Hurree's Marketing Blog

8 Stages of the User Interaction Journey

Written by Hannah Strain | Jun 1, 2017

Header Image Credit: IMDB

So you have successfully designed and developed your app, and you have even acquired a few users... That's awesome! But where do you go from here?

 

Obviously, you need to look at your existing users and create user profiles according to the information. Your existing users like your app, well if they didn’t, they wouldn't use it. Existing users provide you with a wealth of information from their characteristics to in-app behaviour. 

This information compiled into profiles can be used to personalise app communication from push notifications to app navigation. This can be a time-consuming journey but using a marketing platform that allows dynamic profiling can lighten the task and boy is it worth it! 

Are you ready for this journey?

 
How User Profiling Works for App Marketing

Once your app is opened, the user profile creation journey begins. As the user interacts with the app, they reveal more and more about themselves to you. If used correctly this can help you inform your user profiles keeping them relevant and up to date. Each interaction with your app adds more information to the profile the, therefore, determines its type. 

Below are the 3 types of user profiles:

  • Anonymous

These are profiles that do not yet contain uniquely identifiable information about the user.

  • Addressable

This type of user profile has collected user characteristics. This type of user profile allows personalised messaging through email or push notifications to be sent to the user thanks to the data gathered.

  • Conversation

Here the marketer has recorded a purchase being made.

Do yourself a favour and use a marketing platform that allows dynamic profiling. This means that the type of user profile changes automatically as more data is collected. Saving you time trying to keep on top of everything - SCORE! 

Keep in mind…a user profile can only belong to one type at a time. This helps you to keep the messaging on point for each individual user.  

As I’ve mentioned, the more interaction the user has with the app the more information can be added to the profile. To understand the profile it is first important to understand each stage of the user interaction journey.

User Interaction Journey

1. Open app:
 

As soon as the user opens your app, a user profile is created. This is automatically created when using a marketing platform that allows dynamic profiling. The profile includes data such as the date the app is first opened, the user’s language and region, and the version of the app they are using. At this stage no personal information has been entered and; all the data has been collected automatically. At this stage, the user profile is an anonymous type.


2. Account creation:

Here, your user creates an account on your app. This updates their
user profile with demographic data information (gender & age), contact information (email address), personal information (name) and anything else that is required to create an account. With this rich information, you can contact the user directly which means the user profile automatically progresses to the addressable type.

3. Completing the first sessions:

So the user is using your app. Great! You can now track what features and content that they explore. This usage data will show patterns providing statistical data and backup when making
app marketing strategy decisions. It will also help facilitate personalised campaigns down the line. 

4. Implementing communication channels:

Encourage users to opt-in to push notifications, email subscription lists, and even location services. 



This will give you more information about their demographic profile and
interaction with your brand. This encouragement gives you more channels to reach the user. This is great as multi-channel messaging can increase customer retention by 130%.

5. Continued app usage:

With continued use, your user profiles can continue to track data. That data could be the number of sessions a user has on your app, the last time a customer opened the app, and the products and features they viewed or used.
 

6. Interaction patterns development:

Interaction with your app marketing campaigns is tracked. For example, push notification opens, email opens and clicks, News Feed views and clicks or in-app message impressions and clicks all provide insight to user profiles. This is great, as you to see what is the best way to communicate with the user to create interaction.

7. Track social media connections:

The
user profile is also known to track social media connections as well as the user’s favourite products or features.  This allows you to know what your users are interested in, and also if these interests are common among your users.

8. Completing conversions:

As you would expect the
user profiles will also compile data when a purchase or conversion has been made. Here, you can see what the user has purchased or opted into, therefore providing you with insight into what your user is interested in. This provides understanding and the ability to provide appropriate suggestions on what might interest the user.

T
he user profile journey is never-ending! Users are constantly changing and therefore it is your responsibility to make sure that their profile is being updated regularly. This can be time-consuming, therefore, using a marketing platform that allows dynamic profiling automatically updates the more data is collected. This information gathered makes it so much easier for app marketing to tailor and personalise the in-app features to each user's needs. As said before no one likes to be sent stuff that they are not interested in or don’t want. 

Book a free demo today to see how Hurree can help you transform your company reporting and improve your sales & marketing output  💌  Don't hesitate to get in touch via contact@hurree.co if you have any inquiries - we’re happy to chat!