Why App Personalization Should be your Biggest Priority

How do usually you react when you visit a local restaurant and the waiter remembers your name and your food preferences. Yes, you feel cared for and happy. It’s this feeling that makes you frequent the restaurant and cement your relationship with the place. That’s the magic of personalization. As the battle to win customers and customer loyalty grows fiercer, app personalization seems to have taken precedence over other factors that determine the success of apps. A number of consumer studies have shown that customers prefer apps that connect and engage with them in ways that matter to them. Only businesses that have catered to this preference, have managed to positively affect their bottom line.

Here’s What They Have Done

Pandora – the personalized music-recommendation app is a burning example of how app personalization can help your business grow beyond your dreams. It’s an app that sets the listener to the music he loves. The apps algorithm relies on the history of the user’s artist selection and feedback to connect him to the right music station. For avid music lovers, this meant getting to enjoy music of their choice, giving them a compelling experience and a feeling of importance. The app met with such enormous success that the company managed to raise $230 million by issuing 10 million shares.

Here’s another great example of how French cosmetic giant Sephora is trying to use app personalization to connect with users. Mid- March this year the company launched a new application, Pocket Contour Class, to provide tailored, step-by-step instructions for makeup based on facial features along with product recommendations. There are two reasons why this will turn out to be a must-have app for women. Firstly, the app would help them determine what they struggle to learn i.e. their face shape and secondly it would help them learn where to put the makeup on their face.

The driving need for app personalization, as established in the above cases, is to maximize value proposition. When you offer right value, you bridge the gap between you and your user and offer content or product at the right time, in the right place and when it matters the most. For instance, in the case of the Sephora app, digital savvy customers who are constantly using their phones, both at home and outside homes can use the app for a quick makeup anywhere and anytime, even while on the go. The app offers complete value to those fussy about looks and so will find it easy to resonate with its users.

What You Need to Do

If you are planning to build an app, mobile app revenue should be the last thing in your mind. Instead, work towards personalizing the app so that you can get it into as many hands as possible. Once you succeed in this, it becomes easy to get your users addicted to the app and, in turn, make your app generate revenue for you.