Attention is fleeting. Some brands I work with see customers leave the app in as little as 90 seconds during their first visit.  App retention data shows that customer interaction wanes in the first two days after download — sessions drop by 6% between day 1 and day 2.  In Airship’s survey of 11,000 consumers, 57% of respondents said they use an app only one or two times before deciding whether to delete it.  And when you consider that the cost of acquisition for app downloads has been increasing since the release of iOS 14,  retaining an acquired customer has larger financial implications.

This data tells us that brands have very limited time to capture customer attention and prove the value of what they’re offering in an app.  This is why the Activation Phase (Days 1-30) is so critical to the mobile experience.  In the first 30 days after download, successful apps strive to achieve three things: getting opt-in permissions from new customers, converting customers from anonymous to known, and gathering customer preferences. 

Get the opt-in 
Whatever your app monetization model, it’s critical to get opt-in permissions from your customers.  Push notifications are a key mechanism to deliver glanceable value to customers and  bring them back into the app.

Customers who are opted-in to push notifications have a 13% lift in purchases compared to opted-out customers.  As an example, let’s say your app has 10M purchases and 60% of  purchases come from opted-in customers.  At an average order value of $10, opted-in customers represent $20M more value than those who are opted out.  

While getting the opt-in is critical, stop to consider the customer’s experience before deploying  OS permission prompts.  We’ve all had the experience of opening an app for the first time and being bombarded with permission requests.  The experience is frustrating for customers who are just trying out the app for the first time and have yet to explore its functionality.  

Instead, focus on your onboarding experience.  Convey the value proposition of your app, key features and why opting in to push notifications or sharing location benefits the customer.  

Identify the customer
The second core element of the Activation Phase is converting customers from anonymous (or non-identified) to known. Identifying customers allows you to link any data you already have on these customers from previous brand interactions, including opt-in permissions on other channels.  Known customers return to the app at a higher frequency than anonymous users.  The average lift in Day 30 Activation Rate for devices with a known user is 79%.

Known customers and their data profiles are the gateway to personalization. Personalized app messaging increases customer engagement. Push notifications that are personalized have a 22% average lift in direct open rates over messages that are not personalized. And personalized push notifications increase purchase rates by as much as 24%.

Identifying customers also allows brands to orchestrate communications across channels.  If a customer is an app user, it may not be necessary to notify them via push and SMS at the same time.  Orchestrating across channels can lower communication costs, and also allow you to both respect customer preferences and test channel mix effectiveness over time.

The order and timing of asking for the opt-in and for a sign-in/sign-up action varies by app category.  Subscription model brands most often ask customers to sign in/up before they can access the bulk of the content.  The request for opt-in to notifications typically comes later.  But non-subscription-based media brands ask for the opt-in well before guiding a customer to sign in.  Brands should test the order of these requests to see what works best within your onboarding flow.

Gather preferences 
Customers are spending around 5.5 hours per day on their phones, and screen time continues to increase each year.  Within each app, the average customer spends only 1-2 minutes per session.  That’s a potential of >150 app-specific interactions per day per person on mobile.  

With customer attention divided so broadly, brands are challenged with providing value very quickly.  The key to creating this value and standing out above the noise is personalization.  To achieve great personalization, brands need to identify their customers and gather preferences. 

There are two primary types of preference data: implicit and explicit.  Implicit preferences are collected through a customer’s interactions with your brand.  For example, a retailer has information on past purchases, and entertainment brands have viewing history.  But implicit data can’t be used on its own.  I may have purchased gardening tools as a gift, even though I live in an apartment.  In this case, implicit data by itself is more likely to lead to a disconnected customer experience.   

That’s why brands need to ask customers about their interests and progressively grow explicit preferences.  Nothing replaces asking a customer what they’re interested in.  When it comes to mobile experience, it’s easy to start collecting data.  Brands can use in-app surveys, preference centers, or even simple thumbs-up/down ratings. Check out our survey of 11,000 global consumers, which shows that across 15 types of information, consumers are most likely to share their interests relevant to a brand, superseded only by their email address.

If you’re looking to optimize the Activation Phase of the mobile app lifecycle, we’re here to help.  Reach out to your account manager to review your lifecycle benchmark rankings and onboarding strategies.  

Navigator is Airship’s customer newsletter covering the latest mobile industry trends, product updates, use cases and best practices, and other learning resources.  It’s yet another resource to help you deliver better mobile experiences and create greater value more quickly.  If you’d like to receive our monthly Navigator newsletter please sign up here. 

The post 3 Goals For Every App’s First 30 Days After Download appeared first on Airship.

But what is the actual impact of using personalization and what are the necessary elements of personalization that most influence customer engagement?  

In a study of Airship customer data, we found that push notifications that are personalized have a 22% average lift in direct open rates over messages that are not personalized.  

There are many ways to personalize content, but they’re not all useful.  For example, personalization based on first name only, a holdover from email personalization, is not effective  for mobile apps.  It has an equal chance of increasing or decreasing push notification direct open rates — and the negative impact can be as much as 7x.

The best practice is to use elements that have a positive impact on the customer and avoid those that have a neutral or negative impact. Here we explore 7 building blocks of personalization that, in our experience, reliably and positively influence customer engagement.  Each building block can operate separately, but when used together can further increase direct open rates and grow conversions. Just don’t over-rotate. Not only is it impossible to use all of these all of the time, returns won’t match the effort due to small segment sizes. 

7 Building Blocks

1 – Past Behaviors
What interactions have I had with the brand that might inform my future needs?
Think of past behaviors as indicators, not preferences.  If I purchased camping gear in the past, I might be an avid camper.  Or, I could have been purchasing a gift.  Other past behaviors that can be used to personalize app messaging are returns, screen views and content consumption (i.e. videos watched or articles read).  Past behaviors should be used in context with the other elements of personalization to create a positive customer experience.  In Airship’s “The Mobile Consumer 2023” survey,  “recommendations and offers based on past behavior or purchases” was selected as the most useful personalization from a brand by 41% of respondents.   

2 – Timing
When is the content relevant to me? 
The ideal timing for messaging is when there’s a need for me to interact with a brand, or when it provides incremental value while I’m already interacting with a brand.  

For example, if I’ve searched in a media app multiple times and haven’t landed on a page for more than a few seconds, it’s likely that I need help finding content.  That’s an ideal time to provide helpful tips for searching or content recommendations.  

Another example is timing that’s based on my current status with a brand, a day-of-travel experience or post-purchase updates.  I traveled recently and received two well-timed, day-of-travel notifications, relevant to the current needs I had from each brand.  

3 – Location
Where is the content relevant to me? 
Location-based personalization sits on the line between creepy & cool.  In a recent study from Marigold, 62% of customers said location targeted ads from brands they don’t know are creepy, but 41% of customers are willing to share real-time location data for personalization.  In Airship’s survey, 34% of customers said that  “content and offers targeted to your current location” were useful personalization — coming in as third most useful overall. 

Don’t ask customers for location permissions unless it provides a clear value to them.  That often means waiting until it’s useful in the context of customers’ behaviors. Be sure to explain the value using a soft prompt or Scene in the app rather than just serving the standard system dialog prompt.    

The QSR industry is creating excellent customer value using location data for order pick up.  QSR brands are requesting location permissions to inform when order preparation should begin based on the customer’s time to arrival at the restaurant.  When customers reach a certain radius from the restaurant, employees are alerted to begin preparing the order.   The Chick-fil-a example below shows a typical flow of customer notifications for an order pickup that uses geolocation.  

4 – Status
What segment am I part of? 
Each customer in your audience fits into at least one segment.  These segments range from new customer to loyalty status to subscription level.  Segments can be used individually or in combination.  The new customer segment can be used alone to send onboarding messages.  If you also know the new customer’s plan level (i.e. freemium vs paid), you can add more context to the onboarding messages that provide value.  Brands that use segmentation for their push notifications see a lift in both direct open rates and purchases attributed to push notifications.  The lift for purchases attributed to push notifications is  between 4% – 72% and as high as 350%.  The lift in direct open rates is between 18% – 65% and as high as 334%. These are extraordinary numbers when segmentation is done properly.

5 – Predictive 
What insights do you have about me based on my profile? 
Similar to location, predictive data sits on a fine line between creepy & cool.  In Airship’s recent survey, consumers said that predictive suggestions were the least useful among the different types of personalization.  It’s common for predictive content to miss the mark.  Last year I had a baby registry with a large retailer, so they knew all my wishlist items and due date.  After I purchased a couple of baby items, I started getting push notifications about big kid and teenager items that weren’t relevant to me.  With the level of information this retailer knew about me, they could (should!) have refined predictions to focus on a series of baby items.       

Predictive data uses analytics-based insights to personalize content — for example, next likely action or products relevant to a previous purchase.  Airship’s platform generates a churn prediction model to help brands target customers who are likely to churn so the brand can proactively bring them back into the app.  

6 – Current Behaviors
What am I doing now? 
Using current behaviors to create in-the-moment personalization is a super power of mobile apps.  The technology allows us to interact with customers in a timeline much closer to their real-time behavior than in-store and e-commerce destinations allow.  Entertainment apps are fantastic at this type of personalization, recommending content based on what I’ve just completed watching or listening to.  Another example is the window between purchase and delivery of an item. Customers are waiting. They want to know when they’ll receive their item.  

7 – Explicit Preferences
What did I tell you I want to hear about?
Preference, or zero-party, data is information customers provide to a brand.  Forrester defines zero-party data as “Data that a customer intentionally and proactively shares with a brand.”  Surveys and preference centers are good tools for collecting this data from customers.  Imagine a sports app where a customer provided preferences on their favorite sport and favorite teams.  The app can then use this information, in combination with current behavior and timing data, to create in-app alerts when a game for the customer’s favorite team is about to start.  ESPN uses an in-app preference center that allows customers to select personalization options at the sport & player level, and also by type of alerts, from breaking news to editor’s picks.   

In Airship’s survey, “interests and preferences supplied to the brand” were deemed the second most  useful personalization by 40% of respondents — coming in one percentage point lower than the top-ranked method.

Contact Us
For help with your personalization and zero-party data  strategies, or to learn about Airship’s preference center capabilities, please reach out to your Airship Account Manager. We also have Strategic Services available to help guide you in developing better mobile app experience for your customers and your brand.

The post 7 Building Blocks of Mobile Experience Personalization appeared first on Airship.

Each app category has a unique frequency of engagement with its customers.  For example, News & Magazines apps have a median Engagement Score of 32%, whereas for Shopping apps it’s 12%.  To normalize these scores, we look at an app’s lift over their category average, rather than the score itself.  

Building a habit of engagement for customers with your app is critical for moving them from the activation to engagement phase of the mobile app lifecycle.  What constitutes a “habit” varies from app-type and category, but it’s all about the level of visits during a defined time period.  If app usage doesn’t become a habit early on — say, within the first 30 days — there’s probably something wrong with the relationship.  

You can’t improve the relationship unless you know there’s something wrong in the first place. That’s where Airship’s Engagement Score comes in.  

Apps that have high Engagement Scores have three practices in common: 

1 –  Automating engagement campaigns
Driving recurring customer interaction has to be top of mind to reach a high Engagement Score.  Leading brands create campaigns that are automated and tailored to interactions (or lack of interaction) to maintain consistent and relevant connections with customers.  Inactivity automations — such as abandoned cart or abandoned browse —  and re-engagement campaigns, give brands the opportunity to reach out to customers with timing and content that’s in the context of their behaviors.

2 -Combining push notifications & in-app messaging in automations
Utilizing automated push notifications alone or automated in-app messaging alone is not enough.  Brands that are doing well at engagement are using a combination of automated push and in-app messaging.  This combination of channels allows brands to reach customers outside of the app and engage them contextually while they are in the app. 

3 – Targeting ad hoc messages through segmentation 
Increasing relevance of push notifications drives people back into the app.  And targeting in-app messaging using behavioral data increases the likelihood of connecting with customers in key moments when they’re engaged with your app.  Brands that have high Engagement Scores target nearly every message to particular segments, rather than sending the same messages to the full audience.

Carrefour, a French supermarket chain, has an Engagement Score with a 22% lift over their category average.  They  utilize Airship to employ all three tactics in their mobile app with a combination of promotional, engagement and operational messaging.  These automated campaigns include transactional abandon cart messages, personalized offers, value proposition for account creation, gamified promotions and even app upgrade reminders. 

Contact Us
For help with automation & segmentation strategy or to learn about a use case audit, please reach out to your Airship Account Manager. We also have Strategic Services available to help guide you in developing mobile app experiences.

The post 3 Ways To Score High On App Engagement appeared first on Airship.

What’s more, customer drop-off is expensive, with cost per install estimated at $5.28 for North America ($1.03 in EMEA). 

To retain more customers, it’s critical for brands to optimize the activation phase of their customer app lifecycle.

The Problem of the First 30 Days
The most pressing challenge facing the app industry occurs during the period we call life after download^TM. The most acute phase is during the first 30 days, when customers stop returning to the app. 

Throughout the year, customers across industries download various apps. For each customer, that’s Day 0. We aggregated the number of customers across industries and app store categories who came back to the app on their respective Day 1, 2, 7, 14 and 30, which is reflected in the chart below.

Average Activation Rates from September 2021 – December 2022

As shown in the heat map above, during the first 30 days, activation is highest early on and declines by the end of the period. Examining the overall average Day 30 activation rate over time (below), shows there has been zero improvement over the last year.

Average Day 30 Activation Rate Over Time

As with any average, outliers are hidden and that’s usually where the lessons learned and best practices are most apparent and resounding. 

Onboarding is Everything
The top 10 performing apps are good at onboarding customers, with a Day 30 Activation Rate that’s 56% higher than their category’s average. 

+56%
Average Lift in Day 30 Activation Rate for Top 10 Apps in Q4 2022
How do they do that?

Four Common Practices of Activation Leaders
There are four best practices that top performers tend to follow to optimize activation:

1. Ask customers for preferences but only if you’re going to use them
There’s a tightrope to walk when it comes to gathering preferences. Stephanie Liu, Forrester Analyst, says that “consumers can want both privacy and personalization.”

If you ask a customer for information, make sure you’re utilizing that data to personalize their experience as quickly as possible. This builds trust and also encourages them to come back to the app and share more. 

2. Explain why opting in to notifications benefits them
We’ve all been there. You open an app for the first time and before you can even look at the first screen, pop-ups bombard you with requests for notifications, location sharing, camera access and tracking across unrelated apps.  

“95% of unaddressed new users churn within 90 days.”

For activation, brands should limit information-gathering to the essentials — only what you need during the first 14 days — then find ways large and small to broaden customer understanding over time. 

3. Convey the value prop
In the crucial first few moments, from your app store listing to the first open, focus on conveying the value proposition of your app.

As an exercise, ask yourself these questions about your activation phase: 

4. Test and modify
Lots of thought, effort and time have gone into designing your app to meet the needs of your target customer, but how often are you modifying and testing the first 60 seconds of the customer experience?

While the activation phase extends across the first 30 days after download, it’s best to think of it as three distinct phases: 

Contact Us
If you’re looking for help with onboarding strategy, or if you want to learn more about activation in the mobile app lifecycle, reach out to your Airship Account Manager to learn about a use case audit. Airship’s no-code platform allows everyone on your team to continually improve onboarding flows. In addition, Airship’s Strategic Services are available to guide you in developing high-value mobile app experiences.

The post Activate Your Activation Processes appeared first on Airship.

Super Bowl 2023 is approaching and sports apps have the opportunity to capture preferences from customers who install on that day.  Data shows that app installs increase around notable events, and the sports app category is no exception. Super Bowl Sunday 2022 had 51% more sports app installs than the prior day,  and engagement – as measured by Airship’s Engagement Score – lifted by 19% over the season average.  In the eight months following the Super Bowl, customers who installed on Super Bowl Sunday 2022 had a 13% higher Engagement Score than the sports category average.  The top performer in this timeframe had a 49% lift.  

Brands have the opportunity to leverage Super Bowl interest by capturing deeper preference data around that  topic and related ones. They can then use this data to create better, more memorable experiences that  keep the customer engaged well beyond the event.  Some apps do this well, and as a result their customer engagement increases.  

The same is true for all brands and app categories around notable events. Here we offer three  key steps to add to new user activation strategies in the context of the sports example.

1 – Ask for preferences
While you’ve captured the customer’s attention, ask them about their preferences.  Is there more granular information you can learn, such as their favorite teams or players. What other topics would they be interested in hearing about?  Use the opportunity to gather information for personalization down the road. 

2 – Track “day-of-event” installers as a cohort
Customers who join during an event have already expressed one clear preference — their interest in the event.  Track this interest so you can use it later for audience segmentation.  Layered with preference data, you can also use it to personalize communications. 

3 – Use preferences to increase engagement on other topics
Once you have the customer’s preferences, use these to personalize content throughout the year.  In the case of sports apps, customers may be interested in other sports, pre-season news, or athlete profiles and moves.  Utilizing preference data helps create more targeted messaging, and this increases customer engagement with the brand.

Contact Us
If you’re looking for help with preference centers, or if you want to learn more about the engagement phase of the mobile app lifecycle, reach out to your Airship Account Manager to learn about a use case audit. We have AXP Preference Center for no-code creation and adaptation, as well as Strategic Services to help guide you in developing mobile app experiences.

The post The Big Game appeared first on Airship.

Heading into New Year’s Resolution season, we can expect  a surge of interest in Health & Fitness programs and apps. It’s a great opportunity for apps in this category to capture downloads and focus on the long-game of converting and keeping subscribers. 

However, Health & Fitness apps are up against two big challenges compared to other industries: the traditionally steep drop off in retention rates during the first 30 days after download and the relatively short amount of time customers spend on Health & Fitness apps.

Nevertheless, top performing Health & Fitness apps manage to overcome these obstacles. How?  By conveying a clear value proposition right out of the gate. 

The Hard Truth
For Health & Fitness apps, the average retention rate on Day 14 is only 12%. This means that 88% of customers have abandoned the app after only 14 days. And, according to Apptopia’s session length data, customers spend an average of only 2.5 minutes per day on Health & Fitness apps. People tend to spend more time on Finance, Food & Drink, Travel, Music and most other app categories than on Health & Fitness apps.

2.5 minutes
Average time per day spent in Health & Fitness apps

The 2.5 minute window gives Health & Fitness brands very little room for error as they try to explain their value proposition. As if that weren’t challenging enough, they also have to contend with the complex psychology of habit building and customers’ love-hate relationship with health and fitness.

Health & Fitness brands need to encourage customers to spend longer amounts of time in the app. Say, 18 minutes per day, like Music & Audio app customers.  

What top performing apps do well
Apps that are performing well use the first minutes after an app opens to communicate how the app benefits the customer.  A clear value proposition by itself reduces friction in the onboarding process – by giving new customers a reason to move forward. And when brands position their value well, it has a huge impact on app performance. For example, Hatch, a controller app for a baby nightlight and the #1 performing app for Health & Fitness, has 27% of their customers returning on Day 30.  During the Hatch app onboarding, customers are guided through both the setup of the nightlight and details on how to use it.  The onboarding is interactive, so customers get a chance to try out the functionality during their first interactions with the app & device.  

Here’s how top performers convey their value proposition. 

Focus the customer’s attention toward the app
Growth Design’s case study on the Headspace app highlights the “breathe in” home screen as a great way to focus customer attention. As the app opens for the first time, customers are guided through a quick breathing meditation that serves as a reminder of why they downloaded the app in the first place and focuses their attention while the rest of the onboarding experience loads. This moment of focus is not only a great way to avoid the spinning wheel during load time, it also gives customers a taste of the app’s value in the first moments of the experience.

Explain “what’s in it for me”
Customers always want to know how an app will benefit them, but this is especially true in the Health & Fitness category. Knowing how the app will help them sleep better, be calmer or run faster helps customers understand how they’ll interact with the app. The Hatch app uses the device configuration time to explain their value proposition. “Sleep made simple” is an eye-catching high-value offer for parents.

Ask questions to personalize the experience
In the onboarding for the Rise Sleep app, it asks a series of questions to personalize the beginning of your app experience. What makes this different from any other survey? The app uses your answers to personalize what you see after onboarding. If you choose “trouble falling asleep,” then you’ll see “wind down routine” as one of the first things you need to set up. Removing the extra steps of finding content helps streamline the experience for new customers. Liveclicker found that using advanced personalization tactics like this in the moment results in 17% more potential revenue.

Contact Us
If you’re looking for help with your onboarding experience, or if you would like to learn more about the Activation Phase of the mobile app lifecycle, reach out to your Airship Account Manager to learn about a use case audit. We also have Strategic Services available to guide you in developing onboarding experiences for your app.

The post Building a Habit for Health & Fitness Apps appeared first on Airship.

This blog offers insights on what “getting it right” looks like. It explores why some brands are able to drive exceptional results, while others struggle to lift their customers across the dreaded chasm of no return. 

For many brands, the struggle isn’t going so well. Aggregated mobile app retention rates have barely budged in recent years despite a large and growing increase in the number of global app downloads. 

The Onboarding Series
Traditionally, teams responsible for mobile app performance have used messaging to drive users back into engaging with an app after they’ve downloaded. The most important kind of messaging for this early engagement is what we call the Onboarding Series – designed to educate new downloaders about an app’s value and begin drawing them into regular usage. 

With the Onboarding Series, app teams can create goal-based, cross-channel journeys encouraging new users to opt-in, register and try key app features. Teams can also perform other high-value actions that are critical to sustaining customer engagement and growing value. 

Our analysis shows that creating onboarding campaigns is a proven way to lift retention. We typically see a lift in customer engagement around the time each onboarding message is sent.

Apps that invest in an Onboarding Series (for example, running A/B tests to determine optimal timing, triggers, orchestration rules and more) see results that far exceed the category’s average 30-day retention rate. Airship’s latest data shows that high-performing Onboarding Series drive an average 34% lift in 30-day retention rates. Many of Airship’s top customers find even greater success.

Getting it done  
There are two kinds of work involved in delivering great mobile app experiences – creating the strategy and executing. Many marketers and mobile product owners have a clear view of what strategy is needed to cultivate and retain new users. They understand what it means to make life after download a rewarding experience for customers. Yet too many struggle to make it happen.

A recent Airship study found that nearly three-quarters of marketers and mobile product owners think about improving app onboarding, feature adoption, opt-in and data collection experiences, on a weekly basis. Yet 96% of them remain reliant on developers to actually get the work done.

All of which explains why Airship is so focused on creating solutions that marketers can use by themselves to implement app enhancements. Instead of waiting for developer teams to deliver cyclical updates or new releases, Airship’s App Experience Platform (AXP) gives marketers the freedom and the power to move forward without developer support. 

It takes time to plan and execute an effective Onboarding Series, but getting started is always the first step. From there you can fine-tune and improve every part of the process, giving your customers more of what they expect from your ongoing mobile app investments.

Find out more about customer retention with Airship AXP. 

The post Onboarding Series Lifts First-Month Mobile App Retention Rates by 34 Percent appeared first on Airship.

“77% of consumers have chosen, recommended or paid more for a brand that provides a personalized service or experience. “

Forrester Webinar – Individualization Versus Personalization

With these increased expectations, personalization is no longer just an option.  But as you make plans for personalization, think beyond simple tactics, like using the customer’s first name.  While the data shows a small lift in open rates with basic personalization, Liveclicker found that advanced personalization tactics result in 17% more revenue.  This means that if you’re running a campaign with basic personalization (i.e., using list-based segments and first name in the greeting), generating typical enterprise revenue of $500k, making the change to advanced personalization tactics (i.e., using behavioral data to target and personalize at the time of open) leads to an opportunity for $85k in incremental revenue.  

Great experiences incentivize customers to share more data with your brand.  Airship’s recent survey of 9,000 global consumers showed that customers are more willing to share their data with brands if it results in a better experience.  Customers, especially those who have established accounts, expect that you know their past interactions, interests and communication preferences.  I recently made a purchase from a DTC beauty brand where I used an offer.  I’ve continued to get emails after the product arrived suggesting that I had not made the purchase or used the offer.  Not only is this a broken experience, it’s a missed opportunity for post-purchase educational content, usage reminders and cross-sell offers.  It has diminished my impression of the brand, leading me to start ignoring and deleting their messages.  

What is advanced personalization?
Similar to a brand’s mobile app experience, personalization moves along a maturity curve.  We see brands progressing along three key phases: History Based, Time of Send and In the Moment.   

In the History Based phase, brands target customers based on basic profile data (i.e., city and state), and basic personalization (i.e., first name).  

Personalization at Time of Send uses information about a customer’s behaviors and attributes when a message or experience deploys – for example, an entertainment brand using a customer’s most recent viewing history as part of its campaign segmentation.  In this phase, a persistent user identifier ties together behavioral data from customer interactions across channels. 

In the Moment personalization is the sweet spot of personalization, which  uses real-time customer behaviors and  preferences to drive experiences.  Mobile apps are the ideal destination to enable these personalized experiences.  Mobile capabilities, such as segmenting on location and refreshing behavioral information between time of send and time of open, allow brands to better meet customers where they are and with the most relevant information.  With In the Moment, brands can create experiences that feel individualized along the entire customer journey.  

Alignment across the organization is critical to achieving In the Moment personalization.  When brands design their org structure around the customer (rather than the channel), they tend to focus on customer personas and are able to create experiences for specific personas.  Persona-based experiences are better tailored to individual needs and  show customers that your brand understands their expectations and is respectful of how, when and where they engage.   

Imagine a campaign for a bank where they’ve created a cross-channel journey for home buyers using the mobile app as the primary destination for customer  interactions.  

While checking their balance in the app, the customer sees an in-app message about home loans.  They complete a survey in the app to find out their ideal loan qualification amount.  After finishing the survey, the customer has the option to book an appointment with a banker.  On the day of their appointment, the app alerts the customer to check in as they arrive at the bank.  The customer does so and the banker greets them upon arrival with information pre-populated from their survey.  

Personalization is essential for app success. Regardless of the phase you’re in, the important thing is to get started now.  

If you’re looking for help with your personalization plans, reach out to your Airship Account Manager to learn about a use case audit.  We also have Strategic Services available to help guide you in developing personalized experiences for your app.

The post First name is not enough: applying advanced personalization tactics to mobile appeared first on Airship.

This isn’t a new trend, when we look at retention data over the last two years the trend line remains the same. 

In 2022 year to date we’re seeing the Android retention rate drop by 38% between Days 1 and 2 and for iOS retention rates drop by 34% between Days 1 and 2.  By Day 30 retention rates drop to an average of 9%.  

Liftoff’s 2020 mobile app trends report estimates cost per install for a new app customer in North America to be $5.28 

This means that if you have 10,000 customers install your app each month at a cost per install of $5.28 and you have an average drop off of 67% in the first 30 days your cost impact of that customer loss is ~$424k per year..

What are you doing during this critical first 2 days to make a good first impression on new customers for your app?

These 2 days occur within the “Activation” phase of the Mobile App Experience (MAX) Customer Lifecycle.  There are steps you can take to optimize your costs and activate your new customers.

The Activation phase is all about first impressions and you know you only have one chance to make a positive first impression. 

It’s time to evaluate your app’s customer onboarding experiences. 

“a 5% increase in customer retention produces more than a 25% increase in profit”
Bain & Company

1 .  Ask for preferences from your customers, but only if you’re going to use them to personalize their experience

There’s a tightrope to walk when it comes to gathering preferences.  Stephanie Liu, Forrester Analyst, says that “consumers can want both privacy and personalization”.

If you ask a customer for information, make sure you’re utilizing that data to personalize their experience as quickly as possible.  This builds trust and also encourages them to come back to the app. 

2 . Explain why opting into notifications benefits the customer 

We’ve all been there.  You open an app for the first time and before you can even look at the first screen, it bombards you with requests (ATT, Opt in, creating a login, etc).  Some customers abandon the app right away, and others may dismiss the onboarding screens completely.   Prioritize gathering  information that helps them within the first 14 days.  Then go back to ask for more data later.  

“95% of unaddressed new users churn within 90 days”
Airship Benchmark Report: How Push Notifications Impact Mobile App Retention Rates

If you’re looking for help with an audit of your onboarding experience, reach out to your Airship Account Manager to learn about a  use case audit.  We also have Strategic Services available to help guide you in developing onboarding experiences for your app.

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Digital channels and automation have transformed how brands engage with customers. But let’s face it, there are times when a one-to-one conversation would make all the difference. Like when a customer is having a tough time checking out. Or when they need a little advice on the freshest jeans to go with that new jacket. The solution: conversational commerce! With truly interactive digital channels like live chat, brands can turn the purchasing journey into a two-way conversation that reduces friction and increases loyalty. 

Let’s take a look at this opportunity for brands and marketers to get more personal with customers. 

Conversational Commerce Takes on Friction

It’s no secret that reducing friction is key to creating better customer experiences. Customers love shopping online because there are no lines, no store hours to contend with, no crowds and other great benefits. But even with all that convenience, a whopping 70% of digital shopping carts are still abandoned before checkout.

That’s because there are a lot of potential frustration points in the purchasing journey, and customers lose patience if the process is interrupted, or unclear, or simply takes too long. But what if you could be there at that moment to help? That’s the power of live chat as a conversational commerce solution. It’s a real-time conversation with an actual human that helps your customers reach their (and your) goals, rather than a canned set of responses from an AI chatbot.

Not sure where to start? As you’re thinking about where two-way conversations could reduce friction, look at the customer journey to identify where customers consistently have questions.

• Do you have any customer support metrics that indicate where customers encounter issues?  
• Do you have bounce data from your site to show where customers abandon the purchase process? 

Two-Way Conversation Drives Conversions

How do two-way conversations drive conversions? To answer that question, we need to think like pirates. “AAARRR” is today’s pirate word and in this case, it stands for awareness, acquisition, activation, revenue, retention and referral—aka the pirate metrics. Conversational commerce drives progression through these metrics, from awareness through revenue and referrals.

Here are a few use cases along the AAARRR metric stages: 

Awareness

• New product offering 
• Sale notification
• Upcoming events

Acquisition

• Onboarding
• Promotional 
• Appointments available 

Activation

• Account Setup
• Subscription 

Retention

• Transactions
• Abandoned Cart
• Concierge Experience
• Loyalty Program 

Revenue

• Promotional
• In Store Pickup
• Upsell / Cross Sell 

Referral

• Customer Feedback

Conversational Commerce Responds to Rising Expectations

We know from the past year that customer expectations are high, evolving at an unprecedented pace, and customers are far more likely to brand hop than they were pre-pandemic. Plus, as customers increasingly expect real-time engagement from their brands, they’re also primed to expect that level of immediacy when it comes to service and support. 

Add to that the human need for interaction that we’re all experiencing, and you can see that conversational commerce is a natural fit for this moment, and why we recently launched Airship Live SMS Chat and Live In-App Chat.

Conversational commerce opens up a world of opportunities for creating better customer experiences, reducing friction and driving toward your goals. Airship’s Live Chat solutions enable brands to create live conversations with customers and build relationships at scale through personalized and real-time customer conversations.

Want to learn more, get in touch!

The post How Conversational Commerce Reduces Friction & Increases Conversions appeared first on Airship.