5 Way to Segment Customers for Better App Marketing

If you’re looking to increase user engagement in your app, segmenting customers is a valuable strategy to keep in mind. Segmenting allows you to send targeted in-app messages, which increases:

• The personalization of your messages
• How much customers feel you understand them
• The likelihood your customers will buy

Think about it this way. If you’re opening up an airline app the airport, which experience resonates most with you: one that lands you to a generic one-size-fits-all landing page, or one that knows where you’re headed, how long the wait line is, what the weather will be, and which gate you need to be at?

There are a variety of ways to segment customers to tailor the app experience just to them. In this blog post, we’ll be discussing five top approaches that are worth a try.

5 Ways to Segment Customers in Your App

1. Geographic location

You can segment users based on reported geographic data like city, country, and state — or you can even drill down to the recent location of app users to segment those who are within a radius of a certain point. This comes in handy with shoppers, for example, who might be in your store and would be more likely to purchase additional products if you send a timely coupon. (For more ideas on using location to our advantage, check out our webinar, “Navigating Location-Based Marketing.”)

2. Device information

You can use device information such as OS version (e.g., Android vs. iPhone), hardware type (e.g., iPhone 7 vs. 8), and device type (e.g., phone vs. tablet). This could be helpful because different devices will offer different experiences to users; if, for example, you have a fitness app and want to encourage users to start their next workout, you might want to test whether you have better success doing it while users are on their tablets (where maybe they can see the workout video better) versus running around town on their mobile phones (which might be too small to showcase your full-screen workouts).

3. App information

You can use app version and app build number to segment. If, for example, you want to invite users to try out a new feature on your app, you’re only going to want to send that to users who have the latest version installed.

4. User profile information

You can use information about your app users for further segmentation, such as their language settings, whether they have push notifications enabled, and how many sessions they’ve had. This is important information because if you have a globally used app, you’re going to want to make sure you send users in-app messages in their language. Similarly, you’re not going to want to spend time crafting the perfect push notification for users who don’t even have push enabled.

5. User behavior

User behavior helps you target app users who have taken actions within your app before (or not), how many days its been between actions, how many times users have opened your app within a range of dates, and so on. A potential use case of this would be segmenting mobile game users who used to be avid players but dropped off in engagement upon reaching a certain level in your app; by offering a useful tip or tokens, you can entice them back into your app to keep playing.

Learn more

When it comes down to it, better segmentation means better marketing. To learn more, check out our article on ways to use in-app marketing now that you’ve got your segments figured out, or reach out to us for more.