By Jeff Kupietzky, CEO of Jeeng
There’s been a tremendous amount of upheaval in the ad industry recently. Between Google’s plan to kill third-party cookies, and then backing off, plus new channels and platforms emerging, all competing for a piece of the pie, publishers are struggling to figure out what’s next and how they’ll survive.
Alongside these challenges, the fact that most people get their news from social channels, even though they don’t trust them, makes it hard for publishers to generate traffic. Worse yet, any traffic they do get from social platforms is referral traffic—publishers aren’t privy to the valuable user data they need to give subscribers the personalized experience they expect.
Struggling to engage readers and drive revenue, many publishers have resorted to paywalls, but this, too, is a risky tactic, as many consumers say they refuse to pay for content. They’d rather get it from a free source, even if it means seeing some ads in exchange.
They’re also short on patience. Consumers have no time or tolerance for irrelevant clutter. They want personalized experiences that feel just right for them, and they want it on their terms and timeline. Right now, all the time. It feels like an impossible task!
Push notifications are becoming one of the most effective ways to meet digital audiences’ expectations for quick, personalized, “snackable” content. With short attention spans that seem to shrink more every day, and feeling overwhelmed by information overload, audiences are increasingly seeking highly relevant, short-form content that tells them what they need to know so they can get on with their day.
Push notifications fit the bill perfectly, delivering the just-right, right now content audiences want that drives engagement. Those click-throughs ultimately drive revenue, making push notifications a powerful weapon in publishers’ battle to survive. Here’s why push is so effective for delivering snackable content:
- It’s timely. Push notifications can reach subscribers with breaking news wherever they are to drive traffic at the moment. Whether it’s a weather update, hot Hollywood gossip, or a big talent trade by their favorite team, subscribers love the immediacy that push notifications provide, and that urgency prompts them to engage.
- It’s personalized. By leveraging a push platform that can curate content for each individual subscriber based on their specific interests, push helps subscribers cut through the clutter by delivering only relevant content. Subscribers get what they need or want and don’t have to waste time sorting through stuff they don’t.
- It’s engaging. Because it’s curated, relevant content that feels like breaking news, push notifications are more engaging for readers. Unlike emails that can quickly pile up, forcing users to slog through their inbox to find ones that are actually interesting, the pop-up of a push grabs their attention immediately, which prompts them to engage and drive organic traffic to your site.
- It builds a persona. When you leverage a push platform that delivers curated content, with each click, the curation algorithm becomes smarter, further refining the content recommendations for each subscriber based on how they engaged with previous content. That means, over time, the push notifications become more relevant, further enhancing engagement.
- It’s monetizable. By partnering with sponsors, you can turn these snackable bits of content into a revenue driver. Just as you can personalize push content, you can also serve up personalized, relevant ad messages via push. And data shows that subscribers are more likely to click on ads that are personalized and timely—which means a push notification program can pay for itself, and then some.
As publishers grapple with the uncertainty around third-party cookies, they must find new ways to personalize, drive traffic to their site and grow 1:1 engagement with readers. Push notifications provide an easy-to-implement solution that helps publishers take back control of their audience relationships and cut out the middlemen, while also meeting consumers’ expectations with quick, snackable content. By adding push to their engagement arsenal, publishers can win the battle for audience attention, drive new traffic and uncover new revenue opportunities.
