What are notifications good at?
A notification is the company communicating with you while you are not using it. Push notifications go to people, not devices. It is a great tool when used effectively to acquire and retain customers and build deeper engagement.
Notifications are also effective at:
- Engagement: Getting someone to use your product. It can be abused if it has a short-term engagement goal. For example: “Forget the bouquet–send Mom BLING. Give Draw Something! All new words just added!”
- Transaction: Something happened in the system that you as a user expect to be made aware of. For example: “Your order is on its way”, or “House of Cards Season 2 is now on Netflix!”
- Communication: An actual person is trying to communicate with you in some way.
Quality and personalization
Different people will have different preferences for what they want to see and what feels appropriate. If you have highly quality, personalized notifications, where interaction is high, you could send a lot. One example is a chat app.
Moments to remember about notifications
1. Too many notifications
The most common mistake is sending your users more notifications than they can handle. Too many direct conversations with users may lead to “notification overkill” and may result in users either tuning out mentally or opting-out altogether.
Understand your audience, their lifestyles and their needs and figure out the frequency of notifications that you will send out.
2. Push the value
When user start using your app she don’t mind getting notifications as long as they carry enough “value-for-interruption,” meaning they are useful and interesting enough to her. Personalized content that inspires and delights is a critical component.
3. Know when to stop
Tailoring your notifications to your users isn’t just about what you say, it’s about when you say it.
4. Test, test, test
A/B testing can be valid in push notifications. But unlike an A/B test of a change in the design of your site, testing messaging notification requires speed and determination.
5. Establish a Messaging Strategy
The best way to establish an effective mobile app messaging strategy is to use different message types — push notifications, email, in-app notifications, and news feed messaging.
Diversify your messaging — your messages should work together in perfect harmony to create a great user experience.
Conclusion
Notification systems are complex but powerful tools that products can leverage. There is so much opportunities to be realized.
This an example of how notifications would look in the Etsy app.
