Let’s say you’ve just created an excellent online course. It’s interactive and engaging, and everything is ready to get new students and sell a great learning experience.

Or maybe you haven’t picked the right online course platform or made your course yet. At some point, you’ll have to write a course description. And it better be one that makes people want to take your online course.

Writing a course description can be tricky. Often, you’ll have a limited number of words to convince your audience. And you also have to explain what your course will teach them at the same time!

The answer is easy though: The best way to write your course description is by adopting already successful course description examples. 

In this piece, we’ll:

• Outline what a course description is and how to write one.
• Describe how to nail the tone of your course description.
• Offer course description templates and examples you can use right away.

Once you learn how to write a great course description, you can create a course description template for all your courses. This will make the process even easier in the future! 

Let’s get started.

What Is a Course Description?

A course description is a summary of what students will learn from following an online course. A good course description comes in a few variant lengths, to use in different channels it is published. A course description has three main goals:

• Attract the attention of your student/participant.
• Explain who the course is for. 
• Describing what’s in there and how you’ll teach the course.

Your course description is always a deciding factor in whether they sign up for your course. So focus your course description on the points that matter most to your potential customers. 

How to write a Course Description

There is a deceivingly simple process for writing a killer course description:

1. Write down your course outline
2. Nail tone and structure
3. Describe your ideal audience (who the course is for)
4. Spotlight the progress your students will make
5. Special attention to benefits

It definitely helps if you have some inspiring course description examples, that fit with the way you’d like your training to feel. 

How to Write a Course Description Based on an Outline

The best way to create your course description is from a course outline. Your course outline is a list of your course content section by section. It can be as simple or as detailed as you like. 

The more detailed your course outline, the easier it is to create a course description template. A snappy outline has all the important points of your course. Use it to pull the main topics for your course description sample. 

Here’s part of a course outline example.
Feel free to use this when you’re thinking about how to write your course outline:

When you have your outline detailed, you can create a course description of any length. One of the biggest challenges in writing a good course description is attracting and informing your right audience in the space you have.

For example:

• In a big list of courses, you might only have the title and three short lines of text.
• In a syllabus, you’d have two paragraphs.
• On a landing page and on your own site, you have carte blanche to write and format your course description as you want.  

If you’re selling online courses via a course marketplace, you are at the mercy of the MOOC, or massive open online course platform. Udemy, for example, requires 200 words minimum to meet their course description templates. You have more freedom hosting your content on an online course platform like Teachery.

So how to create a course description that will work in all contexts? Boil down the most critical information, and create different formats for each kind. You can start by defining the tone of your course description.

Here is a course description example that you could write from the above outline:

In Digital Agility, you’ll learn key digital marketing fundamentals that will empower you to create your own digital strategy regardless of what you sell. By the end of the course, you will understand SEO, and how to implement your own keyword research to reach the first page of Google. 

It is a snippet, but a good example of how elements from your outline create a great course description. 

Get the Tone and Structure right (With Course Description Examples)

The tone and structure of your course description make the difference in whether customers will sign up for your course. Look at course description templates for the best ways to write yours. There are a few different things you’ll need to include:

Describe the Content of the Course
Start by describing the content that you’ll cover in the course.

Who is this course for?
When you’re creating your online course description, it has to be clear who you created the course for. A course description must cover:

• If it is a beginner or advanced course.
• If you need prior knowledge or prerequisites. 
• How this course will solve certain problems your audience might have. 

When your ideal student reads your course description, they should know it’s the right course for them. There’s nothing worse than signing up for a course that’s for a beginner when you’re advanced, and vice-versa.

Use a Conversational Tone
Look at other course description examples that are like your course. What is the tone they use for their course descriptions?

In certain catalogs, you’ll find more formal texts. But for most purposes, a conversational tone is the way to go. Keep it approachable and accessible. Don’t refer to your customers as “students or participants” in the third person. Use the second person (eg “you”) and write with a more human touch. This will make it easy for them to imagine themselves in your course or training. Here are two online course description examples: 

Formal (not so appealing):
“In this course, participants will become proficient in methodologies of using digital marketing strategies. They will examine and practice strategies found in typical employment opportunities of the digital era, and create their own brand marketing strategies for evaluation throughout this course.”

Conversational (much better): 
“In this course, you’ll learn key digital marketing strategies and practical application of it.  We’ll go through 5 very successful examples and unpack how you can use their tactics yourself. By the end of this course, you’ll know how to plan, implement, and execute a digital marketing strategy from start to finish. And will be applying it to your own strategy in this course.”

Which course would you rather sign up for? Both descriptions said the same thing. By being more conversational, you open up your course description. Conversational tones make it more accessible to a wider audience. 

Spotlight participants’ progress

Progress is an important part of any educational experience. By adding details about progress measurement your course gets an instant boost in trust. Here’s how the online course platform Thinkific displays student progress for different courses.

How will you measure that progress?  Will your course offer a certificate or some sort of incentive for completion? Will completing it unlock a more advanced and detailed course in the future?

Look at other sample course description examples and see how they benchmark progress. If your course is prestigious, a certificate may be the best incentive. If not, you may have to focus on the practical benefits of what your customers will be able to achieve with your course.

Course benchmarks you can add:

• A certificate of completion (this will be more powerful the more authority you have on the topic). 
• An actual letter or numbered grades for participation or assignments.  
• An exam that measures if a participant has learned what’s most important in the course.

Focus on the Benefits, Avoid Negativity

All courses exist to benefit the students in some way, so how does yours do that? Your course description is how you’ll sell your course. Make sure it highlights exactly how it’ll improve your customers’ lives. 

It’s important to avoid negative sales tactics in your course description. You can use FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) when you’re writing promotional material. But in your course description, focus on the benefits that you’ve already outlined in your course description.

Don’t tell them what they’d lose by skipping this course, focus on what they gain by completing it. Using positive reinforcement is more powerful and will lead to more sales.

For example, if you feel tempted to use a negative consequence, think of a way to turn it into a positive benefit. Here are a few common examples you can use:

How to Write a Long-Form Course Description for a Syllabus 

If you want to write a Long-Form Course Description look no further than syllabus writing best practices. You’ll want to write a course description for the beginning of the syllabus that gives your customers:

• A general overview of the course. 
• The expectations for course work. 
• The benchmarks they’ll need to hit to measure their success. 

A course description in a syllabus is typically more long-form. But you don’t need to be exhaustive and mention all the content of your course. Optimize your layout to prioritize the most important information first. 

Here’s a great training course description template and breakdown for a syllabus:

• Intro: Start with a short introduction, about 2-3 sentences. Provide a general summary of what your course is about. 
• Subtitle: When you have a longer course description, use formatting to attract interest. Use a subtitle that is not your catchy course title, but a secondary title attracts attention. Make it actionable and snappy. 
• Short bullet list: Next, outline what your customers can expect to learn. You want your longer course description to be skimmable. Use this part to highlight the benefits of your course. 
• Context: Next, include a short paragraph that includes the context around your course. Why is it unique? What’s the history of creating this course? How is it relevant? Try to include any real-life examples. Short teasers can keep your customer interested. 
• Methodology: Include a short paragraph that outlines how you’ll teach the course.  Include how your customers’ progress will be measured. You should mention the level of interactivity they can expect, and so on. 

This format course description sample also works for online course platforms. It’s also well-adapted to independent landing pages. Equip your customers with more information. Make the most important aspects scannable. It will be easier to convince customers to take your course. 

Start with this course description template and the work forward. Create smaller, more brief descriptions as you need them. This way,  you can always prioritize the information that’s most important. 

7 Course Description Examples to Steal

1. Short-form formal:

Art History 101: A critical view of art within a historical context; the impacts of war and economy on art; a guide through different ages of art; artistic concepts as a means of expression.

Note how this course description example explains exactly what customers can expect. It covers quite a bit of ground in a mere 34 words. Cover the most ground possible, even if you have a small amount of space for your course description. 

2. Short-form informal:

Art History 101: Learn the historical context behind well-known and prolific art pieces; better understand how war and the economy impact artistic expression, and learn to correctly identify the age of different art pieces. 

This course description example achieves the same things as the formal version. It uses more of an approachable and conversational tone. This makes your course seem more accessible for your potential customers. 

3. Mid-length formal:

Social Media Marketing: This course will cover key concepts to marketing using a variety of social media networks. Participants will learn how to create, plan, and execute a social media marketing strategy for the purposes of promotion. By the end of this course, participants will understand which engagement metrics to follow, how to cultivate an engaged social following, and how to appropriately curate content and engage with followers on social platforms. 

A mid-length course description example allows you to give more context for your course, while still highlighting the most important aspects. 

4. Mid-length informal:

Social Media Marketing: In this course, you’ll learn key concepts for using a variety of social media networks successfully. You’ll learn how to create a social media marketing strategy, and then how to use that strategy to promote your brand. By the end of the course, you’ll know exactly which metrics matter the most, how to organically earn new followers, and how to create and repurpose content for your social accounts. 

The mid-length format is an ideal example of a course description. You have the space to add more value than you’ll bring to your potential customers. 

5. Long form formal:

Digital Agility: Introduction to Digital Marketing

Digital Agility will cover the fundamentals of digital marketing and equip participants with the skills necessary to completely implement a digital strategy. Participants will be introduced to critical strategies and practical skills necessary to create and execute a full digital marketing plan. 

Learn Practical Digital Marketing Skills Fit for the Industry

In this course, participants will learn:

• How to strategize with digital marketing from the base concept of a company or service, across a variety of industries. 
• How to perform accurate keyword research, and implement keywords into content across different digital platforms. 
• How to create a content marketing strategy that accompanies search engine optimization research. 
• How to appropriately use social networks to promote a brand, and how to incorporate socials into a digital strategy. 
• How to build an email list for digital marketing, and how to use email to earn more conversions. 

Benefits Participants Can Expect from this Course

Marketing courses focus on brand theory built on a foundation of traditional marketing. While brand theory is relevant for understanding marketing basics, the fiber of marketing has changed in the digital age. With digital formats and channels taking prominence in the past decade, traditional tactics are ill-adapted to today’s practical marketing needs. This course aims to instruct participants in practical applications of digital marketing strategies that can be applied immediately. 

How Participants Skills Will Be Assessed

This course will be three hours long, with half the course period dedicated to lecture. The second half of the course will be dedicated to practical application of the skills learned in class. Participants will be assigned to groups and maintain the group format for the duration of instruction. Assessment will be based on projects completed within these groups on a weekly basis. At the end of the course, participants will be expected to present a final, cohesive digital marketing strategy that compiles the totality of all projects completed throughout the semester. 

The long-form course description example gives you the freedom to dive deeper into the context of your course and how your customers’ success will be measured. 

6. Long form informal:

Digital Agility: Introduction to Digital Marketing

Digital Agility aims to cover the fundamentals of digital marketing and will equip you with the skills you need to put your own digital strategy in place. You’ll be introduced to a variety of different critical strategies necessary for basic digital marketing comprehension. 

Learn Practical Digital Marketing Skills You’ll Really Use

You will learn:

• How to begin strategizing with digital marketing in-mind from the very concept of a company/service. 
• Why search engine optimization is critical for your strategy, and how to perform accurate keyword research. 
• The fundamentals for creating a content strategy built on that keyword research, how to create proper internal linking, and why you should try for backlinks.
• How to share the content you create across social media, create ads for your social media, and retarget ads for your customers. 
• The basics of email marketing, and how to use it to convert your customers. 

What Sets This Course Apart from Other Marketing Courses

Many marketing courses focus on theory built around traditional marketing. While those theories are still important for understanding the core goals behind marketing, in 2021, the focus has switched to digital formats. Unlike traditional marketing channels, digital marketing channels can be interconnected to create a unified, cohesive strategy. This course aims to teach you how to appropriately utilize each of these channels, with practical skills you can use immediately. 

How Your Growth Will Be Measured

The course will be three hours long, with an hour and a half dedicated to lecture. The second half of the course will be dedicated to putting your newly learned skills to practice. You’ll be split into groups and work with the same group on your collective digital strategy throughout the semester. You’ll be graded on the different weekly projects that you’ll complete to demonstrate your understanding of the skills learned in class. At the end of the course, you’ll present a final project, which will be the full demonstration of your combined digital marketing strategy that had been compiled throughout the semester. 

The informal version achieves the same things like the formal. The course description is a bit more of an informational, value-adding pitch. Using your course description as a soft-sell is fine as long as you’re not being too promotional. 

7. Course Description Template

Writing a course description can be tricky, especially if you’ve never done it before. Here’s a course description template to help you create your own. 

Short-form course description content:

[Name of Course]
[Very brief introduction; 10-15 words] 
[Main benefit participants can expect; 10-15 words] 
[How you’ll assess participants; 10-15 words]

Short-form course description template:

In [Name of course], you’ll learn [brief description of a few things participants will learn. 10-15 words]. By the end of this course, you can expect to [know something, be able to do something, etc. 10-15 words or so]. Course participants will be assessed through [grades, assignments, exams, certifications, etc].

You don’t have a lot of space to achieve your goals. The most important aspect is outlining the benefits of the course. What can your customers expect to learn?  In some cases, you might sacrifice describing the assessment for listing more benefits.

3 Real Course Description Examples for Inspiration

We collected some real course description examples so you can see how experts write their course descriptions. Below you can find examples for different lengths and styles. And from different industries.

Product Marketing Alliance

This mid-form, informal course overview from the Product Marketing Alliance. is great. It clearly describes the topic of the course in the beginning. Then, it builds trust in the visitors with the promised outcome. Also, they nailed the casual tone by not going overboard.

Sew It! Academy

Sew It! Academy went with a short, informal description for this course hosted on Thinkific. In a single sentence, they tell visitors about the length, topic, and host of the course. And they frame the promised outcome so it resonates with people who find commercial patterns confusing.

Content Marketing: Blogging for Growth

This course description clearly states the benefit and topic of the course. But the best part is how they build trust in the course by highlighting the achievements of the host. Got me hooked for sure.

Key Takeaways

A great course description is built on a foundation of best practices. Use those foundational blocks to build out the real benefits your course offers. 

By highlighting those benefits, how your course stands apart from the crowd. You’ll be able to write attractive course description samples for any medium. 

Work on the tone of your course description. Make sure it’s clear who your course was created for. Outline how you’ll assess progress for your customers. If you follow these various course description templates, you’ll have customers signing up for your course in droves.

The post How to Create an Online Course Description that Gets Sign-ups (+ Examples & Template) appeared first on Email vendor selection.

This article will help get insights into the applications of push messaging. Is it right for you to push forward? And more push marketing tips. As well as the most important criteria to consider when choosing a web push notification software.

In this article:
Should I include push notifications in my marketing strategy? (pros and cons)
How to choose a push notification software
4 ways to turn web push notifications into a great marketing strategy

What Are Effective Push Notifications?

You probably associate push notifications with the apps on your smartphone, but push notifications aren’t limited to mobile devices. Mobile notifications pop up even if a customer isn’t using the app sending a notification.

Web push notifications are similar in the way they appear to your customers. While your customer has a browser open, the notification will be shown in the lower right-hand corner of their screen.

A push message looks a little different depending on what the browser is and how you set up your push notification. Much like mobile push notifications, a web push notification can appear on your customer’s browser while they’re navigating any site. As long as a customer has opted in-in, they’ll receive your push notifications.

Here are two examples of what the push notification opt-in message looks like on Android (left) and Windows:

With the right marketing tools, you can send push notifications to any user that’s opted-in for them, regardless of whether they’re using a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. Users will see the notification whenever their browser is open, even if they’re not looking at your site.

Web push notifications allow you to engage a new lead without any contact or personal information. Web push notifications are supported by major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera), and you can configure the pop-ups that prompt users to opt-in.

All things considered, they’re one of the most flexible and cost-effective channels for any digital marketer.

Should I Implement Push Notifications into My Marketing Strategy?

If you’re considering adding push notifications to your marketing mix, it’s important to understand the pros and cons.

While you can achieve great results with web push notifications, every digital marketing campaign should take advantage of different marketing channels. No individual channel on its own can perform as well as a cohesive omnichannel marketing strategy.

The fact is, consumers are becoming ever more difficult to please, and sometimes, traditional channels are too saturated for a brand to stand out. In certain cases, customers need a more immediate message that captures their attention. Push notifications can fulfill that need when used creatively.

Push notifications are most popular in ecommerce, who primarily uses push notifications for offers and discounts. New product announcements and time-limited offers are second most popular options.

Pros: Reasons to implement push notifications

1. Instantly push out direct alerts

The most obvious advantage of push notifications compared to other channels is that they enable you to instantly alert your audience. With other channels like social media, they may not see your message until they check their social media platform (if they even see it in their feed). But push notification are allows you to send an instant message to your customers, and get the message in their browser no matter what sites they are visiting on the internet.

2. High opt-in rates

Web push notifications achieve a surprisingly high opt-in rate at roughly five to fifteen percent of total impressions, and they’re an additional starting point for a new customer relationship. Users are more likely to sign up for push notifications than they are to provide their email address or phone number, so it can be a great “in” for you to begin communicating with your customers. After, you can focus on securing that email address.

3. 12 to 15% click-through rates

In addition to their high opt-in rate, push notifications are also great for increasing click-throughs. Statistics on web push notifications show that they lead to an average click-through rate of twelve to fifteen percent, indicating that they’re extremely effective when it comes to audience engagement.

4. Cross-Platform Engagement

Push notifications work regardless of the device that’s being used. As long as your customer is using a browser, they’ll receive the notification if they’ve opted-in on that device. Your customer doesn’t need to have your site open to get your message- and it’s instant.

5. No installation required / little set-up

It usually doesn’t take much to get push notifications set up for a marketer. Typically you have a few lines of code to paste into your website or use a plugin.

6. Quick composition of push messages

Like writing up a tweet, push notifications are simple to write. With a hard character limit, you’ll have to keep it short, sweet, and to the point. Short content means it is quick and easy to compose your messages.

Considerations on Web Push Notifications

On the other hand, there are a few considerations when you start to use web push notifications.

First, keep in mind that you’re adding another channel, which usually means much more legwork for your marketing team. Regardless of how easy a channel might be, it’s still yet another channel to manage, create content for, and measure. If you’re already spread too thin, it may be better to wait until you have enough resources to add more channels.

1. Use them for relevant messages

It’s important to only send notifications for (important) messages that your audience is very likely to be interested in. Like all channels, web push notifications can also feel generic and spammy if you don’t use them correctly. Sending too many notifications will only lead more users to unsubscribe.

2. Separate opt-ins are needed cross-device

Also, if your customer is likely a cross-device shopper (as many of us are). Note that push notifications need to be opted-in on each device separately. For example, if you send a push notification to your customer that’s opted-in on mobile, they won’t see it if they’re browsing on PC.

Should your customer uninstall and reinstall their browser, you’ll need to get another opt-in for them to see your push notifications.

3. Web Push software Pricing

Push notification pricing depends on the web push software you use. There are no advertising costs or anything like that. If you use a tool that only does push notifications, you can pay as little as $15 per month depending on your needs. If you go for a marketing tool that offers more services on top of push notifications, it’s often included in the price.

There are pros and cons to both, but if you already use an email marketing automation tool, for example, check to see if that tool offers push notifications as part of their channels. It might be a great add on that won’t cost much to start using.

How to Choose a Web Push Notification Tool

With so many push notification solutions available, it can feel impossible to determine which one is right for you. Many applications seem similar, and it’s hard to know what you’ll feel comfortable with until you try it out.

That said, the push notification tool you choose can have a significant impact on your results. These are the most important factors to look for in a push notification service.

There are a variety of push notification applications that give you the tools you need to set up effective push campaigns. The ability to automate your campaigns helps you achieve better results while spending less time on tedious and repetitive tasks.

But how do you choose a good push notification software and what features should you look for? Every business has unique marketing needs, so different marketers might get more out of different solutions. Make sure to look for an application that matches your needs and budget.

1. What Triggers Can I Create?

Different solutions allow you to set up notifications in response to different triggers. Behavioral triggers give you even more flexibility when setting up campaigns. Triggers like signing up for a campaign are available with most applications.

For example, if a user has opted-in, here’s some ways they could trigger push notifications:

• Cart Abandonment, or browse abandonment site pages / category
• Signing up for a newsletter, or creating an account
• Completing a purchase (or what you determine as a conversion)
• Visiting a certain page (shipping and returns policy, pricing, confirmation page)/li>
• Searching for a certain product on your site/li>
• Selecting a certain color of a product/li>
• Spending a certain amount of time during their visit

You can also create mechanical triggers that are automatic when you need to inform a customer about a particular promotion, update, or other relevant information. Mechanical triggers are those that you set up on your own to go out at certain times automatically, and they aren’t based on your customer’s behavior. For example, if you have blog posts that go out every Monday, you would send a push notification every Monday to notify your reader.

2. How Easy is Implementation and Installation?

Web push notification tools are designed to make implementation easier, so ease of use should be one of your top priorities. The best web push applications can be installed quickly with a few lines of code, and provide support documentation to help you through the process.

They should also work with the most popular web browsers, connecting you to the largest possible audience. Not all push notification tools will work for all browsers, so be sure to check for compatibility for the browsers your customers use the most.

3. What Audience Segmentation is available?

Audience segmentation is a very effective way to target your messaging, and your push notification service should give you the opportunity to segment your audience. Check the segmentation options to see what tools you’ll have access to with each application. Segmenting by device is particularly valuable for push notification campaigns.

If you’re serious about audience segmentation, you should look for a tool that allows you to target specific pages on your site with push notifications. You’ll also want a variety of ways to divide your audience and target extremely specific segments.

For example, you can segment your push notifications in the same way you segment your emails:

• Profile data: demographics, location, any data that you have on your subscriber’s profile.
• Campaign activity: how your customers interact with your campaigns, whether or not they’ve opened or clicked a campaign, etc.
• Shopping behavior: based on the behavioral triggers we mentioned above.

On top of that, you can layer your segmentation to get ultra-precise. Say you wanted to target men looking to purchase a gift for Mother’s Day. You could lock down your campaigns by location (as the date of Mother’s Day differs between the US and Europe), then target male customers between the ages of 20-55. From there, you could add in some behavioral and campaign segments to get really targeted with your messages.

4. What Integrations Can I Use with my web push software?

If you already have an email marketing automation tool, you should find a push notification solution that works well with your existing software. You might have a marketing automation tool that already includes push notifications as a channel. If that’s the case, the integration should be native and you have no extra work other than pasting the code on your site to integrate it.

This will allow you to run campaigns seamlessly and view your entire approach at once. It’s very difficult to manage more than one marketing channel when each one is siloed off from the others.

5. What Marketing Analytics are offered?

Marketing metrics let you analyze campaign and message results and make improvements when necessary. They’re the quickest way to tell when your campaigns aren’t going as planned. Without marketing analytics, it’s hard to know when your strategies are working.

The most important statistics for push notifications are opt-ins and click-throughs, so make sure your new solution provides these data points. From there, you can A/B test different notifications and compare their results on these two key metrics.

6. Does the web push tool offer A/B testing?

With relevant metrics for your push notifications, you can begin A/B testing different copy, images, and titles to see what works best for your target audience.

Note, with any A/B test, it’s important to test one variable at a time. If you change each aspect of your push notification, you won’t know exactly which element is performing better or worse.

For example, if you have three variables to test, headline, copy, and image, you could test two versions this way:

Example A/B Test 1: we test image A vs image B in our first A/B test.

Example A/B Test 2: Say image B performed better. Then you would keep image B and test another element, like the titles in these two versions.

This would help you choose the best headline, and then you could begin the test again with winning headline for copy and images.

7. Will the Push Notifications Slow Down My Site?

A good web push notification platform shouldn’t, at least not significantly. Take a look at the code that the platform wants you to install on your site, is it a heavy, dense code?

It’s easy enough to test if you don’t know what to look for. Perform a Google Speed Test on your site before installing the push platform’s code, and then after. This will show you if the platform is significantly slowing down your site.

Note that additional code is going to affect the speed of your site, but well-optimized integration code won’t make a significant difference, and that’s what you need to look for.

8. Will I be able to import and export subscribers?

Importing and exporting push notification subscribers is slightly more complex than your run-of-the-mill .csv file when you import and export email addresses.

Unfortunately, you can only import or export push subscribers if the platform has created GCM (Google Cloud Messaging) or FCM (Firebase Developer Console) keys. Exporting a .csv file with your push subscribers isn’t going to give you much outside of analytical data.

4 Ways to Turn Web Push Notifications into a Great Marketing Strategy

#1. Announce New Products and Promotions

Email, SMS marketing, social media, and other forms of online communication makes it easy to relay information quickly. Text messages have an open rate well over 50%, yet web push notifications can be faster than any of these options, and this speed opens up new digital marketing opportunities.

More and more businesses are using push notifications to let users know about flash sales and other limited-time promotions. Anyone with an open browser will see the notification as soon as you send it, so you can bring traffic to your website almost instantaneously.

You don’t want to overdo it and be spammy, but if you’ve got a great, time-sensitive bit of information to give to your customer, a push notification may be the way to go.

• Flash sales
• Limited time offers on shipping
• Free gifts with purchase
• Birthday and anniversary discounts

The most effective marketers understand how to take full advantage of the immediacy that web push notifications offer. Using some of the occasions listed above should help jog your creative juices.

#2. Recover Lost Sales with Abandoned Cart Recovery

Abandoned cart reminders are one of the most valuable messages in digital marketing, and they lead to the highest order rate of any automation workflow. While many companies run abandoned cart workflows via email, they’re often even more powerful when combined with web push notifications.

If a subscriber doesn’t respond to your first email, for example, you can send a second message through a push notification to remind them of the item they were interested in. Leveraging multiple channels in the same campaign is a great way to improve performance across all metrics.

Above we see a push notification integrated into an abandoned cart automation workflow. Like in this example, you can use the immediacy of a push notification to bring a customer back to complete their purchase. Unlike email, which requires a customer to actually open their inbox (and be on a specific web page), push notifications can appear on any site.

Chances are, your customer has just become distracted and tabbed over to another site. A push notification is the perfect way to remind them of the purchase they were making.

Of course, follow up a push notification with an email. The email will allow you to display all the items left in the cart, if there were more than one, and give additional information you wouldn’t be able to fit into a push notification.

By combining your push notifications with email, you can use an effective one-two-punch to push your customer to complete their purchase.

With an automation workflow like this, you can measure the engagement and click through rate of each separate channel within the workflow, so you can see which channel was most effective at conversion.

Tip: combine abandoned cart push with limited time offer.
Many digital marketers add time-sensitive offers to their abandoned cart reminders, and this is another perfect application for web push notifications.

Since you know the message will appear instantly, you can send an offer with a shorter time frame compared to email marketing. Adding a sense of urgency will make users feel like they’d be missing out if they didn’t take advantage of the deal.

#3. Inform your Customer with Shipping and Order Updates

Order confirmation, shipping progress, and other quick updates are appreciated by customers. Push notifications are the perfect way to let them know of the process is going, these transactional messages are in combination with email or even replacing the traditional email completely.

Consistent updates on orders keeps them current with the latest developments. With push notifications, they can immediately be notified if an order was canceled or will be delayed in processing or shipping, making it a better customer experience.

They’re not just for bad news though. A quick confirmation that an order is on the way or an update with a delivery date is sure to be useful information for your customers.

#4. Create Personalized Offers

Personalization is one of the hottest trends in digital marketing, and users expect a personal shopping experience from their favorite brands. Your customers are much more likely to convert on a thoroughly personalized offer than on a generic message that you sent to your entire audience.

With a flexible web push notification tool, you can configure personalized offers based on past customer behavior, like the triggers we mentioned earlier. Cross-selling campaigns, for example, let existing customers know about related products they might be interested in. A quick push notification could bring them back to your site and lead to another purchase.

Make better use of your Web push notification software

Surprisingly few businesses are taking full advantage of web push notifications, but more and more are beginning to catch on. Push notifications offer a number of immediate benefits that could upgrade your digital marketing results set your brand apart from the competition.

Some push notification solutions are better than others, and it’s important to find one that provides all the tools you need to help your brand succeed. Keep these considerations in mind to identify the perfect solution for your business.

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