CUSTOMER DATA

How to use your company’s loyalty apps to gather customer data

By our News Team | 2022

With the increasingly urgent need to find ways to obtain first-party client data, loyalty apps could provide one solution.

As African marketers ponder the imminent arrival of a digital world where the cookie is no longer king, one piece of advice from a US-based expert is to utilise loyalty apps to gather useful customer data.

Lawrence Edmonson, Chief Technology Officer of Barbarian, an advertising agency that is part of the Cheil Worldwide network of 55 agencies, writes in the industry publication Ad Age that loyalty programs and companion apps are becoming standard operating procedure for brands to engage with customers.

“As we enter the golden age of first-party data—mined with consumers’ consent—loyalty apps can capture actionable intelligence, not just piles of data,” Edmonson notes.

He gives several key strategies for optimising loyalty apps to provide useful marketing data. Among them:

Photo by Mati Mango from Pexels

Make it personal

Customers will identify themselves because they are attracted to the possibility of accruing points for redemptions and special offers. Make the app feel like a personal profile, with easily accessible preferences, tailored communications and an interface that prioritises the functions a consumer uses.

Be clear about privacy policies

One might think that consumers would choose the most restrictive privacy settings when downloading an app. But that is not the case. So, with loyalty apps, brands should be very clear about what they’re offering without worrying about scaring people off.

Drive seamless experiences

A well-built loyalty app allows for seamless commerce, including shopping, payment and redemption. The user experience should be well thought out and feel ‘contactless’ and intuitive, with a combination of transactional (commerce) and non-transactional (unexpected) benefits.

Incentivise frequent use

The more a customer returns to the app, the more benefits they should see. To further reward loyal users, brands should create special categories within apps that increase rewards for staying on the platform.

Keep it consistent

Some brands make the mistake of keeping loyalty programs separate from their credit cards and other rewards programs, which makes them harder to navigate. Other brands confuse customers with rewards points that just don’t add up.

Read the full article here.

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