Mobile activity and usage have steeply gone up over the past couple of years. In fact, the majority of internet users are now on mobile (~92%), making it a noteworthy consideration – a priority even – for your planning. On that, Vibes and Industry Dive’s studioID surveyed a broad range of mobile users at the end of 2022 with the intention of understanding the consumer relationship with mobile, and how brands interact with their market on their phones.

On The Phone

The survey’s goal is to help guide marketers understand what they must consider when it comes to successfully integrating mobile into their marketing mix. The report looks at five primary topics:

  1. Incentives & Loyalty Programs

  2. Data & Personalization

  3. Loyalty Program Engagement

  4. Mobile Wallet

  5. Consumer Engagement Gap

Before we dive into some quick details, you can download the full report here (email signup required). To note, more consumers demand personalization, and mobile messaging continues to grow (+70%) as a widely-used marketing channel.

Incentives & Loyalty Programs

Consumer behaviors are often influenced by external factors. Consumers are always on the lookout for the best deals, a.k.a the most worth their money. However, given the current state of the economy, a lot of them want the biggest bang for their buck. The study notes that more than 54% of consumers are planning to use their phones to redeem store-branded efforts.

Data & Personalization

Consumers understand the whole ‘give and take’ relationship with brands. As such, most consumers are willing to share their personal data in exchange for receiving more personalized product and sales information. Surprisingly, a lot of mobile users aged over 40 say that brands are not personalizing interactions enough. At the same time, 35% of mobile users don’t really care for brand messaging frequency as much as they do about message relevance.

Loyalty Program Engagement

In terms of engaging consumers, the study finds that SMS and Push best deliver on the growing consumer demand for personalized brand communication. In short, people actually like getting messages from brands, so long as they’re relevant. Nearly 20% of consumers who already engage with a brand would happily join their loyalty program if the brand rewards them with personalized incentives that are worth earning. Speediness is also a factor – 32% of mobile users, particularly ages 21-24, say a brand’s app that’s too slow or hard to use is a top reason why they engage less frequently with a brand’s loyalty program.

Mobile Wallet

This is an element that has garnered quite a bit of mixed results. Certain user age groups are active and interested, while others can live completely without it, with little chance of a change of heart. 47% of those aged 55 and older say they don’t use a mobile wallet for coupons or offers, nor do they have any interest in doing so in the future. Meanwhile, 54% of those aged between 25-54 say that they’re already interested in using a mobile wallet for digital coupons and offers.

Consumer Engagement Gap

Push, for instance, despite being a highly effective channel for actively-engaged mobile users, there remains a big portion of a brand’s audience that they’re still missing. One Vibe expert tip on this topic points out how brands with a mobile app can drive up to 49% of unengaged consumers by offering them an incentive.

The Wrap

This study solidifies the increasing need for brands to focus on targeting communication to ensure their messages are as personalized as possible. Surprisingly, consumers actually want to hear from the brands they like that got this element down. While most gigantic conglomerates won’t admit it, brands that take mobile messaging seriously are the ones who are currently succeeding. We recommend signing up to download the full report as it takes you through a comprehensive dive into all the facts and figures that’ll help you better refine your mobile messaging strategy.

Sources

https://bit.ly/3VcJ36M