Brave new world: Apple Vision Pro marketing with Customer.io

Ahmed Ali on May 7, 2024

To make a real connection, brands must meet customers where they are. Over the years, we’ve followed them to their email inboxes, phone notifications, social media, and more. And now, we’re following them into virtual reality.

Customer.io now integrates with Apple Vision Pro—offering brands a unique opportunity to engage with their customers like never before. Customer.io is the first customer engagement platform to integrate with Vision Pro, opening up many possibilities for brands looking to create data-driven campaigns for their VR audiences. Once your VR app data is in Data Pipelines, it’s integrated with all your other customer data, ready to flow into every tool in your tech stack—including Journeys, our marketing automation platform—where you can use it to create authentic omnichannel campaigns.

Virtual reality marketing is the next evolution of experiential marketing. Innovative brands are already seizing on its potential, and it’s increasingly important to have a presence in this rapidly growing space. The VR market was estimated at $59.96 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at an annual compound rate of 27.5% from 2023 to 2030 (source). There’s a good chance your customer base is already there. And with Customer.io, you’ll be there, too.

Let’s dig into a few details:

The virtual reality marketing landscape today

An estimated 53 million US adults own a VR system (source), and 48% of US consumers have had at least one VR experience (source). The VR market is only growing, and customers are actively seeking out meaningful experiences in the virtual realm.

Brands that establish a presence in this space early can make a big splash—both through in-channel engagement and by using the data they collect to drive marketing strategies, refine content personalization, and make data-driven marketing decisions.

While virtual reality marketing holds tremendous promise, implementing VR in marketing strategies requires a different approach than any other channel. You must understand how the technology works and how people use it. Unlike what you may see in sci-fi films like Cyberpunk or Ready Player One, where pop-up ads are on every surface of a VR space, current virtual reality marketing is all about seamless experiences. Brands that use VR marketing effectively create immersive experiences that leverage the unique capabilities of VR headsets. And to do that, you need real-time data about your VR audience.

Why we’re connecting with Apple Vision Pro

The release of Apple Vision Pro heralds a significant expansion of the VR landscape. Over 200,000 units were sold in the first 10 days of pre-orders, and analysts expect more than a million people to strap on the headsets in 2024 (source). Our customers are eager to leverage the opportunity for Apple Vision Pro marketing, and we’re keeping up with their needs to ensure our platform supports their innovations.

Thus far, brands haven’t had much visibility into customers’ journeys using Vision Pro headsets. When your VR data isn’t integrated into the rest of your customer data, you can’t clearly see what people are doing, personalize their messaging, or respond to their actions in real time. All your other marketing is orchestrated in one place—integrated and powerful—while your VR marketing campaigns and data are siloed.

The Customer.io integration with Vision Pro is designed to bring your VR customer data into the fold. Now that you can track Vision Pro data in Data Pipelines, you can more effectively map your customer journeys and deliver relevant messaging holistically across every touchpoint—including in the virtual world. Real-time Vision Pro data in Data Pipelines enables:

Personalized, targeted communications: You can use Vision Pro data to customize messaging to each individual based on their specific events and behaviors.
Better segmentation: Behavioral data from the Vision Pro app allows you to precisely segment customers based on their actions and target them with relevant campaigns.
Enhanced customer experiences: Understanding customers’ preferences and behaviors in VR environments helps you craft more personalized, seamless customer experiences.
Insights and analytics: Data from Vision Pro is a powerful source of business intelligence, which you can use to test and refine your VR marketing strategy in this rapidly developing arena.

4 ways to use Customer.io for Apple Vision Pro marketing strategies

You need to create a cohesive and integrated brand experience across all touchpoints, both within and outside of VR environments. Here are four ways Customer.io can help you build that seamless experience for your Vision Pro audience.

1. Create highly personalized experiences

With data from Vision Pro, you can understand how your customers interact with your app. Then, you can use that data for advanced personalization and to create customized journeys to help them get the most out of their experience.

For example, consider onboarding or brand education early in the customer journey. Omnichannel marketing allows you to provide your Vision Pro customer base with targeted, relevant messaging from the moment they engage with your brand. That can include push notification VR marketing and customized experiences across other channels—all powered by integrated data.

2. Run targeted, behavior-triggered promotions

Use data from Vision Pro to deliver targeted promotions to specific groups of customers, such as those who have completed a specific action within the app or spent a certain amount of time using it.

This helps you run more comprehensive, efficient, and effective marketing campaigns—no matter what channel you’re talking to your customers on. Your promotions will inspire more engagement when responding to real human behavior.

3. Improve customer experiences

Your VR app is a powerful place to gather valuable feedback and insights to improve your overall customer experience. Feed your Vision Pro data from Data Pipelines into Journeys to create surveys, follow-up messages, or custom cadences. You can specifically target various types of people, such as inactive customers, power users, or brand-new customers. Targeted feedback from different cohorts will give you layered insights that will help you better understand your customers, improve their experience, and build stronger relationships.

4. Offer VR-exclusive content and rewards

Virtual reality marketing must be as unique and immersive as VR environments themselves. Leverage the unique capabilities of VR to offer exclusive content, rewards, or experiences to customers who engage with your brand through Vision Pro. Your VR content can quite literally create unique new worlds for your customers. You can also keep that feeling of immersion and exclusivity going outside the app by using data from VR in marketing for other channels. That’s part of the power of an integrated, omnichannel marketing experience.

Customer.io and you: virtual reality marketing for the future

As virtual reality becomes more and more accessible, adoption will continue to rise, and experiential marketing will grow ever more crucial. As your customers increasingly experience the world through VR headsets, your VR marketing strategy needs to meet them there. By integrating Vision Pro data into your ecosystem, you can create personalized and memorable customer experiences.

You’re at the forefront of marketing innovation, and we’re here to help you power it. Customer.io’s integration with Vision Pro gives you access to the data and tools you need to connect with your VR audience—maximizing your personalization, targeting, and engagement.

Ready to strap on your VR marketing headset? Check out our Vision Pro documentation to start tapping into the power of Vision Pro data in Data Pipelines.

Not using Data Pipelines yet? Sign up for the free starter plan.

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