Push Notifications People Don't Turn Off

A customer downloads your app on Friday. Before they have seen a single screen, a box asks whether the app may send them notifications. They tap “Don’t Allow” without reading it, and the most direct line you will ever have to that customer closes before it opened.

Push notifications are the feature owners ask about most when they build an app, and the one they most often waste. A notification lands on the lock screen, next to messages from family and friends. Here is how to earn it and keep it.

Why a no is hard to undo

On iPhone, and on recent versions of Android, the app has to ask before it can send anything. The phone shows its own permission box, and you do not get unlimited tries. Once someone declines, the only way back is for them to dig into their phone’s settings and switch it on by hand. Few people do.

That changes the job. The goal is not to ask early. It is to ask once, at the moment the answer is obviously yes.

Ask at the right moment

The best time to ask is right after the customer does something that a notification would help with.

• They book an appointment. Ask whether they want a reminder the day before.
• They place an order. Ask whether they want to know when it is ready.
• They register for an event. Ask whether they want word if the time or room changes.
• They save an item. Ask whether they want to hear when it comes back in stock.

In each case the reason is in front of them, and the notification is a service.

Many apps show their own short screen first, in plain language, before the phone’s permission box appears. “Want a reminder before your appointment?” with a yes and a not now. If they choose not now, you have lost nothing, because the phone’s box never appeared and you can offer again the next time it fits.

Send what they would have asked for

Every notification should pass one test: would this person be glad they got it? The ones that pass fall into four kinds.

Something they started. Booking confirmations, appointment reminders, order updates, a delivery on its way. These are expected and almost always welcome.

Something about them. A reward they have earned, a reply to their message, a document ready to sign.

Something they chose. News from a topic they follow, an event in a category they picked, a sale on the brand they asked about.

Something time-sensitive. A schedule change, a closing for weather, a last call for a class with open spots. If it would be useless tomorrow, it may belong on the lock screen today.

What does not pass: “We miss you!”, a promotion sent to every user at once, and anything that would read just as well as an email. Those belong in your email marketing, where people expect them and can read them on their own time.

Promotions are also where the stores draw a line. Apple’s App Store rules say an app may not use push for marketing unless the user has explicitly agreed to receive it, and the app must give them a way to opt out inside the app. Treat that as the floor everywhere.

Write it like a text from a person

A notification is read in a second or two, often on a locked phone. Write for that.

• Lead with the useful part. “Your table for four is ready” beats “Great news from us!”
• Be specific. A name, a time, an item. Vague notifications look like spam because most spam is vague.
• Open the right screen. Tapping a reminder should land on that appointment, not the home screen.
• Respect the clock. Send in the customer’s local time and keep marketing away from late nights and early mornings.

Let people choose, not just quit

If the only control is all or nothing, an annoyed customer picks nothing. Give them a short settings screen in the app with a switch for each kind: reminders and orders, rewards, news and events, offers. Android also lets people mute individual notification categories from the phone itself, so set those categories up to match.

Someone who turns off offers but keeps reminders is still a customer you can reach. Someone who turns off everything, or deletes the app, is not.

How often is too often

No single number fits every business. A food ordering app may send several useful updates in an hour while an order is cooking. A dental practice may send three a year. The right frequency is set by how often you have something worth saying, not by a marketing calendar.

A good rule: transactional notifications go out whenever they are needed, and anything promotional goes out less often than you think you can get away with. Write down a weekly ceiling for promotional sends and hold to it.

Measure the right thing

Taps are the number everyone watches, and they can mislead. A notification that gets a lot of taps and also drives people to switch notifications off is costing you more than it earns.

Watch these monthly:

1. Opt-in rate. Of new users, how many said yes? If it is low, look at when and how you ask.
2. Opt-outs after each send. A jump after a particular message tells you exactly what not to send again.
3. Uninstalls. Compare the weeks you send more with the weeks you send less.
4. What happens after the tap. Did the reminder reduce no-shows? Did the order update cut calls to the front desk?

The last one is what matters. Our piece on measuring what your marketing actually does applies to app messages as much as anything else.

Before your next send

• Does this person expect to hear from us about this?
• Is it specific to them, or did everyone get it?
• Does the first line say the useful part?
• Is it going out at a reasonable local hour?
• If it is promotional, did they opt in to offers?

What we do

If you are still deciding whether an app is right for you, start with should your business have its own app. If you already have one, or are about to, our mobile application development team designs, builds and launches iOS and Android apps in-house, made for the second open and not just the install. After launch, we monitor, measure and keep improving the app.

If your app’s notifications are being ignored or switched off, book a call and bring the last ten you sent.