Mobile marketing is said to be the future of the digital marketing so it essential that brands begin to focus their advertising budgets on this (Batra & Keller, 2016). Nowadays, users are flooded with options as hundreds of new apps enter the market daily (Weiss, 2013). Therefore, they have high expectations of the apps that they do choose to download. Consequently, elements personalisation and functionality are expected of all apps (Levenson, 2017). Furthermore, among retail mobile users, consumers who are ready to make purchases prefer mobile apps by 57 percent, with 43 percent preferring mobile web showing that there is a lot of potential to increase profit margins through app development (Byrum, 2017). Evidence also shows that personalisation increases an individual’s affinity and loyalty towards the brand which is imperative in this competitive market (Parker & Wang, 2015; Anitha, 2014). This in turn affects purchasing intentions specifically in terms of repeat purchases (Srivastava & Kaul, 2016). This blog post will suggest 3 ways to successfully implement app personalisation and functionality:

Figure 1: Future expectations for the Mobile Experience According to internet users worldwide, Feb 2016

Source: eMarketer, 2016

1. Through Push notifications

From the outside, apps can be personalized through push notifications (Levenson, 2017). For example, to provide some sort of discounts or related information about the app that means a lot to the user for example their flight time if it is an airline app. Time is very much important in the process of app personalization. The success of an application depends upon the accurate and timely management of what to convey, how to convey and when to convey (Cetin, 2016). Push notifications can be an effective tool in the fight against churn, and an effective marketing channel generally, but cutting through the clutter can be tricky given the amount of apps using push notifications (Robles, 2016). 

2. Onboard Your Users Well

If your user experience isn’t engaging from the beginning, it is unlikely that they will return. It’s normal for a user to download your app, have a bad experience and, not return. The average app loses 77% of users within three days of being downloaded. Creating a user experience that is high-quality, efficient and relevant from the start is the first step to implementing a strong mobile app personalization strategy (Byrum, 2017). Additionally, the first few days after app installation are imperative. If the user likes the app in the initial days than it is likely that they will use it for a longer time. Onboarding is an extremely important way to personalise an app; it helps to increase a customer’s loyalty towards the application through the following processes:

• Asking for the user name and using it when communicating with them.
• Provide them with free trials or discount for the first few days.
• Encouraging them to use app while onboarding
• Does not ask very personal questions like for phone number unless it is necessary initially.

(Cetin, 2016)

With onboarding, your ultimate goal should be to get users using your app. A common mistake is using an onboarding experience to teach people how to use an app. Onboarding experiences should not be a tutorial because there’s no familiarity with your app yet. Instead, continue to focus on educating users about the benefits of your app (Yarmosh, 2016).

3. Real-Time Personalisation

Real-time personalization is a data-driven approach that provides engaging user experiences based on the information that smartphones are already collecting. With efficient utilisation of this data, apps appear to respond to a user’s current situation. For example, Retail is all about fulfilling wants and needs. Those change quickly and depend on the customer’s context. For example, changes in the weather can drive purchasing decisions, so an app that’s weather-aware can present customers with discounts on warm jackets just as they step in from the cold. Furthermore, particularly for retailers, it’s important to note that context does not need to relate to the immediate situation – it can also include behavioural data from the recent past. For example, if the customer been searching for flights or other travel options over the past week present relevant ads such as for sunscreen or providing other appropriate useful information to the customer (Pozin, 2017). Below is a video showing how to do this through location:

Figure 2: Location based apps

Source: Youtube, 2014

REMEMBER – like anything personalisation is expensive to implement and does not necessarily culminate in a successful Rate of Return!

References:

Anitha, T. (2014) Appurify: Facilitating a Next-Generation Debugging, Testing, and Performance Optimization Platform for Mobile Apps. [Online] Available at: <http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=598f3df9-32c1-47bc-8944-67bd84cae6d4%40sessionmgr4006&gt; [Accessed 18 Jan 2018]

Batra, R. & Keller, K. (2016) Integrated Marketing Communications: New Findings, New Lessons and New Ideas, Journal of Marketing, Vol 80, p122-145

Byrum, N. (2017) Mobile Apps Transform Personalisation. [Online] Available at: <https://theblog.adobe.com/mobile-apps-transform-personalization/&gt; [Accessed 22^nd March 2018]

Cetin, E. (2016) 9 Proven Ways to Personalise Your Mobile App. [Online] Available at: <https://appsamurai.com/9-proven-ways-to-personalize-your-mobile-app/&gt; [Accessed 22^nd March 2018]

eMarketer. (2016) Future Expectations for the Mobile Experience According to Internet Users Worldwide, Feb 2016 (% of respondents). [Online] Available at: <https://www.emarketer.com/Chart/Future-Expectations-Mobile-Experience-According-Internet-Users-Worldwide-Feb-2016-of-respondents/191273&gt;

Google Developers (2014) Building Location Based Apps with the Places API. [Video] Youtube. Available at: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obrHov9XfRk > [Accessed 24^th March 2018]

Levenson, H. (2017) Mobile App Personalization: How to Do It Right. [Online] Available at: <https://usabilitygeek.com/mobile-app-personalization-how-to/&gt; [Accessed 22^nd March 2018]

Parker, C. & Wang, H. (2015) Examining hedonic and utilitarian motivations for m-commerce fashion retail app engagement, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol 20, No 4, p487-506

Pozin, I. (2017) 3 ways real-time personalisation is taking apps to the next level. [Online] Available at: < https://www.inc.com/ilya-pozin/3-ways-real-time-personalization-is-taking-apps-to-next-level.html&gt; [Accessed 26^th March 2018]

Robles, P. (2016) Personalisation can lift push notification open rates by up to 800%: study. [Online] Available at: < https://econsultancy.com/blog/67891-personalisation-can-lift-push-notification-open-rates-by-up-to-800-study&gt; [Accessed 22^nd March 2018]

Srivastava, M. & Kaul, D. (2016) Exploring the link between customer experience-loyalty-consumer spend, Journal of Retailing & Consumer Services, Vol 31, p277-286

Weiss, A. (2013) Exploring New Apps and Location-Based Services on the Smartphone, Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly, Vol 90, No 3, p 435-456

White, K. (2017) How to Enhance User Experience by Improving Mobile App Performance. [Online] Available at: < http://thinkapps.com/blog/post-launch/mobile-app-performance-tips/&gt; [Accessed 23^rd March 2018]

Yarmosh, K. (2016) 10 Ways to Increase User Engagement for Your App. [Online] Available at: < https://savvyapps.com/blog/10-ways-increase-user-engagement-app&gt; [Accessed 22^nd March 2018]