TOP TIPS FOR TAILORING MOBILE APP MARKETING

Sue Azari Industry Lead - eCommerce AppsFlyer

Garden-hose marketing — the practice of deploying a uniform message at scale to all recipients, regardless of their individual tastes — has been rendered defunct by two things: the modern customer and modern technology. Digital natives are tired of being bombarded by irrelevant content and AI waits in the wings, ready to assist. Today, we can personalise the content and design of any mobile app to ensure the experience fits the user. Customers are retained and revenue boosted on the back of such adjustments. It is therefore critical that UAE marketers master individualisation if their brands are going to compete domestically and in the global digital economy.

ROADBLOCKS AND BUILDING BLOCKS.

Many roadblocks in the form of privacy, data protection, and residency regulations may stand in the way, but you will still be able to use engagement data and incentivised surveys. When gathering data, be transparent about what you collect and why. Regulations like GDPR and the UAE’s Personal Data Protection Law (Federal Decree Law No. 45 of 2021) are only part of the reason for this. Consumers take their privacy seriously too.

If you can gather information on age, gender, location, profession, and interests, you will be off to a good start. Devices, preferences, activity, and transaction history are also desirable. These data points are the raw building blocks of personalisation. Find a middle ground between underuse and overuse of push notifications. Useful messages (restocks or discounts, for example) at the right time can be individualising. Irrelevant ones every five minutes can cause a user to disengage. Neither should marketers forget segmentation. While it is not personalization per se, it can be useful to group app users according to location, engagement time, purchase patterns, and other categories that would allow for campaigns to be tailored to each segment. One of the greatest examples of personalised experiences is based on segmentation — “recommended purchases” automatically tells a consumer that they fit in a category with others that bought similar items.

Discounts and special offers can be targeted at these same groups. When a shopper is presented with a deal for an item they may like (based on segmentation) it can be a significant lever in boosting their return business. But offers can also be tailored to specific users. Apps that have been given user permission to track their activity will be able to craft coupons and discounts that apply to that user alone. They will also be able to automatically author notifications in the form of “Hey [Customer Name]” as opposed to “Greetings, valued customer”.

A Worthwhile Journey

It will take time, and the right data, to get personalisation right. Use A/B testing to find the right mix and maximise your app’s impact. And do not forget the power of the survey, which can be a focused way of discerning likes, dislikes, and pain points.

Also experiment with different technologies and how they can be integrated into your marketing mix. In this regard, tools like ChatGPT, which marketers may have previously feared would lead to their replacement, can come to the rescue to amplify messages. ChatGPT plugins allow marketers to individualise in real time because of their ability to improvise quickly.