Mobile has been revolutionary for the world of marketing, but perhaps its biggest capability is inducing loyalty and that all-important customer retention.

It’s not ground-breaking to say that consumer loyalty is integral to a brand’s success, nor is it to say that smartphones have transformed brand marketing. What does need to be emphasized, however, is the potential of effectively combining these two elements – mobile and loyalty.

Making the most of mobile

With apps, the world wide web and a plethora of data, your phone knows you like the back of its screen. As a result, mobile offers access to consumers like never before. Immediate benefits, like online purchases, push campaigns and product promotion, have been in full swing for a while now. But for longer-term goals, such as winning loyalty, mobile can also help.

A brand’s existing customers produce up to 65% of its business. Chances are, if a customer has bought from them before, they’re likely to do it again. The benefits of loyalty are great – but you probably already know this.

What you might not be as familiar with is how optimized mobile marketing can create loyalty. The channel means you can communicate the right message to the right person, at the exact right time. It offers:

• Convenient access

• Data optimization

• Perfect timing

• Personalized user experience

• Promotion of exclusive offers

All of which, if utilized effectively, can create profit for a brand.

Utilizing accessibility

First and foremost, mobile means access – for both the consumer and the brand. We spend, on average, 1/3 of our day on our phones. Consumers can shop whenever they like, and brands have unprecedented potential to interact with their customers.

Think Christmas shopping and a choice between packed Oxford Street and the comfort of your sofa and pyjamas – offering this convenience increases purchase probability and improves brand image. Or, as a brand, take the click-and-collect functionality. It allows you to alert customers when their order is ready, thus managing wait times, staffing and catchment areas etc.

Being able to reach customers through a multitude of touch points – app push notifications, emails, delivery updates, promotional campaigns, texts, and web pages – keeps them engaged with the brand and more likely to come back.

Making the most of your data

By collecting data on spending habits, interests and interactions, apps generate a huge wealth of information from which brands can build a base of knowledge on their consumers. For instance, the most popular time for app interaction and what push creates clicks.

With 87% of Americans happy to forgo some element of privacy to obtain the best customer experience, gathering data isn’t the issue – optimizing it is. Currently, only 33% of brands are grouping users by their real-time data.

So there’s a wealth of opportunity for more brands to be making the most of their resources, and creating efficient and relevant brand experiences for customers.

The power of the right moment

With such accessibility and data, mobile allows brands to craft moments of perfect timing, which increase the likelihood of consumer purchases.

For instance, with location tracking enabled, a coffee shop app can send a push message to a consumer when they are near a branch – combining access via mobile with data, to deliver messaging at the optimal time. Or, if a consumer has been inactive for a while, capitalizing on a seasonal event by sending promotional messaging in the days prior, can bring them back to the brand.

Furthermore, as brand exposure increases, so does an individual’s intent to purchase from them. Interacting at the right time is likely to lead to positive consumer action, and repeat purchases lead to brand loyalty.

Creating a bond

By utilizing the data gathered, push notifications can be tailored to specific customers – tailoring that goes beyond using a first name.

Mobile marketing offers a way of delivering personalized interactions, using gathered data to send messaging that is related to individual preferences and habits. Consumers even anticipate this level of service; McKinsey found that personalized experiences are expected by 71% of consumers.

Personalization is the key to crafting a connection between brand and customer. By demonstrating that they “know” individual customers, a brand can create a semblance of a relationship and, resultantly, make them feel like more than just a number in a database.

This connection is vital to brand loyalty, as 53% of respondents said that they feel an emotional bond with the brands they commonly purchase from.

Rewarding with exclusivity

When you sign up to become a member of a brand, receive offers or be part of their loyalty program, you open yourself up to their exclusive offers (free samples, invitations for closed events, reduced prices) which are most easily promoted through, and accessed via, mobile.

Exclusivity can surprise and delight customers. Brands are able to offer reduced prices on their products to members only, or collaborate with other companies to facilitate deals on a partner’s products, if purchased through their brand. Activate OnDemand, for instance, works with a variety of companies to create co-branded experiences with exclusive offers.

Exclusivity is a reward for buying from a brand that creates customer satisfaction, and ultimately leads to loyalty.

Loyalty and mobile: a match made in Heaven

Optimizing each of these factors can increase brand loyalty, which ultimately translates to profit.

Loyalty programs are a perfect way of demonstrating this. Members of a loyalty program are likely to spend more money on a brand each year, with research suggesting this value to be between 12% and 18% more. In addition, 70% of customers will recommend a brand to others if it has a successful loyalty program.

Even without a dedicated program, 56% of respondents said they would spend more money with a brand they liked, or were loyal to, instead of seeking a lower-priced alternative. Thus, this relationship between consumer and brand has clear benefits. And the best way to create loyalty? Mobile.

All that potential right there, in that device in the palm of your hand.

Want to improve your brand loyalty using mobile? We’ve got the tools and the know-how to help you succeed – get in touch with CMA here.