How often should a fitness app send push notifications?

There's no single right number. A member training five mornings a week and a member who hasn't opened the app in a month need very different amounts. What works is a few rules that keep you from overdoing it, then sending more only where members respond.

Start with a cap

Pick a ceiling for marketing pushes and hold every campaign to it. Three or four a week is a reasonable place to start for most fitness apps, with no more than one on any day. Raise it for a group of members only when their opens and workouts hold up at the higher number.

The cap matters most when several people on your team send messages. A coach announcing a new program, a sale from marketing and a challenge reminder can all land on the same afternoon unless something stops them.

In the Click Digital console, quiet hours and the weekly cap are checked for each member before a send, whoever on your team scheduled it.

Keep reminders and marketing apart

Some pushes are reminders the member asked for: a scheduled workout, a live class starting in 15 minutes, a check-in they set up. Others are marketing: a new program, a sale, a challenge. Members treat the two very differently, and so should your rules.

• Reminders the member set up can sit outside your marketing cap, because the member chose them.
• Give members separate switches in your app's settings for each kind of message.
• Never send a marketing push styled as a reminder. Members notice, and they stop trusting both.

Send at the hour they train

A push about today's workout is most useful shortly before the member usually trains. Members who train at 6 a.m. and members who train after work need different send times, so schedule by each member's own habits.

By hand, that usually means splitting members into a few time slots. Cortex, the AI in our console, picks the send time for each member from when that member usually trains. It can also send nothing, for example to a member who has ignored the last three messages.

Set quiet hours in the member's own time zone, so nothing goes out overnight even when your team schedules a campaign from another time zone.

Ask for permission when it makes sense

Both iPhone and recent Android versions ask the member before an app can send notifications, and most members only see that prompt once. Showing it on the first launch, before the member has done anything, wastes it.

Ask at a point where the value is obvious: after the first workout, or when the member sets their training days. A screen before the system prompt that says what you'll send and how often helps more members say yes.

Write pushes worth opening

Compare "Time to work out!" with "Week 3, Day 2 is ready: 28 minutes, no equipment." The second tells the member what they'll get and how long it takes.

• Put the useful part in the first few words. Lock screens cut long messages off.
• Open the exact screen the push is about, such as the session or the class, rather than the app's home screen.
• Use the member's program, coach or streak when you have it.
• Keep exclamation marks and emoji to a minimum unless they're part of your brand's voice.

Signs you're sending too much

Watch these after each campaign, alongside open rates:

• More members turning notifications off in their settings
• App deletions in the days after a send
• Opens falling across all your messages, including the reminders
• Workouts and bookings flat or down after a campaign, even when opens look fine

The last one matters most. A push that gets opened but leads to no workout has cost you some of the member's attention for nothing.

Use other channels for other jobs

Push is for short, timely messages to members who still have the app. Email suits longer news and members who've stopped opening the app. Text messages suit things that can't wait, like a class cancelled an hour before it starts or a failed payment. In-app messages reach members while they're already training.

Members also have favorites: some open every push and ignore email, others the reverse. In Signal your team writes a message once and it goes out by push, email, text or in-app, with quiet hours and limits applied, and Cortex picks the channel for each member.