Does 'Push' (or browser notifications) Hurt my site??

It's a great question; one that I personally get multiple times per week. The answer is interesting. I won't make you read until the end, the answer is NO. It doesn't hurt, at least not now... web push has been around enough years to become quite accepted across the affiliate industry, publisher and advertiser sites alike, as well as eCommerce.

There was a time, probably late 90s, when I was still in high school and driving around listening to Nirvana and Collective Soul, when asking for someone's email address on a website would've seemed taboo and hurt core conversions. Obviously over time the email ask didn't just normalize, but it's the most basic thing we build into every website imaginable now. That took a few years, but once that line was crossed anyone not asking for email addresses is in the stone age and would be literally throwing money in the trash daily.

That is where we are at with Browser notifications today, webpush is arguably the most underutilized technology out there - but users are quite accustomed to seeing the browser opt-in. After all, its the same box that the browser uses to ask for your location. Behaviorally people have been used to seeing this opt-in for years now, it not only doesn't take away anything with your site's performance, but because webpush is anonymous by nature, on average you'll see 4-6x the amount of push opt-ins as you would emails provided.

Let me be candid and put it to you this way... if your competition isn't collecting browser notification users yet, they are about to... and they'll trump engagement with the users you wish you could get messages in front of.

Starting to build a webpush list is just the beginning, after these users say yes the options to increase your core conversions, registrations, purchases, etc are endless and majorly effective.

If you're connected with me here on Linkedin I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you have, just shoot me a message & know that the only stupid questions are the ones never asked.

- Jody