Anonymous User Campaigns: 6 Ways to Activate, Retain, and Monetize Your Unknown Users

86% of retail and eCommerce users are anonymous, meaning that they’ve engaged with a brand’s app or website but haven’t logged in. But while these anonymous users make up such a sizable audience segment, most (80%) never receive any marketing outreach from the brands whose websites and apps they engage with. By our count, 12% of all retail and eCommerce purchasers are anonymous users and unknown customers are 58% more likely to buy something from a brand within their first week of engagement compared to known customers.

These findings, the result of a Braze study conducted between 2019 and 2021 of 2.5 billion active users of over 100 popular retail and eCommerce apps, not only reveal why anonymous users matter for retail and ecommerce, but why building an anonymous user engagement strategy can be an impactful way to drive user activation, retention, and monetization. Not only that, engaging your audience of anonymous users is a powerful organic growth strategy that can help cut back on customer acquisition costs and bolster your brand's first-party data collection efforts.

But what are the most effective customer engagement campaigns for converting anonymous users into known users? Here are our top six anonymous user campaigns to launch ASAP.

6 Anonymous User Campaigns: Activate, Retain, and Monetize Your Unknown Users

#1: Account Creation Campaign

The situation: You have anonymous users actively browsing on your website or engaging with your app, but they haven't created an account yet. They can't enjoy all of the advantages of having an account, such as creating a wish list, favoriting products, and keeping track of their orders.

The campaign: Encourage anonymous users to complete the process of creating an account using in-product messages, such as in-app messages (IAMs), Content Cards, and in-browser messages (IBMs). Highlight the benefits of signing up for an account.

#2: Free Trial Opt-In Campaign

The situation: Your team wants to convert anonymous users actively browsing on your website to try out your company's subscription service.

The campaign: Test a variety of channels, content and design options, and message send times to find the optimal combination of variables and maximize your free trial conversion rate. Once you can convince users of what your brand has to offer, they'll be more likely to commit to becoming paying customers.

#3: Survey Campaign and Customer Preferences Campaign

The situation: While the Braze SDK allows you to capture some data about your anonymous users, you still want to learn more about your customers to be able to serve them better.

The campaign: Use in-product messages like IAMs and Content Cards to prompt anonymous users to provide additional data about themselves.

Be sure to highlight the value prop of sharing information with your brand by explaining how you'll use these insights to improve the customer experience.

#4: Message Opt-In Campaign

The situation: You want the chance to educate your anonymous website and app users about your products and services before they bounce, so you can extend things beyond a one-time interaction to a long-term relationship. That's where making the case for visitors to keep in touch by becoming subscribers comes in.

The campaign: Use IBMs and IAMs to encourage anonymous browsers to opt into receiving relevant updates from your brand. As always, be sure to explain what's in it for customers as they decide whether they want to get outreach from your company or not.

Our guides on priming for web push, priming for push notifications, encouraging email marketing opt-ins, and securing SMS marketing opt-ins have in-depth suggestions for highlighting your value to customers.

#5: Abandoned Onboarding Campaign

The situation: Your unknown users have started the process of becoming more fully known users. Maybe they've created an account, but haven't completed their profile, added a payment method, or made their selections in your app's preference center. Whatever the case, they've been introduced to your brand but probably aren't getting the full benefits of engaging with your app or website.

The campaign: Use email, mobile push, and web push notifications to re-engage these new users and communicate the upside of picking up where they've left off in their onboarding journey. Be sure to deep link them directly to the exact step where they dropped off in the flow, providing a clear path toward completion and subsequent long-term engagement.

#6: Special Offer Activation

The situation: Your anonymous users have indicated their exit intent to leave your website, but you still haven't captured information to help convert them into known users.

The campaign: Showcase IBMs featuring exclusive special offers before your unknown visitors bounce.

#7: Seasonal Promotions

The situation: You know the power of personalization, but you're at a loss for how to personalize the experience for the users you know the least about.

The campaign: With the customer insights that the Braze SDK automatically collects, such as usage session activity, device details, custom events, and event properties, you actually have enough information to tailor your app and website experiences for anonymous users.

So go ahead, use IAMs, Content Cards, and IBMs to personalize the experience for your anonymous users based on the information you do know, such as their most recent location, device location, language, country, and device time zone.

See the ROI of Your Anonymous User Campaigns

To adjust to today’s fast-moving retail landscape, brands need to take a deeper look at their audience of anonymous users and how they’re currently reaching them. Based on Braze research, brands that foster long-term relationships with anonymous users can achieve a strong ROI, improving overall business performance. For more insights, check out the 2022 Customer Engagement Review.