Group coaching starts in 30 minutes. You posted about it in the space yesterday, it’s on the events page, and the reminder email went out this morning. Five people show up.
Everyone else was in the carpool line, in a meeting, or on their phone doing anything but opening your community.
They didn’t forget you. They just weren’t looking.
Circle push notifications reach members on the one screen they check all day. Built inside a workflow, they go only to the people who need them, not to everyone at once.
By the end of this, you’ll have your first push notification workflow built, sent, and checked, plus the rules I use so members don’t switch notifications off.
What Are Circle Push Notifications in Workflows?
They’re mobile alerts you send from a Circle workflow to a specific audience, like event RSVPs or one space, and each one opens straight to a page in your community.
The workflow is what makes them useful. Without it, a push notification is a blast to everyone. With it, you decide exactly who gets the message and exactly where it takes them.
A few ways that plays out:
- Your premium members hear that an exclusive live event starts in an hour
- Members who haven’t logged in for two weeks get a nudge about new content
- Someone who just hit a community milestone gets a congratulations
- An interest group finds out a discussion they’d care about is happening right now
No code required. It’s a handful of steps in your admin dashboard.
One thing to handle first: push notifications only reach members who have the Circle mobile app. If downloading the app isn’t already a lesson in your Circle onboarding course, add it before you build anything below.
Which Circle Workflow Type Should You Use for Push Notifications?
Use a bulk action to send a notification right now, and a scheduled workflow to land it at a set time, like 30 minutes before a call. Automations fire when a member does something.
When you create a custom workflow, Circle gives you three options:
- Bulk action. Runs once, immediately. Run now is the only choice, so it’s for anything you want out the door today.
- Scheduled. You pick the time. This is the one I use most often, because “we’re live in 30 minutes” only works if it arrives 30 minutes before.
- Automation. Triggered by something a member does, like hitting a milestone. It’s the same builder I use to automate member tags in Circle, with a different action at the end.
The walkthrough below uses a bulk action, because it’s the fastest way to see a push land on your own phone. Once you’ve done it once, a scheduled version is the same build with a time attached.
How Do You Set Up a Push Notification Workflow in Circle?
Create a custom workflow, choose your audience, add the Send mobile push notification action with a landing URL and a message under 150 characters, then run it.
Create the workflow
Everything starts in the Workflows section of your admin dashboard.
What that looks like:
- Open the menu from the caret at the top of your dashboard and choose Workflows
- Click to create a new workflow, then choose custom workflow
- Select bulk action, then Create workflow
- Name it something you’ll recognize later. Mine is just Push Notification
Choose your audience
This is where the targeting happens, and the options go deep.
What that looks like:
- Click Add an audience
- Filter by a saved segment, a tag, a profile field, a space, or who RSVP’d to an event
- Narrow it with conditions like is, is not, contains, and does not contain
- Save the audience as a segment if you’ll send to this group again
You can go as broad as a whole space or as narrow as a single person. For a first test, filter by your own name so the only phone that buzzes is yours. Mine matched seven people, because I have a lot of test accounts under my name.
Add the push notification
Click the plus, add an action, and choose Send mobile push notification.
What that looks like:
- Paste the end of the URL where the member should land, like the specific coaching session
- Write the message body, keeping it under the 150-character limit
- Click continue
The URL has to be a page inside your community. Circle prefills the start of it for that reason, so you only add the path.
Write the message in a separate doc first, then paste it in. It’s easier to trim there, and you want it to read cleanly on a lock screen. Mine for this one was simple: we’re going live in 30 minutes, don’t forget to join us.
Run it and check the results
On a bulk action, choose Run now and confirm. Circle shows a small dashboard of the workflow’s progress, then a breakdown when it finishes.
Don’t panic at the failures. Mine failed for every test account because they aren’t live accounts, and succeeded for the real one.
If something was skipped, partially succeeded, or failed when it shouldn’t have, hit rerun and try it again.
How Do You Keep Members From Turning Off Notifications?
Send fewer, better ones. Every push has to be worth interrupting someone’s day, or members switch notifications off and you lose the channel for good.
Too many notifications is the fastest way to train people to ignore you. Well-timed, relevant ones do the opposite. The rules I work from:
- Keep it short. You have 150 characters. Use fewer.
- Name one action. Join the call, read the post, RSVP. Not all three.
- Use an emoji on purpose. One can catch the eye and set the tone. Five reads like spam.
- Test your timing. Try different times of day and watch when your members actually respond.
- Make it worth the interruption. If it wouldn’t be worth a text from a friend, it isn’t worth a push.
Start with one push notification workflow. Measure what it does, see which messages people actually tap, and adjust before you add a second.
Why Pair Push Notifications With a Community Challenge?
Challenges give push notifications a clear job: nudging each participant toward the next day. You can send different messages to different segments based on where they are.
A challenge already has what push notifications need to work: a set schedule, a clear next step each day, and people who signed up to be reminded. I’ve seen challenges lift community participation by as much as 80 percent when they’re run well, and they get stronger when the reminders reach people’s phones.
Picture it: one message for the people who finished yesterday, another for the ones who fell a day behind, both scheduled for the morning the next day opens.
If you’re planning one, here’s how to run a challenge in Circle, from the goals to the daily drip. The free Challenge Blueprint Starter is the Notion template I built for community builders to plan one without starting from a blank page.
Try This Prompt
If the 150-character limit is where you get stuck, this gives you options to trim instead of a blank box.
“I run a [type of community] on Circle for [who]. I want to send a push notification to [the audience, such as members who RSVP’d to Thursday’s call] that opens [the page it links to]. The one thing I want them to do is [the action]. Write five versions of the message, each under 150 characters, each naming that one action, in a warm and direct tone. Give me a numbered list with the character count next to each version.”
Count the characters yourself before you paste one in. And pick the one that sounds like you.
A Push Notification Is a Tap on the Shoulder
The point isn’t more reach. It’s reaching the right people at the moment it matters, with something that’s actually for them.
Get that right and members start to trust the buzz. They know if it’s from you, it’s worth a look. Get it wrong and they turn it off, and there’s no setting that turns it back on for them.
So treat every one like a tap on the shoulder, not a megaphone.
One well-timed message beats ten that nobody asked for.
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More Like This
Listen: How to Create a Community Challenge That Works. The planning that gives your challenge push notifications something to point to.
Watch: Challenge Accepted: How to Create Engaging Challenges That Keep Your Community Hooked. What makes a challenge worth reminding people about in the first place.
Listen: From Launch to Legacy: Promoting Your Challenge & Leveraging Results. The daily emails and check-ins that work alongside your push notifications.
Watch: How to Onboard New Members with Ease: Create a Circle Course That Works. Includes the mobile app lesson that makes push notifications reach anyone at all.
Keep Going
coCreator Society is where community builders and membership founders work through this together, with the templates, the walkthroughs, and people who are one step ahead of you. Join coCreator Society
If you would rather not do this part alone, Rachel and the team build, migrate, and run communities for founders who need it done properly the first time. Talk to the team
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