Personalization is one of the biggest trends in mobile app development. And that’s no surprise, seeing as it allows businesses to solve so many customer pain points.
For example, a Salesforce study discovered that 66% of customers expect brands to understand their needs and 72% will only engage with personalized messaging.
This is an example of location-based marketing (which we’ll discuss more of later).
In Sephora’s case, it triggers the notification when it detects that the user is in an airport with Sephora retail stores.
It works because the message is timely and playful, which can alleviate airport stress. It also shows how a mobile app can support other channels like physical stores.
Indeed, these are just some of the many ways you can personalize push notifications. Just remember to make them concise and relevant, and it should do well.
But don’t limit yourself to only personalizing push notifications.
You can take these same strategies and apply them to in-app messages.
Sending relevant in-app messages
Much like push notifications, there are a dozen ways to personalize in-app messages to drive engagement.
In-app messages have several advantages over push notifications. Users will be better at receiving them since they’re actively using the app.
You can also control the timing of your sends.
Lastly, in-app messages can be longer, giving more chances for personalization.
Now, let’s see some personalized in-app messages in action.
The simplest is to include the user’s name. It seems trivial, but it can instantly give your messaging a more personal tone.
The above in-app messaging was also relevant since the person clearly hadn’t taken the offer yet. Proper timing and sending in context are crucial components of personalized messages.
Here’s another good example from an e-commerce app:
Adding how much the user saved is a great addition to the message, as it makes them feel good about their purchase. And that’s crucial here because the app is asking for a rating.
The timing is ideal, too—the user just bought something, so they should be motivated to give a review.
In-app messaging isn’t just limited to static content. Take a look at this example from Loom:
First, it is personalized with the user’s name. Second, it congratulated them on their success, a great tactic for improving retention.
Third, the request was well-timed since it’s natural for someone to share their achievements on social media. And finally, they sweetened the deal with a reward.
As you can see, personalized in-app messages and push notifications can cause your app’s engagement to skyrocket. So it’s always worth doing them in tandem.
Using location-based marketing
Personalization isn’t just about using the user’s details like their name or birthday. Their location can also open up plenty of possibilities.
Marketers know this, and that’s why 52% of average marketing budgets go to location-based initiatives, according to the 2020 Global Location Trends report.
It’s also a growing field, as this infographic shows:
We think this is a genius move. The app was able to detect that the user was in another country.
And what’s the problem most tourists have? The language barrier, of course. The personalized push notification is extremely well-timed, and we imagined most users highly appreciated it.
Location-based marketing works extremely well for e-commerce apps with physical retail stores, as seen in the Sephora we covered earlier.
Starbucks is another app that excels at this approach:
The notification above uses two personalization techniques. One is using the user’s location to tell them the specific branch giving the offer.
The second is knowing which drink to offer based on the user’s purchase history. It’s then wonderfully integrated into a concise yet effective push notification.
In a similar approach, the GasBuddy app connects users to gas stations that have the best deal in their area. In return, users share their location and fuel spending habits with the app.
The thing is, location-based marketing will not apply to all apps. But if your situation warrants it, or you find a creative application for it, give it a go.
You’ll find it’s a powerful layer of personalization that can fuel engagement.
Optimizing the user onboarding process
Onboarding is a crucial strategy for increasing app retention and engagement. And one of the best ways to improve your onboarding sequence is to personalize it.
Personalization can help engage users from day one and create a great first impression. This is crucial since most apps lose up to 89% of their active users within the first seven days.
It features interactive onboarding that gives users the freedom to tweak their financial goals. And because users designed the goal themselves, it leads to better buy-in from them.
You’ll undoubtedly need to ask for personal information to fuel your app personalization. However, you should not make it mandatory.
Users should always have the option of withholding their data, and your app should still work in these cases.
Also, it helps to be transparent when asking users. Let them know why you need their data and, if possible, frame it as a benefit for them.
This is a great way to foster trust, which should improve users’ chances of saying yes.
There are plenty of other personalization tactics you can apply to onboard users. It can even be as simple as using their name.
However minor your approach is, we recommend implementing it. It will do wonders for your onboarding.
Doing email marketing
Personalization shouldn’t be limited to just inside your app. There are plenty of marketing channels you can also personalize. Case in point is email.
Email is a powerful marketing medium that we believe every app should use.
Studies have shown that for every $1 spent on email, you can get an ROI of $40. That’s the highest among other marketing channels.
Personalized emails can be used at every stage of the app journey. In fact, sending context-sensitive emails is a great way to increase open and click rates.
A good practice is sending a welcome email to new users once they’ve finished the onboarding process. Here’s a sample from Clearbit.
If users haven’t completed certain tasks during onboarding, emails are a great way to remind them. For instance, Loom sends an email to users who haven’t downloaded the desktop app.
Of course, the most popular personalization tactic is to send an email during special occasions, such as birthdays. Often, this comes with a gift or discount coupon.
There’s a reason why birthday emails are effective. Not only will it be highly appreciated by the user (so they tend to open it), but it can also re-engage dormant users.
The sky’s the limit with emails. As long as you send timely and relevant messages (as you do with push notifications), it will lead to better engagement.
Sending tailored recommendations
The pinnacle of app personalization is the ability to send recommendations based on a user’s behavior, preference, or purchase history.
This approach is one of the best ways to deliver a truly amazing app experience. That’s because it makes users feel that you truly understand them.
It can lead to better retention, engagement, and even monetization.
For instance, product recommendation solutions provider Barilliance revealed that one of its app clients saw a 550% increased conversion rate thanks to its platform.
Of course, when talking about customized recommendations, one can’t help but think of Amazon. They’re undoubtedly one of its pioneers.
Amazon’s recommendation algorithm uses a combination of purchase history and behavior from the user. It even utilizes location-based marketing to show products trending in the user’s area.
The key to personalized recommendations is to use the right data and approach. One method is collaborative filtering, which uses one user’s data to predict what a similar person would like.
Another is content-based filtering, which produces recommendations to a user based on their behavior and history.
The third and arguably most effective approach is hybrid recommendations, which uses both content-based and collaborative filtering to arrive at more well-rounded advice.
Personalized recommendations can be one of the more complex strategies on this list. But when done right, it can give a huge lift to your engagement numbers.
Examples of apps with great personalization
When it comes to personalization, Spotify is one of the standout apps on the market.
Spotify gives each user a unique, hyper-personalized experience and their Discover Weekly feature is a great example of that in action.
They use AI algorithms to create personalized music recommendations for each user every single week – here’s how it works:
And this hyper-personalization is one of the main reasons why they’re market leaders in their segment, with a 31.7% market share.
Another app with great personalization is Grammarly.
One of their standout features is the set goals feature, which allows users to adjust the suggestions they get based on their audience, formality, domain, and intent.
Antonija is a powerhouse when it comes to product design. She's skilled at detecting pain points and client needs during product discovery and turning them into stunning user experiences. And with her technical background, her designs don't just look great - they work and solve real problems, too.
In her spare time, she enjoys creating motion designs, animations and posters. When she's not designing, you can find her hitting the gym and daydreaming about her ideal work spots in either Zadar or Amsterdam, whichever feels right at the moment.
