This is a guest blog post from Michael Lavoie, SVP of Customer Success at Airship – a Movable Ink Exchange Partner.
Today’s on-the-go consumers demand a personalized experience no matter where they choose to engage—including on your mobile app! Plus, your app users are likely some of your most loyal and valuable customers. That makes delivering a personalized experience through your app an absolute imperative as you work to grow their lifetime value.
While brands have had years to perfect their email personalization practices, getting started with app personalization requires some new ways of thinking. At the Re(Think) by Movable Ink event, I teamed up with Strategic Services Lead Jennie Lewis to discuss trends, best practices and four critical steps to take before you begin personalizing your mobile app.
Align Your In-App Personalization
Mobile apps offer an unparalleled number of channels to reach your customers, from personalized landing screens and push messages to in-app messaging and even Mobile Wallet. Before you can create a cohesive experience that helps grow your customer relationships, think through how to make your personalization look seamless across all of your app channels. If you’re using both push and in-app messaging, for example, ask how you can add a little flavor of personalization to both, and what types of messages make sense for each option.
Assess Your Data Requirements
To deliver a personalized experience through your app, it’s important to determine how your customer data will influence the desired personalizations. For example, for an airline looking to personalize messages to passengers, you’d want to know what type of booking the customer has and where they are headed. You might also ask if there’s a minor traveling with them, or a pet, or both! Each of these data points help determine which personalized messages will be relevant and valuable for the individual app user.
Identify Behavior and Event Triggers
Mobile apps provide marketers with real-time and actionable information about how customers interact with your app. That creates some exciting opportunities to deliver truly personalized and contextual messages within the app.
If you’re a retailer, it’s a great idea to use ‘last item viewed’ and ‘favorited item’ as triggers for automated in-app offers that encourage conversions. But what if the customer converts before they see that message? In that case, you can leverage advanced solutions like Airship’s integration with Movable Ink to update your message—in real time—and offer something else that provides value to the customer. For example, useful information about the item they just bought. Walking through the different scenarios and behaviors will help identify opportunities to enhance CX while driving toward your goals.
Consider Location
Another advantage of mobile apps is the ability to leverage location-based messaging. Before getting started, consider the different ways location-based personalization can offer value to your customers. For example, retail and entertainment brands might want to trigger educational messages or special offers when a customer enters a geofenced physical location. Or if you’re a media company, you can deliver timely news and weather alerts relevant to user location.
We’re also seeing an ongoing evolution of location-based strategies as brands and consumers adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. Increased adoption of options like buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS) will continue to influence how brands incorporate location into their app strategies.
If you’re just getting started with personalizing your mobile app, here are a few more resources to help. Check them out and get in touch if you’d like to learn more.