How to Setup Push Notifications in Platformly

What are Push Notifications?

Push Notifications are clickable pop-up messages that appear on your users' browser irrespective of what webpage they are on. They are a communication channel that allows you to convey messages, including special offers, to your audience directly.

Note that Platformly's Push Notifications work on all popular Web browsers (except Safari) on desktop and laptop computers. They are currently not available on mobile devices like smartphone and tablets.

How to Setup Push Notifications in Platformly?

Step 1 - Configure & Activate Push Notifications

Click on your profile picture at the top right of the members area. Then, click on Setup.



In the Projects tab, click on the 3-dot icon on the right of the Project in which you want to enable Push Notifications. Then select Push Notifications. You will then be taken to the Activate Push Notification window where you can setup, activate or pause Push Notifications for the Project you selected.



Under the Push Notification Popup Settings, you can configure the default pop-up that will be shown to visitors when they come to your site. You can enter the text you want to be displayed, upload a logo and select the colors of the display buttons. On the right hand side, you will see a preview of your Push Notification pop-up.



Under the Side Bar Popup Settings, you can enter the text you want displayed on the side bar pop-up as well as select the color of the side bar.



Under the Push Notification Options, you can setup when you want your pop-up to show and set a cookie duration. You have 3 choices:

Delay after a set amount of time - e.g. delay after 10 seconds
Scroll after a set percentage - e.g. scroll after 25% of the page
Manually on click

For Cookie Duration, this is where you can set the number of days for the pop-up to show again for your users, after they closed the pop-up.



Under Preview Rules, you can set up the Domain and Page Rules where you want the pop-up to show. You can set it up to show:

When the domain name matches the Domain or Page name you entered;
When domain name doesn't match the Domain or Page name you entered;
Any Domain where Project Code is installed; or
All Pages



Once you are happy with the settings of your Push Notifications, click on Save Settings and the system will generate the code that you will need to embed in your site or page, as well as the file that you need to download and then upload to your server.

Don't skip this step, otherwise your Push Notifications will not work!

Step 2 - Create a Push Notification Message

Select the Project you want to create a Push Notification for, then select Messages from the menu bar, Push Notifications and Save Push Notification.



Then, simply fill out the form:

Notification Name - This is for internal use only.
Notification Title - Maximum of 50 characters allowed.
Notification Message - Maximum of 135 characters allowed. You can personalize the message by clicking on the green icon on top of the text box.
Notification URL - This is the URL that users will be directed to when they click on the notification. Note you can connect this to a tracking link if you have created one using Platformly so you can also see how it performs. Simply click on the link icon above the text box and select the tracking link from the list of tracking links that you have created. You can read more about how to set up tracking links with Platformly here.
Notification Icon Image - Up to 2 MB
Test Notification - Click on this button to test your notification. Your Web browser will ask you whether or not you want to allow Push Notifications, if you have not already done so before.





If you are happy with the notification, click on Save Notification and the notification will be saved to your Messages & Stats section, under the Push Notifications tab, where you can view and edit the notification in the future.

Step 3 - Send a Push Notification

To send a Push Notification, open the Messages menu and go to Push Notifications again. This time, click on Send Push Broadcast and then select Send an Existing Notification.



Select the Push Notification you want to broadcast from the list of those that you saved previously and the system will load the message for you to check.



On Step 3 of the form, Send this Broadcast to the Following Contacts, there are 3 options to filter out the contacts for broadcast:

Known Contacts - Here you can select the segments and tags you want to target from your contact list. If you already have a group template, you can select it rather than picking your contacts from segments and tags.
Unknown Contacts - This will send the Push Notification to all Subscribers for this Project, that are not in your Contacts.
All Contacts - This will send the Push Notification to all Subscribers in this Project.



On Step 7 of the form, you have the choice between sending the broadcast immediately, or scheduling it at a later time. If you choose the latter, you can select a date and time. You can even choose to send the broadcast at a specific time, in the user's time zone.



Then, click on the Test Notification button again, to make sure everything is fine. Finally, simply save and click send/schedule, or send/schedule without saving.

That's it! Users who allowed you to send them Push Notifications will receive the notification, irrespective of the website they visit.

Note that if the receiver doesn't have their Web browser open at the date and time you selected, the notification will appear the next time they open the browser. The expiration time for the notification is set at 28 days by default.

You can see who subscribed to your Push Notifications in the CRM section, under the Push Notifications tab, as shown below:



From this section, you can see tokens, as well as delete them, if you want someone in particular to stop receiving Push Notifications from you.

Updated on: 17/06/2021