diff --git a/changedetectionio/content_fetchers/requests.py b/changedetectionio/content_fetchers/requests.py
index 5e984c5e..2e952c9c 100644
--- a/changedetectionio/content_fetchers/requests.py
+++ b/changedetectionio/content_fetchers/requests.py
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ class fetcher(Fetcher):
             session.mount('file://', FileAdapter())
 
         r = session.request(method=request_method,
-                            data=request_body,
+                            data=request_body.encode('utf-8') if type(request_body) is str else request_body,
                             url=url,
                             headers=request_headers,
                             timeout=timeout,
diff --git a/changedetectionio/notification.py b/changedetectionio/notification.py
index 97061994..d685ab1d 100644
--- a/changedetectionio/notification.py
+++ b/changedetectionio/notification.py
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ def apprise_custom_api_call_wrapper(body, title, notify_type, *args, **kwargs):
 
     r(results.get('url'),
       auth=auth,
-      data=body,
+      data=body.encode('utf-8') if type(body) is str else body,
       headers=headers,
       params=params
       )