In today’s crowded, AI-fueled landscape, it’s not enough to just have messaging — it has to stand out. In this episode, I’m joined by Jason from Customer.io to unpack what makes great mobile messaging work: from building frameworks rooted in value and differentiation, to using first-party data to deliver the right message at the right moment.

We’ll talk strategy, execution, and the tools that help brands stay personal, timely, and unmistakably themselves — even at scale.

• Jason Lyman''s bio
• What is Customer.io
• How brands can can use AI but stay authentic
• The role of first-party data in making messaging more timely and relevant
• Timing and channels for effective mobile messaging
• Common mistaken made at personalizing messaging at scale
• Balancing automation with authenticity

• • Jason Lyman on LinkedIn
  • Customer.io website
  • Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

"Yeah, this is an interesting paradox that we've kind of created for ourselves. We have all these incredible tools like AI recommendations, powerful automation, sophisticated targeting, but everybody's using that playbook. And I think the result is customers are getting bombarded with messages that sounds very, very similar. so standing out needs to be less about being louder or frequent, and it needs to be focused around being more authentic."

"So, first party data is absolutely the future, especially with privacy regulations that are tidying up across the globe. So here's what I see happening. think gold marketers are sitting on these gold mines of customer data, but they're not using it effectively. know, a lot of people are, are thinking about segmentation in a very traditional way."

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

All right, I think all of you would agree—regardless of your role or area of expertise in this industry—that learning from the mistakes of others saves you time, money, and, most importantly, nerve cells. Because let’s be honest, trial and error is great… until it’s your budget on the line.

So, today we have Reed on the show to help us skip some of those growing pains. He’s here to share what’s working, what’s not, and some fresh, thought-provoking approaches to both app marketing and development. Whether you’re scaling a product or just getting started, I think you’ll walk away with a few insights worth stealing—or at least borrowing.

After founding the Business Strategy team at Branch six years ago, former strategy consultant Reed Kuhn has worked closely with hundreds of customers across verticals. Along the way, he’s picked up some sharp lessons—not just about best practices, but more importantly, about what not to do. In this episode, we’ll explore guiding objectives for app product owners and marketers, the greatest hits of killer use cases, mobile growth fails, and some simple ideas to make more from what you already have. Plus, we’ll look ahead with some bold predictions about how all of us will interact with apps in the AI-powered future.

• Reed Kuhn's bio
• What is Branch.io
• A guiding principle for what brings value to app users
• Common mistakes
• A quick win in app development
• Effective strategies
• New strategies on the Reed's radar
• What's coming up - in the near future and far out

• • Reed Kuhn on LinkedIn
  • Get in touch with the Branch.io team
  • Branch.io website
  • Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

"Over the years, so many of our customers fall into two big buckets. And this is, I think, the simplest framework that I have for differentiating between apps and what they're trying to achieve in terms of value. And that is you have commerce apps, which are the most obvious ones. This is your retailers, fashion, even quick serve restaurants, fast food chains, Starbucks, and also the big box retailers, the best buys of the world, even department stores like Nordstrom.

Those are commerce apps. Users primarily are going in there to shop. And hopefully, they actually buy something. And we do know that conversion rates are much higher in apps than on mobile web or even desktop. So those are easy to wrap your head around. The app exists to make it much easier for the user to shop and, in some cases, actually get support. If you want to manage a delivery or send something back, you can do that in the app rather than having to call someone up.

On the flip side, you have apps that don't really sell you anything, but they still serve a very important purpose to the user. So I call those companion apps and they're more diverse than commerce apps. So whereas commerce apps are very conversion focused, companion apps are much more feature focused. It's, I able to access information? So almost everybody is going to have their credit card or bank app on their phone, or at least they should be at this point. If they don't want to go there in person."

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

If there is one feature that helps app marketers to persevere through so much of a market change, it is adaptability. As app user acquisition costs were rising and privacy constraints in mobile emerged, marketers came up with the solution - web to app user acquisition channel.

Rather than sending users directly to an app store, marketers now route users to a mobile web page first—typically one optimized for onboarding, education, or even a light product experience. This allows for better control over messaging, tracking, and personalization before nudging users to install the app.

In this episode, we’ll delve into the concept of web-first growth with Gessica, exploring the new playbook for acquiring app users.

• Gessica Bicego's bio
• What convinced Gessica to switch to web-based strategies for mobile app UA
• How to decide what specific "web to app" approach to take - go with mini landing pages, full web onboarding, or else?
• Web versus app testing
• How to avoid getting lost in lots of onboarding screens

• Gessica Bicego on LinkedIn
• Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry

"I would say there are two approaches. Like either you send them to a landing page, but ultimately they convert on an app store - so all the call-to-action will lead to the App Store, or Google Play store. Or you guide them through a web funnel, where you have like lots of questions and you end up purchasing on the web."

Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012