Understanding why rich user profiles work and what makes them so powerful

As mobile and app marketers, you’re constantly on the hunt for a competitive edge. You’re looking for the best strategies, solutions, and tools that will inform your decision-making process.
However, there’s a crucial element that often gets ignored – The human quotient.
When you’re busy focusing on optimizing abandoned cart scenarios and reducing app uninstalls, more often than not,
[bctt tweet=”We forget the most important thing of all: Users are more than just data points”]
And they should be at the very core of your marketing strategy. These are the people who will buy/download and use your products and services and stay with you for the long haul.
How do you get better at understanding these people and their needs? Well, it’s really simple – you collect more meaningful information about them and convert that into usable knowledge. The more knowledge you have about the way users interact with your product and how they interact with the world, you can customize your content to appeal specifically to their interests and problems. Once you’re able to effectively create a user experience based on real-time insights and individual workflows, it will be much easier for you to build loyalty and increase engagement.
At CleverTap, we enable you to quickly achieve this through our Rich User Profiles feature.
What are Rich User Profiles?
Rich User Profiles are profiles which collate data from a lot of discrete yet related sources to give you a comprehensive picture of your users across 6 different axes.They are simply a way to collect data that can be leveraged by best in class segmentation engines like CleverTap for grouping users of similar behavior so you can really understand what they are doing in your app.

Why do I need to use Rich User Profiles?
There are no cookies on mobile phones. As a result, you need a different way to learn about your users and how they are interacting with your product. This is where Rich User Profiles come in – from the moment a user first interacts with your app, you can begin collecting information about them.
Each time a new user launches your app or visits your website, a dedicated user profile is created for them. This is a unique, distinct identity that will stay consistent throughout the lifetime of the user.
Every new piece of information/data you gather about this user will be tied to their unique Rich User Profile. As a result, user segmentation becomes much easier because you are able to see, at a glance, where a particular user is in your funnel and what characteristics they possess that would make them receptive to different forms of messaging and content.

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And if someone used your app once, deleted it and then reinstalled it 6 months later when they heard a friend talk about it? No problem. You still have the data for this user from when they first visited/used your product.
Let’s walk through the benefits of Rich User Profiles with an example. Say you have a clothing/e-commerce brand called “WoW Apparel” (for lack of a better name!).
Having set-up your store, website and app, you’re now waiting for the horde of hungry buyers to download your app and buy the merchandise you have to offer.
Enter Rachel Smith-
Rachel Smith seems like a user who would potentially be interested in your services. But we don’t know this yet. Let’s see how Rich User Profiles can help.
She downloads your app but hasn’t registered yet.

Even before users create an account on your website/app, you can begin collecting information about them. By understanding the broad demographics this anonymous user belongs to, you can automatically put them into categories (such as geographic location) depending upon the kind of product or service you have.
Rachel starts using your app.
Once a user starts using your app, you can start collecting several important pieces of data about them that will be useful to you as an app marketer. For instance:

• The first/last time they used your app, and for how long.
• Which product category or section they are most interested in, and how frequently they visit these pages.
• If you notice they’re browsing the summer catalog frequently, you could send them discount promotions related to the items they’re looking at.

Rachel Smith creates an account on your app and fills out the information you’ve requested (Name/Phone/Email)
After a user has registered, Rich User Profiles allows you to take in information from several different social media/online profiles that they might have (Rachel in this case).

• Facebook profiles can help you put a face to the name, and give you insights about their interests, and where they’re located.
• You might find that Rachel mentioned she’s a passionate fashion blogger on her Google+ profile.
• You can also learn about her gender and that she belongs to the 25-35 age group. Instantly, this puts her into a specific category of users that are likely to respond better to certain kinds of content/promotion (based on your past user behavior data).
• Rachel’s interactions within your own app (say she’s browsed through the Handbags section for example) can help you gain additional behavioral insights into her life.

Rachel browses through your catalog on her phone. She then installs your app on her iPad so she can use it in between Netflix and YouTube sessions.
Rich User Profiles ensure that she gets a smooth experience across both devices because you’re already aware of what she likes, and you can use this information to customize her iPad experience.

• Whatever customizations you’re already making for your tablet users will be even more effective because you already have a lot of data about Rachel through her phone usage.
• As Rachel starts using the app more on her iPad, you now have more information about her that can be added to her Rich User Profile.

[bctt tweet= “Collating user interactions on separate devices into a single, comprehensive picture is incredibly powerful.”]
Rachel starts interacting with your marketing campaigns.
Rich User Profiles are a great asset for tracking individual pieces of marketing campaigns and then viewing them as part of a bigger picture.
Based on her individual activities, Rachel will get added to various behavioral segments that will trigger messaging that is most relevant and in her exact moment of need.
For example,

• You might learn that she hasn’t looked at the handbags promotional email you sent out yesterday, but she has looked through and clicked on your Office-wear promotional email with a discount coupon.
• All you need to do is use her content interactions (around formal clothing) to send her marketing messages she’s likely to be interested in.

She receives a new promotional email/push notification from you which reminds her that the summer discounts are going away soon. She finally makes up her mind and buys that palazzo trouser she’s been looking to get.

Now that you’ve seen Rachel progress through one of your funnels and make a purchase, you can then send her cross-sell or up-sell nudges. Let’s say she opened and clicked on the link in your summer promotion email but hasn’t used your app since, you can send her a push notification or some other kind of reminder telling her about the deals she’s missing out on.
With Rich User Profiles, you have a tremendous amount of information about your users that you can intelligently leverage to increase engagement. Regardless of whether your users are looking at your product on their iPhone or their laptop, you’ll be able to give them a smooth experience based on what they are interested in.
[bctt tweet= “Rich User Profiles enables to understand how users interact with products at a deeper level.”]
Collating insights from other data sources and combining it with in-app behavior will give you a massive insight into how your customers use your product; enabling you to send them customized promotions and reminders.

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