1. Make Notifications Relevant
Have you ever paid attention to the number of notifications you receive on a daily basis from various apps? How many of those notifications are really valuable to you? Every day, we are bombarded with useless notifications that distract us from our activities. It’s not surprising why we often delete apps that send us irrelevant notifications. At the same time, we don’t mind getting notifications as long as they valuable for us (both interesting and useful information). Thus, it’s essential to ensure that all messages provide value to the user and are worth the momentary interruption. The difference between two types of notifications can be seen in following examples. The first example is a notification delivered by Facebook. The app sends users notifications to connect to suggested people or even just to remind users to search for friends. Such notifications don’t provide any value for users and can be considered as poor attempts to direct users back into the app—spam at best.

Personalize Messages
Personalization drives engagement. The best notifications are tailored to each user. According to Leanplum, personalised messages have four times the open rate of generic messages. Personalization starts with small things such as using user’s first name in the message, but it doesn’t stop there. Mobile developers have a lot of opportunities to utilise information they have about their users to personalise messages. For example, it’s possible to deliver a special offer for your users based on information you hold.Keep Messages Short and Compelling
Strive to make the text in your notification fully readable in the notification block. Trim all the fat and focus on delivering only essential information in an easy to comprehend format.2. Time Your Notification
When it comes to push notifications, timing means a lot. If you send a message at the wrong time, you increase the risk that notification will be ignored or—in the worst case—the app associated with notification will be deleted. While this requirement seems too obvious not all developers follow it: 63 percent of marketers send push notifications at the wrong time.Don’t Send Notifications at Night
Avoid sending notifications when your user is asleep. A lot of people sleep with their smarphones and not all of them turn devices into DND mode. As a result, an ill-timed notification sent between 12 and 6 am risks waking up or disrupting a user. But even when users turn silent mode all push notifications delivered during the night might be easily ignored by users when they find a queue of messages on the phone in the morning. The first natural reaction will be to clean out the screen.Schedule Notifications for Engagement Windows
It’s essential to send notifications according to the local time zone and select the time when users are mostly engaged with mobile phones. In general, the best time to send push notification is between 7am-10am and between 6pm-10pm. But it’s always better to analyse information about users to better identify each user’s unique windows when they’re most open to notifications.Urgent Notifications
There’s one exception for two rules mentioned above: urgent notifications. Such notifications can be sent at any time. But make sure that what you call “urgent” is the same that your users call “urgent.” There’s a big difference between urgent notification that says that user can miss the flight and “urgent” notification that says that someone liked the user’s profile pic.3. Make Notifications Actionable
Avoid Sending Too Many Notifications in a Short Period of Time
Sending users more notifications than they can handle is a common mistake among many app developers. Too many notifications send in a short period of time can lead to the situation known as “notification overkill” (when a user can’t handle the information and simply skips it). Remember that mobile is all about making every message count. Thus, choose optimal frequency based on information you have about your users.Push Notification Should Direct Users to a Target Page
Notifications should lead to the specific part of an app or site (e.g a specific page with detailed information) rather just open an app or homepage. It can be really annoying when you receive an interesting notification, tap on it, and find yourself on a landing screen that doesn’t relate to the notification.4. Establish a Notification Strategy
Before sending any notifications, you should set a goal you want to reach with your notifications. For each notification that you send to your users you should be able to say what you expect people to do (e.g. sign up for service, purchase product, etc).Experiment and Test Results
How do you make sure that push notifications work for your users? Only by experimenting and testing the results! If you’re not sure what kind of message will perform best for your users, send out multiple versions using A/B testing.Evaluating the Success of Your Push Strategy
When you measure the effect of notifications track both positive (number of open rates, conversions) and negative KPIs (app uninstalls and push opt-in rates). Each metric can provide insights into your campaign performance and allow you to adjust your strategy. For example, if you have a low open rate, you may try to experiment with the message of your notifications. If you have a good open rate, but low conversions, this may indicate that some of the steps in your conversion flow are too complex for your users. One of the crucial moments ignored by many teams is that when you’re monitoring your campaigns, it’s important to take the long view. Even if you see a short-term engagement boost after sending a few notifications, this doesn’t automatically mean that you have a similar picture in a longer-term. Mobile users are very responsive to novelty and push notifications aren’t exception. This means that a short-term conversion boost might be replaced by a long-term downside for users. Thus, always monitor and adjust your push notifications based on real user behaviour.Don’t Limit Yourself with Push Notifications
Push notifications are only one channel of communication with your users. Depending on urgency and type of content, you can diversify your messaging by using email, in-app notifications, and news feed messaging. The diagram below shows when to use each channel.
Nick Babich
Fireart Studio is a design studio passionate about creating beautiful design for startups & leading brands. We pay special attention to nuances all the time to create professional while cool products that will not only meet all expectations, but exceed them.
Read Next
3 Essential Design Trends, December 2023
While we love the holidays, too much of a seasonal theme can get overwhelming. Thankfully, these design trends strike a…
10 Easy Ways to Make Money as a Web Designer
When you’re a web designer, the logical way to make money is designing websites; you can apply for a job at an agency,…
By Louise North
The 10 Most Hated Fonts of All Time
Remember when Comic Sans wasn’t the butt of the jokes? Long for the days when we actually enjoyed using the Impact…
15 Best New Fonts, November 2023
2023 is almost over, and the new fonts are still coming thick and fast. This month, we’ve found some awesome variable…
By Ben Moss
Old School Web Techniques Best Forgotten
When the web first entered the public consciousness back in the 90s, it was primarily text-based with minimal design…
By Simon Sterne
20 Best New Websites, November 2023
As the nights draw in for the Northern hemisphere, what better way to brighten your day than by soaking up some design…
30 Amazing Chrome Extensions for Designers and Developers
Searching for a tool to make cross-platform design a breeze? Desperate for an extension that helps you figure out the…
By Robert Reeve
Exciting New Tools for Designers, November 2023
We’ve got a mix of handy image helpers, useful design assets, and clever productivity tools, amongst other treats. Some…
The Dangers of Doomscrolling for Designers and How to Break Free
As a creative professional, navigating the digital realm is second nature to you. It’s normal to follow an endless…
By Louise North
From Image Adjustments to AI: Photoshop Through the Years
Remember when Merriam-Webster added Photoshop to the dictionary back in 2008? Want to learn how AI is changing design…
By Max Walton
3 Essential Design Trends, November 2023
In the season of giving thanks, we often think of comfort and tradition. These are common themes with each of our three…
30 Obsolete Technologies that will Perplex Post-2000s Kids
Remember the screech of dial-up internet? Hold fond memories of arcade machines? In this list, we’re condensing down 30…