Building a relationship with customers now requires brands to find ways to engage with their customers in an intelligent way across multiple channels. But as the number of ways that brands can connect with their customers has exploded in recent years, it’s become increasingly important for brands to make sure that they’re using each of those channels in the most effective way.
In today’s world, every consumer journey takes a different path—the trick is reaching them at exactly the right time on that journey with exactly the right message and in the right channel. This requires agile, intelligent technology in which brands can customize the consumer experience to a specific profile based on that consumer’s preferences, shopping habits, and other behavior-based factors.
Let’s take a look at three consumer personas that might frequent the fictional coffee shop Mea Cuppa Coffee. Mea Cuppa Coffee is a national chain that sells coffee and tea drinks, small baked goods, packaged foods, and branded merchandise like mugs, tumblers, and tea accessories. The chain has an active loyalty program, through which customers earn reward “stars” they can cash in for free drinks or food, and an app they can use to order or pay for purchases.
Zion is a 23-year-old administrative assistant who walks past a Mea Cuppa Coffee every day on his way to work. Zion is glued to his mobile phone, and is subscribed to both Mea Cuppa Coffee text messaging and Rewards programs to be fully in the know about discounts and promotions. Like most Gen Zers, he rarely carries cash, preferring to use his mobile wallet whenever possible. Zion is saving to move out of his parents’ house, so he has recently cut back on discretionary purchases like coffee.
Reaching Zion: omnichannel optimization
Zion consistently engages with rich media messages, which tells Mea Cuppa Coffee converting him to purchase may be more likely than if he received the same message as a text message.
Zion has his Mea Cuppa Coffee digital loyalty card saved to his Mobile Wallet, which
keeps
him up-to-date
on his earned rewards, status level, and member-exclusive benefits.
And since he is watching his budget, Zion always saves any mobile wallet offer he
receives since a
discount is essential for him when considering making a discretionary purchase.
54% of customers age 25-54 are already using mobile wallet to store digital offers and loyalty cards
When Zion walks past Mea Cuppa Coffee, the offer saved to his Mobile Wallet uses geolocation to automatically send a wallet notification to his lock screen reminding him that he still has an offer available to use. Appreciating the friendly reminder, Zion is motivated to go inside to treat himself.
Zion’s demographic data collected upon signing up for SMS along with engagement data from previous text messages makes it easy for Mea Cuppa Coffee to target him at the right moment to remind him to order through his phone on his way to work. The timely reminder with a direct URL link included in the message saves him time with no waiting in line required.
A 39-year-old working mother of three, Britney is always on the go—and she always needs a pick me up. She is currently subscribed to Mea Cuppa Coffee’ text messaging program, and is also a current Rewards member who has the Mea Cuppa Coffee app but rarely uses it, preferring instead to utilize Mobile Wallet for earning reward points and paying in the drive-thru lane. Since Britney frequently purchases her favorite iced coffee, prepackaged sandwiches for her on-the-go self, or snacks for her kids and their friends, she wants to be in the know on all that Mea Cuppa Coffee has to offer, as well as be properly informed on the perks she gets by being a loyal guest.
Reaching Britney: omnichannel optimization
Through the orchestration of Mea Cuppa Coffee loyalty system, their payment terminals, and Apple and Google, Mobile Wallet can communicate with Britney’s mobile payment method (Apple Pay or Google Wallet) in real time so when she’s paying she can also redeem or acquire any Loyalty points she’s earned – at the same time – without switching to and scanning her loyalty card. All of this streamlines the checkout process.
Mea Cuppa Coffee can let Britney know when it brings a new kids’ food brand into its stores, so that she can consider it next time she has the kids in the car.
A2P messages have a five time higher open rate than emails
Britney doesn’t want to spend her time learning the ins and outs of
the program—but she does want to how and when she can turn her rewards
into a new tumbler for her iced coffee. Every time she scans and pays
with her Mobile Wallet, Britney’s loyalty card is immediately updated
to reflect her new points balance and current progress towards a reward.
When a reward is available, a mobile wallet notification pops up on her
lock screen to make sure she doesn’t miss seeing it.
Mina, 62, owns a retail shop two doors down from a busy Mea Cuppa Coffee location. She frequently stops at Mea Cuppa Coffee in the morning to pick up coffee for herself or staffers, but usually doesn’t think of the cafe when it comes time for lunch. Mina has Mea Cuppa Coffee mobile app and is currently subscribed to their text messaging program, but she doesn’t look at her phone much throughout the day as she is busy helping customers.
Reaching Mina: omnichannel optimization
When Mea Cuppa Coffee updates its lunch menu they let Mina know via a push notification to try and entice her to check out the day’s specials. Through intelligent engagement tracking, Mea Cuppa Coffee can see that she didn’t click the message so they plan to send her a follow-up text message a couple of days later.
Having learned she doesn’t engage much during work hours, they text her at 6pm to alert her of the next day’s menu.
Having the data that says Mina more often engages with promotional content via text message over push notifications, Mea Cuppa Coffee knows that converting her to purchase is more likely when they interact with her in the SMS channel.
Mina changes up her drink order often, so her thoughts on new product lines are helpful. Mea Cuppa Coffee occasionally reaches out to her via text message with questions about her product preferences in exchange for a free drink or discount off her next purchase.
1 in every 2 consumers signed up for SMS marketing messages say the main motivation for them is to receive incentives or coupons
No matter if you’re a restaurant, retailer or customer services brand, optimizing your mobile messaging by engaging with consumers in the channels they prefer can help them feel more connected to your brand and ultimately increase loyalty and drive more frequent purchases. In today’s competitive environment, brands can’t afford not to make the most of every mobile channel that they have available to them.
Vibes is the world’s most trusted mobile marketing partner, specializing in creating personal and revenue-driving mobile engagement between consumers and the brands they love. Industry leaders like Chipotle, The Container Store and Polo Ralph Lauren use Vibes’ intelligent mobile engagement platform to seamlessly connect with their customers using an automated, data-rich platform that beautifully optimizes and unifies their SMS, MMS, Mobile Wallet and in-app Push campaigns.
Reach out today to find out how our solutions can help drive engagement, brand loyalty, and ROI for your business.