsing your site looking for products and deals, or wishlisting items to buy during the BFCM sale.

Also read: 5 new ways to use popups to increase Shopify sales

7. Re-engage the cart abandoners 

The average cart abandonment rate is 69.75%. Imagine what this percentage goes up to when there are so many stores for a consumer to choose from. That’s why your BFCM marketing strategy needs to include re-engaging cart abandoners with an email popup.

Triggering the popup on detecting their exit intent, offer cart abandoners a special deal, discount or even free shipping on completing the purchase that very day. You can also use this opportunity to remind them that the deals are available only for a limited period of time or until stocks last.

Reinstating a little more FOMO at this stage can go a long way in getting more shoppers to complete their purchase before leaving.

Also read: Ways to use consumer psychology to increase Shopify sales 

Turn more shoppers into customers during BFCM 

BFCM is the one time that consumers go all out with shopping. It’s the one time that even the smallest and the newest stores experience a peak in their traffic.

But, the problem or the challenge here is the ever-decreasing attention span of internet users. No matter what product they’re looking for, they have the choice of buying it from at least ten other stores.

So be it them subscribing to your newsletter through the popup or clicking through to explore the products in the BFCM sale, set up a pop-up strategy during the sale to nudge an interaction before your visitors leave your site or get distracted by a deal on a competing store.

Is your email popup strategy ready to turn BFCM deal shoppers into customers?

Let’s create your first gamified popup today! 

Transactional emails like order confirmation emails and shipping confirmation emails are not just meant to deliver consumer information.

So, how do marketers maximize their use of transactional emails? The answer is personalization.

Consumers aren’t too keen on dull and dry emails. They prefer to receive emails that are personalized based on the merchant’s brand, tone and voice (this displays credibility.) They’re also more likely to engage with product recommendations based on browsing behaviour and past purchases.

Campaign Monitor reports that segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of an ecommerce store’s revenue. Marketers have also experienced a 760% increase in revenue from segmented email campaigns.

Now, how can you leverage transactional emails in your email marketing strategy? Here’s what you need to know:

Have personalized product recommendations

Several analytical tools have made it their mission to track your customers engagement in social media and browsing behaviour in online stores.

With the rise of technology, there’s a lot of data that you can collect about your customers shopping experience, but how do you put it to good use?

Many ecommerce stores have made it their mission to deliver personalized product recommendations in transactional emails.

You might’ve seen a line-up of categories like “People Who Viewed This Item Also Bought” or “Products You Could Be Interested In”. Since the recommended items were tailored to your interests, we bet you became curious about some of the products.

This is the power of adding recommendations in transactional emails. Sleeknote writes that product suggestions can increase your click-through rate (CTR) by an astounding 300% or more. Another study found that online stores with personalized data-driven recommendations found their sales leap by up to 75%.

You’re obviously missing out on a lot if you’re not utilizing product recommendations. Brands like Worx send recommendations based on recently viewed items and products that you may like.

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Offer next-purchase discount code

Customers are often on the lookout for sweet deals. So, an email with a next-purchase discount code will easily grab their attention.

Sleeknote reports that merchants that offer discount codes are 8 times more likely to make a sale. Emcoupon also found that 60% of consumers love to receive coupons and 68% believe that it can generate brand awareness and loyalty.

A vast majority of customers love discounts because it seems like they’re getting more for less. Additionally, it makes it a habit for customers to return to your store.

You don’t need to offer an insane discount to attract customers. A small 10 percent discount code can keep your brand on the back of customers’ minds the next time they plan to make a purchase.

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Use referral marketing

We often provide referrals to friends and family, and the process is reciprocal.

You give recommendations on the restaurants to visit, gadgets to purchase or brands to explore and sometimes you ask for referrals yourself. This is the essence of referral marketing. You share a positive experience with a business so your friend will be encouraged to try it out.

Now how can you get referrals to happen more often? While you can’t control word-of-mouth marketing, you can incentivize brand advocates to share their positive experiences through referral programs.

In fact, people are 4 times more likely to make a purchase when referred by a friend. Another study found that 58 percent were likely to share positive experiences and get advice from family and friends when talking about brands on social media.

How can you get started? Send a referral email that encourages customers to join your referral program, or you can add a referral component in your shipment delivered email.  Advancement Courses encourages customers to join their referral program by offering $20 cash for every friend that uses their referral link.

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Add Navigation bar

A navigation bar is critical to the success of your email marketing strategy.

While navigation bars seem like a simple add-on, they can boost conversions and user-friendliness. You want users to visit the important pages of your website and that’s only possible through a navigation bar.

In fact, Measuring U reports that 54 percent of customers will abandon a search when they don’t reach their desired webpage in one click.

Warby Parker’s order confirmation email has a navigation bar with four of their main categories: Men’s Optical, Men’s Sunwear, Women’s Optical and Women’s Sunwear. Each category is evenly-spaced and apart which makes it easy for mobile users to reach their desired webpage.

The breakdown of the purchase is also clear and concise. Customers can see a picture of the item they bought and it’s exact price.

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Offer real-time tracking

Customers want to know the status of their online orders and shipments.

According to Shipbob, 97% of customers expect shops will let them monitor their orders in every step of the shipping process.

Real-time tracking is also essential to significantly reduce the number of inquiries or WISMO calls that your team needs to handle.

When customers don’t know the status of their delivery, they constantly contact customer service. If they don’t get an immediate response, then it could lead to a bad consumer experience. Not only does this mean additional work for customer support, but it can also damage customer loyalty in the long-run.

Real-time tracking also makes it easy for your business to control the order fulfillment process. If customers don’t receive their order, you can easily determine its location and communicate with them whenever problems arise.

Chipotle’s order confirmation email lets customers know when, where and who is picking up their order. They take it to the next level by adding a mini-map for the order’s pick-up point.

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Ready to Personalize Your Transactional Emails?

Transactional emails are another opportunity to upsell and promote your products.

Add personalized product recommendations so consumers can check out the products that may interest them. Send next-purchase discount codes in shipping confirmation emails to boost repeat purchases.

Loyal consumers can also be your top advertisers so start your own referral program. You can encourage customers to join by promoting your referral programs in your transactional emails.

Real-time tracking can drastically reduce WISMO calls so integrate them in shipping confirmation emails and order confirmation emails.

You can start incorporating these changes into your transactional emails through Spently’s template builder for Shopify merchants.

How will you use personalized transactional emails to boost your conversions? Let us know in the comments below.

About the author

Sal Noorani is the Product & Growth Manager at Spently, whose application allows Shopify merchants to leverage their store emails as an additional sales channel by embedding marketing components to cultivate engagement, and queue follow up sequences to foster customer retention. 

A Shopify popup window is the most effective way to grab a shopper’s attention to an ongoing offer or a new product range. But if you really want to drive more conversions on and through it, it is important that you restrategize and move away from the typical approach.

What do we mean?

Most online stores use email popups in the most conventional way. They promise to offer the customer a coupon/ discount in lieu of an email address, nudging them to subscribe to their newsletter.

But come to think of it, that’s what everyone is doing right. And a 10-15% discount doesn’t make things any different.

That’s where personalizing your Shopify popup window strategy comes into play.

Why is personalization important?

According to Retail Customer Experience, 63% of consumers expect personalization as a standard of service. In fact, they prefer interacting with brands that offer them a personalized journey.

Now you’re already using things like a recommendation engine to personalize their on-site experience. You’re also using the shopper’s data and previous interactions to personalize your email and social media marketing to drive higher engagement rates.

So why leave the email popup with a general strategy?

An email optin that is personalized to a shopper’s interest is far more effective than a general one. It automatically engages them, giving them a feeling it’s exclusively for them and that nudges them to make an interaction before they leave.

Creative ways to personalize your Shopify popup window 

1. Gamify your email popup 

About 40% of internet users play games online. Then why not engage them with a game on your store – all without having to create a separate page for it!

How?

With apps like WooHoo, you can implement a game on your email popup in minutes. Be it a card dance, wheel of coupons, picking a gift or a reel of coupons, engage your shoppers with an online game they’ve played before.

The popups can be easily customized to include exclusive coupons for those shoppers who engage with it and win a game.

But that’s not it. With this creative personalization of their online behavior, subscribers become highly likely to interact with the Shopify popup window. In addition to that, they also become more likely to use the coupon code as the discount is ‘won’ instead of just being handed out to everyone!

2. Create a sense of urgency in the message 

We wrote a post on how to nail the copy on your email popup a while back.

While a Shopify popup window will definitely grab the shopper’s attention, it’s what is written on it that makes them want to engage (or not) with the brand.

Even if you’re using gamification on your popup, if the shopper doesn’t feel like he needs to take part right away, you’re not going to see too many conversions.

That’s why your popup copy should speak to the shopper and create a sense of urgency around what is there to win.

If you’re offering a special discount, make sure you mention it is available only for a limited period. If you’re using a game on your popup, ensure that your messaging clearly states that the prizes to be won and won are going to be valid for a short period of time only.

Since more than 50% of online shoppers are coupon seekers, you don’t want them to leave your site without interaction and land up on a competitor store.

3. Target only your actively browsing users 

Instead of targeting all the shoppers with your email popup, track and identify the ones that are actively browsing your site. This helps you understand which of the visitors are actually interested in your products and are at that moment, exploring the range you have.

When you target only your actively browsing shoppers, you increase the chances of them converting on it. As compared to inactive visitors, active shoppers will obviously be more interested in getting a discount on the purchase they make.

For instance, Ikonick uses gamification on their Shopify popup window. But they target only their actively browsing visitors, knowing they are more likely to engage. The approach helped them increase their email list 10X faster than the conventional email popup strategy.

4. Write as you talk 

This one’s another little personalization tip from our popup copy article. But it’s also the most effective as it helps your store instantly connect with the shoppers, nudging them to convert with the callouts you place on the site – including your email popup.

When crafting your Shopify popup window copy, keep in mind two things – create a sense of urgency (point 2) and make the shopper feel like you’re talking only to them.

You can do this by using words like ‘you’ and ‘you’re’ in the copy. So instead of saying ‘win a 15% off discount’, your copy should say ‘you can win a 15% off on your purchase’.

This makes the shopper feel that the coupon being offered on the popup is exclusive to them and that in comparison to other shoppers, they’ll be able to bag a better deal on the purchase they’re making.

5. Localize your email popup 

Similar to targeting based on the activity level of a shopper, localization takes into account where your store sees the most traction from.

Take, for instance, your store is seeing more shoppers from Dubai. They also have a higher average order value as compared to shoppers from other locations. In this case, you could target shoppers from this specific location with a Shopify popup window that uses Arabic to convey the message.

When shoppers see stores make an additional effort to suit their day-to-day use language, they feel the journey has been personalized for them. A greater sense of belonging increases the conversions on the email popup.

Does your email popup need personalization? 

You’ll see a lot of stores use other personalization tactics like using the general demographics of a shopper – number of pages visited, product pages visited, location and more. There’s no one way of personalizing your Shopify popup window.

The only thing you need to keep in mind is that you’re personalizing it in such a way that it grabs the shopper’s attention and makes them want to interact with your store.

The closer you are to making them ‘feel the need’ to interact, the higher are the chances of conversion on the email popup and the sales resulting from it.

Ready to give gamification a spin on your email popup? Here are some resources to get you all set:

• How to implement gamification to increase Shopify sales
• Different gamification campaigns to increase Shopify sales and why they work
• 5 new ways to use email popups on your store

What’s the one creative tactic you used to personalize your email popup? We’d love to hear all about it! 

You’re consistently driving shoppers to your store using SEM campaigns. You’ve been successful at also turning most of them into subscribers with tactics like gamification before they leave. But what happens next? Do you wait for these shoppers to make a purchase in their own time? Do you nudge them a little? If you do, when exactly should you be making this nudge?

Too soon and they might find you spammy. Too late and you might lose their interest.

That’s where Shopify automation comes into play.

Must-have Shopify automation campaigns

1. Welcome messages 

You’ve just converted a shopper into a subscriber. Should you now wait until your weekly newsletter schedule to make the first interaction with them? No, that’s too late and you might just lose their interest in your products.

So automate welcome messages across the channel they choose to stay in touch with your store – email, web push or the Facebook Messenger. Simply dropping in a message to thank them for choosing your store or subscribing to your list can go a long way.

A study by Experian suggests that welcome messages receive 5 times as many opens and 5 times as many clicks as the regular promotions being sent by online stores.

2. Cart recovery messages 

69% of carts are abandoned on an average; that’s more than half of your sales getting lost – unless you do something to recover them. While most stores will send in one reminder on email to recover these carts, their efforts stop right there. They’re not able to convert as many of these shoppers as they’d like to.

That’s why you should automate cart recovery campaigns and create drip messages on the email, web push, the Facebook Messenger and your retargeting ads. Remind shoppers of what they’ve left behind, how it’s a great deal and even offer a little discount to make the cart total suit their budget.

But remember, always create a sense of urgency in your cart recovery campaigns. You don’t want your shoppers to feel they have a lot of time at hand.

3. Price drop alerts 

Most online shoppers are price-sensitive. The only way to convert them is to offer a discount or let them know of price drops on products they’re interested in.

Set up an automation to send price drop alerts to shoppers who have the specific product either wishlisted, added to cart or have visited its product page more than once. Simply let them know of the savings they make on the product now and that it’s a time-sensitive offer.

4. Back in stock notifications 

A lot of your subscribers don’t turn into customers because they don’t find the products they’re looking for. And the products they do like are out of stock. But who says you lose the opportunity to turn this shopper into a customer here?

Automate your back in stock notifications to show the shopper how you care about their preferences. Drive them back to the store by simply letting them know that their favorite products are back in stock, and to make the deal sweeter, offer them a special discount for waiting!

If it’s a fast-selling product, make sure your back in stock notifications are automated across multiple channels. Don’t just rely on an email!

5. Review and rating requests

Social proof can make or break a store’s sales. With people trusting people more than a brand’s promotional campaigns, it has become important to get reviews, ratings, and testimonials from your customers. But with so much going on while managing an online store, this sometimes takes the back seat.

But with Shopify automations, you can automate reviews and rating requests as well. Based on the number of times a shopper has made purchases on your store, you can gauge if they’re a happy customer.

Using this data, make sure you send them a quick request to review and rate your products. Apart from using web push, email and the Facebook Messenger for this, you can also automate on-site push notifications to remind them to review their last purchase.

You can also promote the reviews and ratings of your products to nudge new shoppers to make purchases.

6. Loyalty rewards 

If you record a shopper making more than a defined number of purchases, it’s time to seal the deal with them. They are making a conscious effort to make purchases from your brand; which means they’re happy with the products and discounts you offer.

Now before another store barges in with bigger discounts to grab their attention, hook them with a loyalty program.

Automate a campaign on email, Facebook Messenger and even web push to promote your loyalty program to these shoppers. Keep your message absolutely clear, highlighting what they gain by joining your community and don’t forget to send them occasional reminders till they do.

7. Referral promotion 

Word-of-mouth has become the most powerful way for a store to grow its customer base. But getting shoppers to actively participate in it can be challenging.

Despite a great offer being made to them and for their friends, sending out referrals doesn’t come as naturally as coming back to a store to make more purchases. That’s where Shopify automation comes into play.

You can automate emails, web push notifications, and Facebook Messenger campaigns to promote your referral program. Then you can further segment your list to send referral reminders to those who signed up but aren’t active; and nudges to those who haven’t.

Do you need Shopify automation? 

Whether you’re a new store or an established one, Shopify automations make sure you’re reaching shoppers at the right time with the right message.

Setting up these automations, you also save time to focus more on what matters the most – understanding your target shoppers and customers, and optimizing their journey with your brand.

But if that’s not enough, setting up marketing automations for your store can increase your revenue by 17%. And that’s exactly what you need in an ever-growing competitive market!

Have you tried Shopify automations for your store? What’s the one campaign you think is a must to automate for better customer engagement and more sales?

Today, let’s step into our own shoes as an online shopper. Think about the last time you purchased a product similar to the one you have. Then tell us if you bought both the products from the same store. There’s a high chance that your answer is no.

With the increasing number of online stores, it doesn’t come as a surprise that consumers are becoming more willing to experiment. They don’t just want to give newer brands a chance, but also their products despite having followed one brand for years.

Now considering that even 12-15% of loyal consumers represent 55-70% of sales, that’s a big loss for a brand.

That’s where, undeniably, comes in the one strategy that is known to increase Shopify sales. But at the same time, it also boosts customer loyalty.

Offers.

Here are 10 different ways to use offers to win the shopper’s heart and generate more sales.

Ways to increase Shopify sales with offers 

1. Give out first-time and welcome discounts 

Most shoppers don’t make a purchase on their first visit to a store. They’re not sure about the brand and the quality of the products, or if they are worth the value. Sweeten the deal for them and make a lasting first impression with a welcome offer or a first-purchase discount.

You can also use this opportunity to nudge them to subscribe to your newsletters. It’s always a good idea to establish a channel of communication before the shopper leaves the site.

2. Offer weekly/monthly discounts 

What’s the one thing you look forward to on Amazon? Their lightning deals. While the eCommerce giant has big discounts to offer on a daily basis to keep their shoppers coming back for more, you sure can start with weekly/monthly discounts.

Identify popular products or product ranges and offer a discount on them periodically. When the shoppers see their interests are being noticed, you’ll have them coming back every time.

3. Recover abandoned carts with discounts 

The average rate of cart abandonment is hovering at a whopping 70% today. Considering the options a typical shopper has, this doesn’t come across as a surprise. But an abandoned cart doesn’t mean a lost sale; in fact, it means you have an interested shopper who needs a little push to make the purchase.

Make a special offer to recover abandoned carts. Offer an additional, time-sensitive discount or free shipping. But remember to send them the offer in less than 24 hours of the abandonment. You don’t want to lose their interest!

4. Turn actions into incentives 

No amount of data on the shopper is ever enough. But 90% of your consumers expect a personalized experience with the brand. To kill two birds with one stone, why not offer discounts to shoppers for completing tasks that benefit your marketing strategy?

Be it liking or following you on social media, sharing their purchase with friends on WhatsApp or simply completing their profile on your store, offer discounts for every effort they make. Make them feel their efforts are acknowledged.

5. Holiday and seasonal offers 

We all know of the BFCM – Black Friday Cyber Monday offers. But why restrict yourself to only those days when the whole year is sprinkled with small celebrations that include online shopping, more often than not?

Based on your target market and who your customers are, identify the holidays and seasons they acknowledge. Join in their celebrations and preparations by offering them a custom discount on products relevant to those days. You taking note of these little things will have shoppers come back for more.

6. Make an email subscription offer 

So many of your online shoppers are skeptical about sharing their email addresses. The reason – they’re afraid of being spammed with irrelevant promotions. Pretty understandable, right?

That’s where maybe you could make them an offer they cannot say no to. Offer them a special discount in turn of their email address – super simple and straightforward.

And if you want to make things interesting, instill a little gamification as Ikonick did. Instead of the conventional popup, the store used a game of lucky draw to let shoppers win their discounts. Seeing what they get on an interaction like that, makes them more willing to subscribe for the newsletter too!

7. Reward referrals with discounts 

92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family. But what do the friends and family get for making those recommendations – from the business side. More often than not, absolutely nothing.

If you want to keep these customers encouraged to actively promote your brand, keep them motivated. The best way to do so is to offer them a discount for successfully bringing you a referred customer.

You could also further sweeten the deal for your existing and new customers by offering them both special discounts. You got to do what it takes to keep the chain of word-of-mouth promotion going!

8. Exit intent discount 

Oh yes, no matter how well-priced your products are or what sales you’re running, online shoppers always want more. They’re more than willing to stall the purchase by a few days only to bag a better deal.

But as we all know, once the shopper leaves the site, there’s a high chance they don’t come back. That’s where an exit-intent discount comes into play. Grab the leaving shopper’s attention with a discount they can’t say no to.

Take it as your last sales pitch to them and nail it with the right popup copy.

9. Celebrate customer milestones with offers 

Has a shopper been your customer for a few months or for a year? Time to celebrate your friendship and make sure the relationship lasts for many more years.

You’re already recording when a shopper signs up on your store or when they make the first purchase. Use that data to identify every customer’s milestones and automate a marketing campaign that reaches out to them. Thank them for their continual support and offer them a sweet discount as a gift, that will surely make them feel worthy.

10. Set up minimal purchase discounts 

This tactic is usually used for upselling to encourage shoppers to add more products to the cart and increase their average order size.

Think about the last time you walked into Zara. Now think about the time you stepped into their store when all the products were on massive discounts. Your second visit will obviously have you bagging more products.

Similarly, telling the shopper that they can avail a free discount on a said cart value and above, you can engage them on the store a little longer. It will also help you get other products discovered as the shopper moves across ranges to find something that helps them reach the minimum order value.

Should you use offers to boost customer loyalty? 

Absolutely.

Offers are not just easy and quick to implement, but also easy to track. They help brands boost their conversions, sales, revenue and most importantly, customer loyalty. And that’s what your store needs to grow in this competitive market – customers who can vouch for them!

How do you use offers on your Shopify store?

What’s the one hack you use to get the most sales when you offer a discount? We’d love to hear all about it!

The average customer spends only about 11.1 seconds reading an email. This means that unless your promotional messages are short and crisp, your marketing has little impact on driving more sales. To maximize their marketing, eCommerce stores have catered to changing consumer behaviors and adopted newer Shopify marketing strategies like web push notifications that complement short attention spans.

Web push notifications are direct. Your push campaigns don’t need a third-party app like emails. They are delivered straight to the subscriber’s screen, making it highly visible. What’s more, web push notifications create an opportunity for you to target your visitors and eventually convert them into customers. Stores like Headphone Zone have made have generated 126x ROI from PushOwl within 7 months of using this marketing tool. What’s more, because it’s mobile-friendly, web push notifications have brought this Shopify Plus store 3 times the click rate as email.

If you’re now considering adopting this Shopify marketing strategy, we’ll make it easier for you to start getting more subscribers, clicks, and revenue from web push notifications.

6 Best Practices for Your Web Push Notifications

1. Set up an enticing opt-in

Before you start sending web push notification campaigns, you need to build a subscriber list. If you already have a push notification app, by default, the browser prompt will be set up on your online store to capture your visitors and convert them into subscribers. To ensure that you are maximizing your chances of converting these visitors, you can set up a catchy overlay that tells your potential subscribers about what they can expect from your notifications or entices them with a discount for subscribing.

Read more about web push notification opt-ins.

2. Optimize hero images

A good hero image can boost your push notification’s click rate. According to one email marketing analysis, campaigns with images  had a 42% higher click-through rate than campaigns without images. By adding a product image or an enticing poster about the sale you’re running, you increase your chances of getting more clicks from your subscribers.

Ensure that your hero image is optimized by following the guidelines to using images in web push notifications. Size the notification correctly and if you’re using product images, ensure that it is not pixelated.

3. Smart delivery

As an online store, your customers are most likely located across the globe. So, when you send out a web push notification, you don’t want subscribers on the other side of the globe receiving the notification at 4am in their time zone. That’s sure to decrease your campaign’s click-through rates and possibly, make them unsubscribe to your notifications. Smart Delivery ensures you never have to worry about timing your campaigns.

Smart Delivery delivers the web push notification to your subscriber during their active hours. This maximises the engagement and conversions that your conversion gets.

4. Ensure your message doesn’t get cut off

The appearance of your notifications depends on the device and browser that your subscriber is on. This is why it’s crucial to send a push campaign that has been optimized to ensure that it fits the notification and doesn’t get cut off. Mac devices have the shortest push notification length— 21 characters. This means that unless you are segmenting your subscriber list by device type, you need to keep your copy short enough so that even your Mac subscribers receive a well-crafted notification.

Read our guide to Notification Character Lengths to ensure you are optimizing your copy length.

5. Find the frequency of web push campaigns that brings you the most results

Is there such a thing that too many? In marketing, yes. Sending too many or too few push campaigns to your subscribers can impact your engagement, clicks, and conversions, making your push marketing strategy unsuccessful. Too many push campaigns can also increase unsubscribe rate.

So, how can you find the optimal frequency for your push marketing strategy? Here are a few pointers to help you narrow down your frequency:

• What is the average frequency of notifications sent per week? For instance, fashion stores send an average of 2 to 5 notifications while furniture stores send around 1 notification per week.
• Do your products require a repeat purchase like vape liquid or fitness powders? Increase your frequency.
• Products with a short shelf life need to be sold immediately. This means your notification frequency must increase.
• On the other hand, if your inventory consists of high-ticket products, fewer notifications is better.
• How do your campaigns perform? If they have lower click-through rate or if you see a decline in clicks for your latest campaigns, decrease your frequency and focus on the quality of your messaging.

Want to nail your push notification frequency? This infographic on push notification frequency will give you more guidance.

6. Make the most of your buttons

Call-to-actions have proven to make a marked difference in the clicks and revenue that your promotions bring. According to Wordstream, emails with a single call-to-action increased clicks by 371% and sales by 1617%. It’s simple— the right CTA gets your subscriber to act on the compelling message that you delivered. If you’re telling them about a sale on your store, the call-to-action is what will make your subscribers move towards your online store.

Here’s how Mavi Jeans uses its buttons. You’ll notice that they provide their subscribers with highly relevant buttons based on their gender so they can be taken to the collections that match their requirements instead of leading them to the store front and making them search for their collections.

This guide to crafting the perfect web push notification is all you need to ensure that your push campaigns get higher clicks.

5 Push Web Notification Campaign Ideas

Once you’ve optimized how you receive your subscribers and understood how to craft web push notifications that reap the best results, it’s important to run promotions that are relevant to your store and the products you have. There are a few of the web push campaigns that top Shopify stores love to send:

1. Run a flash sale

Time-sensitive sales are one of the most popular push campaigns sent by top Shopify stores and the impact has been proven. Flash sales generate a 35% lift in transaction rates, according to Social Marketing Fella. By setting up a short sale on your store, you can drive more visitors and conversions by creating an ‘urgency’ to shop from you.

To maximise your flash sale campaign, keep your copy short and to the point. Highlight the most important aspects of the sale within your web push notification. Stores usually focus on the discount amount and the time frame of the sale to leverage the urgency and grab subscriber attention quickly. Use the ‘Run a Flash Sale’ feature to set an expiry date on your campaign. This way, your push campaign only runs as long as the sale lasts and your web push notifications aren’t delivered to subscribers after the sale is over.

2. Engage non-purchasers by targeting your anonymous subscribers

As with every subscriber list, not all your push notification subscribers are likely to be existing customers. Most subscribers are usually visitors who have browsed through your store but haven’t yet gotten to checkout. You can use web push notifications to gradually convert these subscribers into customers.

Use Segmentation to send highly-targeted web push campaigns to your ‘Anonymous Subscriber’ segment. You can use this promotion to provide a first purchase discount or spread the word about your Bestseller collection, directing them to products that are loved by your existing customers.

3. Launch a new product

The last step, but the most important step of any new product launch is how you market it. Top eCommerce stores have gotten their product launch emails and social media campaigns down to a winning formula. Tactics used in your traditional Shopify marketing strategies can easily be repurposed into a web push campaign.

Set up a sequence of push notifications about your newest product. You can tease the product in the first two notification campaigns and lead your subscribers to a sign up page so they can receive an email or an alert when the product drops. In your third notification, you can announce the new product. This way, you can make the most of your product launch and reap higher revenue.

4. Boost repeat purchases

Your existing customer base is a goldmine. Invesp CRO found that your existing customers are likely to spend 31% more on your online store as compared to new prospects. This means that you need to send promotions created just for this segment of your audience.

Send web push notifications about special discounts and new collections to the audience segment that has purchased from you at least once. With PushOwl, this segment is called ‘Identified Customers’. Read more about Segmentation.

5. Turn holidays and events into content for your promotions

Come Christmas time and you’re sure to see store revenue skyrocketing. From gifting close family to getting the perfect outfit for themselves, holidays and events give shoppers a stronger reason to shop. This is why it’s crucial to roll up your sleeves and take full advantage of holiday seasons.

Set up collections that feature products that are relevant to the holiday that you are promoting. Send push campaigns linking to this collection. You can even sweeten the deal with a discount code or free shipping.

Read more about the different campaigns that you can send with web push notifications.

Automate Your Push Marketing

Automation tools have revolutionized the scope of marketing your online store. According to Invesp CRO, marketing automation has increased sales revenue by 47%. By automating your promotions, you can send highly targeted and personalized promotions to your audience that caters to their very specific needs. This, in turn, increases your engagement rates and increases the revenue that your marketing efforts generate.

Set up automations within your push notification strategy to maximize the impact of this marketing channel. You can start with these five popular automations:

1. Abandoned Cart Reminders

Cart abandonment is every merchant’s biggest nightmare. For every $1000 of sales, you are losing out on $2300 in abandoned carts. By setting up automated cart recovery, you can easily recapture this segment of shoppers and convert them into purchases.

Set up a sequence of 3 abandoned cart reminders with PushOwl to remind and bring back your cart abandoners. Some Shopify stores provide a discount on their third reminder to entice the shopper to complete checkout while other stores experiment with the copy to persuade the shopper. Read about these tactics to improve your cart recovery rate.

2. Shopify Flow

Want to send transactional push notifications or automate your promotions about new product launches on your Shopify store? Shopify Flow has web push workflows that allow you to set up specific workflows that run when the customer triggers different activities. You can either build your own workflow based on your conditions or pick from pre-existing workflows. The templatized workflows for web push notifications include sending messages to your customer about their order status, incentivizing repeat customers and even promoting your latest product.

Learn how you can use Shopify Flow with PushOwl to automate how you communicate with your shoppers.

3. Back in Stock Alert

Products going out of stock is unavoidable. What you can avoid is losing a customer because of this unavailability. Instead of a shopper landing on a product they are eager to buy and leaving your store because it’s out of stock, you can give them the option to subscribe to be alerted when the product is back in stock. This way, when the product is back in stock, your interested shopper(s) receive a push notification and allow you to convert that interest into a purchase.

Enable Back-in-Stock Alerts on your PushOwl dashboard. You can either set up a flyout widget through PushOwl or power this automation by integrating with the ‘Now Back in Stock’ app. With this integration, you can give your shoppers the option to opt in with their preferred communication method— email, push notification or SMS.

4. Price Drop Alert

Have you ever gone to a store looking for a particular product only to find that it’s too expensive for your budget? It’s not just you— your shopper is likely to have these moments too. It’s important that you don’t lose out on this potential customer because their expectations don’t match your price tag. But, how can you keep them from leaving? It’s a highly common Shopify marketing strategy— Price Drop Alerts.

When you set up Price Drop Alerts, you allow a subscriber to opt in to be alerted about the price drop of a product that they intend to purchase. This lets you understand what your shoppers are expecting from you. When the price is reduced, your subscriber receives an automated push notification, allowing them to purchase the product they were keen on and successfully converting the interest into a purchase.

You can set up a flyout widget to allow shoppers to subscribe and even customize the notification’s copy to suit your brand tone. Read more about this automation on our helpdesk.

5. On-site behaviour based push notifications

Relevant, trigger-based promotions see a higher impact on your conversions over generalised promotions. Your subscribers will respond more positively to your notification about their browsing history rather than with a promotion about a new collection. This is why behaviour based push notifications are a conversion machine.

PushOwl integrates with Fera.ai to allow you to send highly personalized messages while your visitor is browsing your store. These relevant promotions can either be a discount after having purchased from you a few times or a reminder that your store has more products similar to what the shopper previously browsed.

For instance, here’s an on-site push notification sent to a shopper who was looking for white T-shirts:

Web push notifications are slowly becoming one of the most high ROI Shopify marketing strategies in the book and if done right, can ensure lower abandoned cart rates and massive revenue! We hope this guide has equipped you to run stellar push campaigns and grow your customer base effortlessly.

. . .

Asiya Nayeem is a content marketer at PushOwl. She’s usually busy worrying about cart abandonment or juggling fictional ideas in her head.

Being in the eCommerce industry means that you are also in the list building business.

You already know that having an effective email list can substantially increase your business revenue.

What you may not know, is that building a Facebook messenger list which you can use for promoting your brand and your products, is a great untapped opportunity that you should definitely consider and take advantage for your eCommerce brand.

Facebook marketing messages sees some great open rates anywhere between 80-90% with 20-30% click-through rates (CTR) on average.

If you are familiar with the current email marketing state in terms of analytics, I guess you are already amazed with the data mentioned before.

Now that I (hopefully) convinced you about the importance of building a Facebook messenger list, let me give you 5 tips that will help you do so.

1. On-site Facebook messenger chat

Adding a live chat functionality to your online store can make you a little bit nervous and it’s completely understandable.

Some planning and smart tactics that I will share with you can turn the live chat into a powerful new stream of subscribers for your Facebook messenger list.

What is really cool about the live chat functionality is that whenever a visitor sends you a message, they are instantly subscribed to your list.

New subscribers are looking for you on autopilot! That’s great, isn’t it?

Regarding the smart tactics that I mentioned before:

• There is no need to have the live chat available 24/7, you can easily enable it during the most peak hours of your website and when you will be able to provide customer service.
• You can also customize how the live chat will look like based on your brand’s aesthetics so it will perfectly fit with your overall store design. Take for instance this Facebook messenger live chat design from Gunas, using Flashchat.
• Last, by using the live chat feature you will be able to identify which questions are asked the most and hence update your FAQs or shipping/refund/return policies.

2. Add to cart widget on your product page

You may have already seen this widget below the add to cart button on other online stores:

Or a simpler version like this one:

This is probably the most powerful way to increase the subscribers of your Facebook Messenger list.

A pro tip here is that the widget will perform much better in case you are able to offer some additional discount as an incentive.

Even if it’s an extra 5%, don’t think that it’s not that good of an incentive. Visitors will subscribe to claim their additional discount, it’s already tested believe me!

3. Add to cart popup

Another great tool which you can use to increase your Facebook messenger subscribers on autopilot is the Add to cart popup.

It will look like the one below and it’s a perfect tool to utilize for subscribing your frequent shoppers to your Facebook messenger list.

Soon enough, you will have a substantial messenger list to promote your products with no additional effort.

The beauty of all the tools mentioned already is that they only utilize your existing traffic with no additional effort or resources required by you.

It is literally building a Facebook messenger list on autopilot.

4. Collecting emails and Facebook Messenger subscribers simultaneously

I guess that you already do have a popup used to collect emails from your existing traffic.

What if I told you that you can combine efforts and with the same popup that you are currently using for collecting emails you could also collect Facebook messenger subscribers.

If you use Privy and enable the integration with Flashchat then yes, this is absolutely possible and your popup will look like this.

Of course, the popup is fully customizable according to your needs.

Additionally, what’s pretty handy with this feature is that ONLY visitors who are already logged into their Facebook profile will be able to see the Facebook messenger subscribe option.

Otherwise, they will only see your regular popup asking for just their email.

This feature is pretty cool, in terms of conversion rates as users usually do avoid additional hassles and thus they would most likely bounce from logging into their Facebook profile which would lead to also lose the email lead.

5. Facebook Send Message Campaigns

Ok, now that we’ve covered all the free available tools which will help you increase your Facebook messenger subscribers, let me give you another pro tip which requires some additional resources.

It is called Facebook “send message” campaigns.

Even though Facebook is a gigantic advertising platform used from most of the online marketers, for some reason send message campaigns are underutilized.

Don’t make the same mistake with the majority of online entrepreneurs.

Send message campaigns can be powerful if executed properly.

Here’s a good example of a send message campaign. If you clicked the call to action button of this ad, you would be redirected to your messenger and asked to send a message to the page. Once you sent a message to the page you would be automatically added to its Facebook messenger list.

Some ways to incentivize Facebook users click this type of ad and send you a message would be:

• Running a giveaway campaign where you ask users to send you an “Interested” message for participating.
• You can create a lead magnet and use it to attract users.
• You can share an exclusive discount code and have them sent you a message in order to claim it.

These are some of the ways you can use to leverage Facebook send message campaigns for building up your Facebook messenger list.

You can definitely mix things up though and try other tactics as well, I trust your creativity 🙂

So, are you ready to step up your Facebook messenger marketing game and be serious about building up your list?

Facebook messenger marketing is an untapped opportunity with great potential for your online store. All you have to do is think strategically about building up your Facebook messenger list and utilizing with the proper way this list.

It’s time to utilize Facebook Messenger Marketing.

Let’s start building your Facebook messenger list on autopilot using Flashchat.

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About the author

Vaios Gkitsas is the Founder & CEO of Flashchat, a Shopify app that allows you to convert your store visitors & your social audience into paying customers using Automated Messenger Conversations.

Connect with him on LinkedIn.

Today, it’s getting tougher to turn online shoppers into customers. They want to be able to probe all their options before they even make the decision to subscribe to one’s newsletter – let alone make a purchase. One of the most used and most effective strategies being used to grab this shopper’s attention being, a popup. While that becomes easier to implement with apps like WooHoo, what are the eCommerce metrics that really define its success?

eCommerce metrics to track for your popup

Impressions 

The number of times your popup is seen by a shopper that visits your site. This is important because if the shopper doesn’t see the popup, they won’t know what you’re trying to get their attention to or the offer you’re wanting to make them. So tracking impressions is a must!

Time on popup

You could be getting a lot of impressions. But what point is it of if the shopper doesn’t read the message and closes the popup? You wouldn’t drive any conversions at all! That is why it is important to track the time your shoppers spend on the popup – for how long they are looking at it to gauge if they are paying attention to the message. You can do this using the Google Tag Manager. Read this guide.

Hits 

The number of shoppers who convert on the popup. The conversion goal here could be different for different stores. For instance, your goal could be to turn more shoppers into subscribers or get them to follow you on social media. This is similar to the engagement rate your popup gets.

Apps like WooHoo make this easy for you to track with a real-time analytics dashboard to measure your popup success.

Click-through rate (CTR) 

The CTR refers to the number of clicks you receive on the popup as per the number of impressions made on the shoppers. This is one of the important eCommerce metrics to track because if your click-through is low, there is a high chance your offer isn’t good enough or your message isn’t clear enough for the shopper to convert.

Desktop shoppers 

The number of shoppers who are using the desktop to access your store and have seen or been targeted by the popup.

Mobile shoppers 

The number of shoppers who are using mobile devices to access your store or browse your products, and have seen the popup.

Revenue 

Now one of the most important eCommerce metrics – the revenue. Every conversion optimization tactic you put in place is targeted at increasing your sales. Therefore, it is important to measure the revenue that your popup generates for your store. This can be calculated by taking into account the number of hits, the number of times the coupon is used and the number of sales successfully made.

How to improve your popup conversion rate

While popups are an effective way of grabbing a shopper’s attention, their performance varies from store to store. For one store it may be able to drive a lot of subscribers, for another it may drive more sales and for another, it might just reduce their bounce rate.

But there are a few things you can do to improve the eCommerce metrics for your popup.

1. Ensure your offer is crystal clear 

The number one goal for the shopper is to make sure your offer is crystal clear. The shopper should be able to understand instantly what value you’re promising to them. Using simple copy and formatting, make sure your offer stands out. For instance, if you’re offering a discount for completing an action, it should be seen in seconds after the popup impression is made.

2. Have a clear call to action on the popup 

Be it in terms of what you want the shopper to do after seeing the popup or how you design the popup, make sure the call to action is clear. Use clear copy to nudge an action from the shopper. While getting creative with your button copy is great, the high-converting popups use simple text that tells the shopper what to do – buy now, subscribe now, wishlist now, explore now, etc.

3. Time your popup well 

Imagine a shopper landing on the store and seeing the popup without knowing what it sells. They won’t convert. Similarly, what if the popup triggers too late and the shopper has already found an alternative to your products? That’s why the timing of your popup needs to take into account the behavior of the shoppers visiting the store and the nature of the popup.

For instance, if it is a welcome discount, the popup should be shown as soon as the store loads for them. If it’s a cart recovery discount, it could be triggered on exit intent. If it is to let the shoppers know of ongoing deals, you could trigger the popup after the shopper has spent a defined amount of time on the site or after they have visited a certain number of product pages.

4. Gamify the popup interaction 

Popups can get boring. Imagine the number of stores that have the typical email popups where a discount coupon is offered in turn of an email address. Now imagine the number of times an online shopper has seen it. Using gamification, you can improve a shopper’s on-site experience and boost your engagement rate as well.

Ikonick used this tactic and grew their email list 10x faster. Read all about it here.

5. Optimize your popup strategy continually 

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to using popups. Similarly, there is no one popup strategy that will help you convert the different types of shoppers that come to your store. That’s why you need to continually measure the above eCommerce metrics and optimize your strategy for better results.

Ready to create a high-converting popup for your store? 

Gamify your popups with WooHoo.