People download many applications and visit many sites, but only a few of them are used. In 2021, personalization is a key success factor for any app and the main way to build long-term relationships with users. Every company wants to personalize the interaction with its users, but what and how to personalize is a big question that requires the collection and analysis of a lot of data. So how do you make your application stand out from the rest?

Personalizing interactions

Interaction personalization focuses on how and when to interact with the user. As for the ‘how’ part, we usually refer to the user based on certain actions or behavior. For example, if a customer purchases an item on a mobile app, the salesperson might send them a thank you email with a call to the next action.

As for the question of “when” to engage a user, the best strategy is to send messages at a time when the user is most likely to use the application, rather than sending them to all users at once. For example, a ticketing app that allows users to search, view, and buy tickets for a city’s events needs to keep track of when, where, and what each user is looking for. If a user stops using the app for a certain period, it can send each user a push message with the appropriate content to get them back to using the app again. Likewise, if a user frequently views events but does not purchase tickets, they can be encouraged to purchase with a coupon for a specific event.

Content personalization

Consider content personalization as a set of guidelines for different types of content. User data such as browsing, shopping, and search history can be used to tailor content, be it an advertisement, article, or recommendation of a product or service. This data can also be used to determine what NOT to send to users.

This is more difficult than personalizing the experience because to ensure that different types of content work smoothly, personalization must be implemented at the design stage of the application so that triggers for each type of content are built into the program from the outset. The app must then track user behavior against specific indicators to trigger the submission of personalized content when a specific trigger is fired. However, personalizing your content is the best way to make sure that the different types of content you create find the right addressee.

Experience personalization

Personalizing the experience is perhaps the most difficult of the three, as it entails altering the entire application based on the behavior of each specific user. The app will look different for an experienced user and a beginner as there are different business tasks for each of them. A new user can see a simplified interface to explore key features, while an experienced user can open the application and see the most commonly used features.

Back to the ticketing app again, the UI can be customized based on tags such as limited user/newbie, discount/award ticket buyer, etc. Each tag or combination of tags can be used to customize different app layouts and the number of offers displayed. Personalizing experiences takes a lot of experimentation, but once you find the right combination, it becomes a very powerful user retention mechanism. While this may sound daunting, the first step to any personalization is to collect key user data and user behavior data, process that data, and process it into meaningful insights. Do it right, and you will gain loyal users who will not be able to return to you.