Marketers leveraging mobile wallet to connect with customers in real-time
In today’s always-connected world, smartphones are literally everywhere—including in our hands, on our bedside tables and at our side when we’re shopping. So are opportunities for marketers who want to engage their customers by delivering relevant, customized, location-aware content and communications to them.
According to recent consumer mobile data, one in three customers today uses a mobile wallet, making it one of the most effective and efficient ways to connect brands with mobile consumers who are taking advantage of digital technology to store credit cards, loyalty cards, boarding passes, coupons and more.
For non-marketing communications, the mobile wallet eliminates paper-based transactions, giving consumers the added convenience of being able to use their mobile device to pay for a purchase or simply show their loyalty card. At the same time, the mobile wallet allows marketers to leverage real-time insights immediately to improve performance and optimize customer experience—including triggering offers based on a customer’s latest transaction or geo-location while they are still in the store.
The bottom line? Mobile wallet enables marketers to reach always-on and always on-the-go consumers in real-time—leading to higher engagement which should ultimately positively impact ROMI (return on marketing investment).
Many ESPs and marketing cloud solution providers have already started integrating the mobile wallet into their platform as a value-add service and a new channel for marketing communications. \the mobile wallet will ultimately become a platform for integrated, real-time marketing.
By using the mobile wallet marketing platform and integrating campaigns using opt-in email and SMS campaigns, marketers can now serve up coupons and manage loyalty program opportunities outside of traditional channels, improving customer engagement and driving demand.
Better still, with the quality of real-time response data coming back from Android and iOS devices, marketers can quickly and accurately identify consumer segments that are highly engaged with wallet campaigns.
There are a variety of ways the mobile wallet platform can be used today. Here are a few examples that bring added value to both marketers and consumers:
Mobile coupons to drive foot traffic to the store: Retailers can create real-time mobile wallet campaigns based on geo-location (or a specific store) that will drive consumers to their favourite location, leveraging behavioural and shopping habits to send a specific coupon or offer. Wallet campaigns and offers can store consumer preferences and personalization, such as most favourite store, most frequent location, etc.
Personalized offers: Marketers can run mobile wallet campaigns that send personalized coupons to their wallet customers. Each offer can be fully customized and delivered in real-time. Marketers have ability to expire coupons in real-time, send push notifications and change content dynamically—based on predefined criteria or other events.
Proactive marketing: Marketers can leverage coupon redemption as a way to trigger another message or offer, based on context received by the last transaction. Customers can be served up relevant, follow-up offers that specifically relate to the last transaction. For example, a customer walks into the store to buy a specific product using a coupon stored in mobile wallet; the marketer uses real-time transaction data and feedback loop from the customer’s mobile wallet to trigger the next best action and then sends another wallet offer in real time, while the customer is still in the store.
The numbers say it all. According to the 2016 Vibes Consumer Study, 94% of mobile wallet users are likely to save personalized mobile wallet offers and coupons, and more than a third of all smartphone users currently use mobile wallet. And younger consumers (ages 18-34) are more likely to use a mobile wallet than older consumers.
Given the current generation and the quick adoption rate of mobile technology among young consumers, those stats will only increase, giving marketers additional ways to connect with their on-the-go audience in real-time.
There are several mobile wallet integration options available to marketers today, that enable brands to use this new marketing communication channel: using an existing ESP (email service provider) that has mobile wallet already integrated, or using companies that specialize in mobile wallet campaigns and offer a mobile wallet platform that integrates wallet with email and SMS programs. Since wallet campaigns follow Apple and Google guidelines and references, marketers can easily re-use already created content and format it to fit the mobile standards.
According to Google study in 2015, 50% of consumers who conduct a local search on their phone visit a store within a day and 18% of those searches lead to a purchase within a day.
By leveraging store beacons and mobile wallets, marketers can create real-time ads that offer mobile wallet integration and provide consumers with additional offers to drive engagement and loyalty.
Mobile wallet as an integrated marketing platform has matured very quickly. To learn more about how mobile wallet can be integrated into your current marketing and CRM communication strategies that can positively impact engagement, please visit www.fcbsix.com/mobilewallet.
This article originally appeared in the November 2016 issue of Direct Marketing.
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