Last Tuesday (Dec. 13, 2016), the annual December edition of Online Tuesday took place again: The Floor is Yours. At De Nieuwe Liefde in Amsterdam, nine startups were given five minutes each to convince three judges and the (home) audience of their product or service. At the end of the evening, our colleague Jorrin Quest was named winner by the jury with his startup Smart Notifications.

And the winner is...

Although the level of pitches this year was incredibly high, the judges agreed that there was only one presentation that met all the criteria. Creator and developer Jorrin Quest describes Smart Notifications as a tool that uses machine learning to display conversion-enhancing notifications on Web sites. The development of Smart Notifications began at the end of the summer last year with a proof of concept for Van der Valk. With the support of Online Dialogue and after a successful first campaign, Jorrin started designing and building the tool for his start-up early this year. Current clients of Smart Notifications include Travix (Cheaptickets, Vliegwinkel.nl) and Van der Valk Exclusive Hotels.

Smart Notifications

Many websites contain bottlenecks where visitors get stuck and thus stand in the way of a possible conversion. At such a moment it is very important to guide or even seduce the visitor to the next step in the buying process. Smart Notifications are often just that final push that turns a visitor into a customer. Second, Smart Notifications allows companies to highlight their unique qualities and services. Users of the tool can write their own notifications or choose from industry-specific examples written by consumer psychologists. The specially developed bandit algorithm automatically selects the best converting message for a particular customer at a specific time.

A simple way to automatically increase your conversion rate

The format of a notification that appears at a certain point on the screen ensures that the visitor is distracted and immediately has all his attention on the message. This allows you to inform visitors about your unique selling point in a simple but effective way. The bandit algorithm also ensures that your conversion rate is automatically optimized during the campaign. In the first phase of a campaign, the algorithm randomly displays the notifications and tests their performance. The best-performing messages are then automatically selected more and more often. In this way, the algorithm can immediately respond to changes in contextual factors and deploy other messages where necessary.

Work is currently underway to extend Smart Notifications' algorithm to include more segments and contextual factors in qualifying messages. The beta version of the tool is now available on subscription. Register by Dec. 31 and you will receive free access to the tool in January.