App Strategy Series Pt. 1: Crafting Thoughtful Notifications

It is extremely important to be mindful of notification use. Overuse can lead to user frustration, whereas underuse can lead to disengagement. We’ve played in this space for years and have made many mistakes, learning from them and course correcting in order to get things right. We believe that mobile apps shouldn’t simply send push notifications for the sake of engaging users, because the value that users get from notifications should be sufficiently greater than the interruption that they experience. 

Keep these three essential points in mind the next time you’re planning to develop a notification strategy in order to offer an excellent customer experience:

Watch the clock

Have you ever been woken up – mid-sleep – by a ding coming from your cell phone, only to find that you can now get $3 off your next food order? From our experience, there is no offer good enough to be sent in the middle of the night. It’s important that your notification strategy considers your user’s time zones to avoid this exact issue. Notifications should be sent at the most convenient times according to the individual user.

Change it up

To keep your users engaged, we recommend utilizing different types of messaging and diversifying the messages that are coming from those channels. For example, you could utilize push notifications to promote an upcoming event, an in-app notification to share a personalized offer, or follow-up with a discount code in an email to get them back onto your app. Various types of notifications should work together in perfect harmony to create an enticing and enjoyable user experience.

Make it valuable

Notifications are easy for users to turn off. It’s better to ask for permissions in context and communicate the value that granting push notifications access will provide. Users are more likely to grant permissions if asked during a relevant task and thus are less likely to become irritated and stop using your app altogether – something you certainly don’t want.

By utilizing the three points above, you can start enhancing your customer experience and let your brand voice shine through. Remember – your user’s experience plays a crucial role in the success of your product or service – learning how to skillfully and successfully incorporate notifications is a highly valuable and underrated tool, so use them to your advantage.

Did you find this informative, but don’t quite know where to start? Contact us today and we'll help you design a seamless experience to drive customer engagement.

Be on the lookout for part two of the series, where we’ll focus on user-experience copywriting.