How to leverage mobile wallets in your marketing activities?
The post-COVID era dictates its own rules, and it’s odd to ignore them if you’re in charge of marketing. In this post we will go through the mobile wallet market, look at the statistics and general trends. We will also cover what opportunities there are for different business areas, including those that do not have their own mobile wallet.
What are mobile wallets?
Now it seems to be the most convenient option for instant payments that the whole world knows about, and big cities can no longer imagine a world with plastic cards. Almost every smartphone has a super app, or even more than one, where you can pay any bills, buy tickets and even instantly arrange an installment plan or a loan. A gym membership, your favorite store loyalty card, supermarket discount coupons — everything you need is in one device.
There is a study that by 2022, the global mobile wallet market will reach 3 trillion dollars. In China, more than 850 million people use mobile payments on average three times per day, 85% of which are via QR codes. According to a Walker-Sands research, 63% of consumers say they will change their shopping habits to maximize loyalty benefits. Airship’s survey of US and UK consumers showed that 54% of respondents already used mobile wallets and would like brands to use loyalty cards, coupons and other formats more often.
Looking at the impressive dynamics, it’s crucial to understand how using mobile wallets can boost conversions and retain customers. Or even to make them more loyal.
What is mobile wallet marketing?
These are marketing activities that can attract new customers, retain old ones and improve user loyalty. Marketers can use cashback promotions, loyalty cards, coupons and other tools.
How does a mobile wallet make money?
After each of your actions through the e-wallet (payment, providing a coupon), the company gets a commission. That’s why marketing campaigns aim at retaining users and encouraging them to pay again.
What are the benefits of mobile wallets?
The main benefit, of course, is the extra profit. Besides, if you want to change the design/offer/condition of the promotion, you don’t need to add any information to any physical materials — everything can be done remotely and promptly.
Pros and benefits of mobile wallets
It is convenient, and it’s not just words.
You can forget about carrying a wallet or plastic cards. You can always pay or get a discount with your smartphone.
It is secure. Yes, it’s a delicate topic, but mobile wallets are really safe.
The main advantage of virtual cards is that you can block them at any time. In fact, it will be difficult to use them without you (it applies to cards and mobile banking), because most apps require strict biometric authentication: a fingerprint or Face ID.
Quick data acquisition (for marketers).
Yes, there is a lot of useful data about transactions, their frequency and, of course, the amount of customer spending. You can use this mainly to better understand your audience and adjust your customer service strategy or rules.
General marketing strategies
Now to the point: how to increase the activity and loyalty of your customers with this tool? It all depends on what the company does and what opportunities you can use. Let’s have a look at the most popular methods.
Notifications
Here you have a whole field of options: email, SMS, push notifications. This way you can quickly share with users about a new promotion or a special offer. Marketers are also lucky that notifications can be personalized and set up for the specific time. For example, you realize that the user lacks some number of points to get a discount. You can send him a push and invite him for shopping so that he gets additional points and a ‘special status’, thanks to which the permanent discount will increase.
Discount Coupons
And again about discounts, but here we will focus on coupons that users can add to their device. For marketers, it’s a great lead magnet and a way to re-engage a customer. For example, you could offer a coupon to a specific group of people based on their previous purchase. Age, location, and, in general, what people buy most often/what services they use will be useful here.
ASO-manager
Users seldom remove cards from their mobile wallets, so you will be able to deliver attractive information to them in most cases. And a little about savings: if you want to change the design of your card or terms of use, you can do it remotely and update it automatically.
Cashback
It’s the most popular way for banking mobile apps, which the FMCG market came for. Cashback promotion is a great tried-and-true incentive to encourage customers to make more payments with their mobile wallet. Many companies turn getting a cashback into a competition or a game by deliberately limiting the validity of promotions or involving a referral program. Invite a friend — get cashback; spend a certain amount of money — get cashback, and so on. But don’t overdo it and don’t make it a complicated quest. It should be simple and nice, then customers are definitely going to come back.
Partners
Do not forget your partners, with whom you can launch unique projects. For example, co-branded cards or promotions. A popular mechanic among banking apps is that customers are given certain bonuses or discounts if they go from the banking app to a partner’s site and buy something.
With these methods, you can collect data about your customers that will help you better learn the habits of your audience and adjust your mobile wallet marketing strategy. Detailed analytical information can be extracted from transaction history, repeated purchases, deletion percentages, coupon redemptions, check-ins and return on investment of mobile loyalty programs.
Case Studies
We found some examples for you that illustrate that mobile wallets are in demand among users and serve as an additional channel for interaction with the audience.
Venmo is a project from PayPal, which is already curious because it is not just a mobile wallet, but a mobile wallet for millennials. There is a handy and unique feature of splitting payments — users can make a payment from one smartphone, but the amount will be debited from several accounts in pre-set proportions. But here’s the thing: the developers noticed that the number of emoji in transaction comments was constantly increasing. So, they released unique sets of animated stickers together with the brands that are most popular in the service. This way, the interest of users increased (yes, everyone loves emoji) and the app is thriving now. The experiment was a success.
GCash is a super app and popular e-wallet in the Philippines. In one year, the audience has doubled — now it’s 40 million users. How did they do it? GCash added new commercial and financial services, where you can buy stocks, arrange insurance, and in the section GLife you can buy clothes, products, goods, order food and other services.
Kakao Talk Wallet is a digital document storage. The app has shown incredibly rapid audience growth among identity verification platforms — in two months, 10 million users have added their documents to the new service. And the work scheme is very simple: the user uploads a photo of a document to the app and gets an electronic copy of it.
Summary
E-wallets are a profitable tool for financial companies and banks, but also for other companies, like retail chains or gyms. To convert wallet users into loyal customers who will come back to you and recommend you to other people, you need to remind them about yourself, engage partners, and work on ad campaigns that will grab attention and end up in the right device at the right time. Remember that cash and plastic cards are almost gone, you need to adapt to the new times and the other interests of your audience, among which security is the top priority.
