How can you turn your notifications into more engaging and productive ones? As an app developer, this is one thing that would often cross your mind. Let us consider some stats –

• Push notifications can improve user engagement by as much as 88%.
• 65% of passive users (those who don’t use the app for 30 days) check the app upon receiving notifications.
• App notifications can increase monetary transactions by as much as 27%.

Sounds exciting right? But before you create a notification and send en masse, consider another important statistical fact. 60% of users opt out of notifications when allowed to do so. The most obvious reason – they find it annoying and intrusive. In the worst case, such notifications can make your customers uninstall your app. There is no fixed formula for successful notifications as they are a combination of factors which you must get right. Here are some of them –

# Purpose of Notifications            
Are the stats we mentioned, your only reason behind sending notifications? If yes, then it’s a recipe for disaster. It’s similar to stock market investment because your peers are doing it without setting any particular investment goals. Your notifications must be defined by a purpose and be of users’ value. For example, a pizza delivery app might bring success to the business by sending daily notifications but a productivity tool app doing so might become annoying. Not all apps are built in the same way and hence require different strategies. And if you have no genuine purpose to send a notification, don’t send it.

# Personalize Notifications
Are you sending relevant notifications to the users? For instance, if you are the owner of an e-commerce store and send notifications regarding huge discounts on premium designer wear to a user who shops for budget clothing, there is very little chance that it would get converted into a sale. Rather personalize the notifications based on the user’s preference and activity on your store so that you have more chances of success. The moral of the story is that send less but personalized notifications as they increase engagement.

# Time the Notifications Aptly
Yes, we do live in a globalized 24/7 world but many people still sleep around the same time as their grandparents did! So if you send news alert or subscription details to them in the middle of the night, then don’t get disheartened if you lose one user by the morning!  People take only emergency calls in the middle of their sleep and don’t fancy app notifications. So, always keep the user’s local time zone in mind.

# Use All Channels
App notifications need not only be push notifications as you have various other channels at your disposal. You can try and engage users with in-app notifications, news feeds and email notifications. This allows you to run a comprehensive campaign and engage them across channels. However, avoid overdoing it as this can make your crisp message appear to be a spam.

So, the bottom line is that your app notifications are as much about your business as they are about the users who would receive them. They must be crisp and add value to the user, and they shouldn’t be annoyed when they are notified of the same. When you get this synergy and the way to engage your beloved customers, success will surely embrace you.