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Creating a mobile loyalty club is a great way for marketers to stay in touch with their brands' loyal customers. There are many ways to solicit opt-ins (and minimize opt-outs), but some are more effective than others.
Here are some helpful tips:
1. Appealing offers. Consumers love free. They also love cheap. Coupons, free trials, opportunities to win free products, etc., are great incentives for gaining opt-ins. Marketers should try each of these strategies to see which work best for their specific products or services, and then replicate that success across other campaigns.
2. Exclusivity. Offer something that's not available anywhere else. It can be information on a new product, the date and time for a 'friends and family' sale, or an exclusive event invitation. The lure of being the 'first to know' will drive loyalty opt-ins.
3. Timing is everything. The fastest way to get users to opt-out is to send too many messages and begin looking like spam. Also be sure not to send messages early in the morning or late at night. It's important to find a cadence that works for your brand and customers. Communicating with customers on their most personal device is a privilege, and we need to be respectful of their personal time.
4. Promotion, promotion, promotion. It's important to continually promote your loyalty club. By integrating mobile calls to action into your other marketing activities—TV, radio, print, in-store signage, etc.—you can reach a larger audience and gain more opt-in members. It's as easy as adding a sentence to your marketing materials. For example: "For a free trial text KEYWORD to SHORTCODE."
5. Make mobile a priority. Believe that mobile will be your primary communication tool with your loyalty club and use it in a way that makes your loyalty club believe that. Mobile has many advantages over other mediums—it's more personal, more immediate and much more likely to be opened than email. Marketers should use this knowledge to their advantage to offer timely, relevant information and offers to their loyal customers.
Doug Stovall is senior vice president of sales and client services Kirkland, Wash.-based mobile marketing and advertising company Hipcricket. He can be reached at dstovall@hipcricket.com
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