The Value of In-App Loyalty, Personalization, and More Takeaways from PMG’s Mobile Day Summit

PMG hosted its Mobile Day Summit last week, gathering employees across our office hubs to hear from leading mobile partners on the latest trends, and how brands can best be positioned for success in this increasingly mobile-first world. 

As the day unfolded, a few predominant themes emerged across partner sessions, including: 

Mobile personalization helps brands stand out in a crowded app market

The cornerstone of a great loyalty program is a great mobile experience

Community mobile engagement accelerates the purchase flywheel

Let’s dive into the specifics.

During the opening keynote, PMG’s Julianne Manoogian pointed out that the average U.S. phone has 44 apps installed—a critical proof point showing the mobile app market is already crowded. If a brand wants customers to not only download their app but use it regularly, the brand must create an experience worth remembering and revisiting. 

Luckily, no matter what industry a brand is in, there are several time-tested mobile advertising best practices to help brands stand out from competitors while thoughtfully engaging their customers along their journey from discovery to checkout. 

These include: 

Always keep the end user in mind, removing as many friction points as possible to create a simplified browsing, checkout, and account management experience. 

Leverage location data to automatically populate nearby brick-and-mortar locations.

Showcase a user’s recently-browsed products directly in the app, with personalized recommendations based on past purchase behavior. 

Deploy mobile app deep linking by connecting the brand app to its mobile website version, helping to facilitate seamless connectivity between web browsing and in-app purchase behavior. 

Improvements such as these are seemingly minor but can significantly improve the in-app experience for customers, extending value beyond the sale of a product or service to help make the app easy to use and remain top of mind for the next purchase decision.

As the percentage of customers who shop online via mobile devices continues to grow, a great mobile app experience is now the hallmark of a successful loyalty program. From app download to in-app checkout, greatness comes in the form of convenience, simplicity, and value. When customers are rewarded for engaging with the brand (via loyalty rewards, exclusive offers, and other perks), the chance for a first-time purchaser to become a lifelong customer exponentially increases. 

Several sessions during PMG’s Mobile Day Summit expanded on this point, demonstrating that: 

Highlighting in-app loyalty rewards across app stores and via app download campaigns lowers acquisition costs and provides new customers an immediate incentive to explore all the perks the mobile app offers. 

The first 30 days after app install are critical. Showcasing the benefits of being a logged-in user builds stronger usage habits and unlocks more opportunities. 

Creating a multi-dimensional loyalty profile to capture customer preferences, lifetime value, rewards usage, and more, empowers brand marketers to better understand their customers and areas of opportunity for improving the customer experience. Armed with more robust user profiles, brand marketers are better equipped to build action plans for customers, both in-app and across channels, that improve brand awareness, increase customer loyalty, and inform purchase decisions. 

In short, it’s possible to have a great app without a loyalty program, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to have a great loyalty program without a great mobile experience. 

Scroll through the comments section of a viral TikTok video, and it becomes increasingly clear that brands play a huge role in internet culture. Brands like Duolingo, Scrub Daddy, and The Washington Post are engaging directly with more people online, and the excitement that comes from being seen and heard by brands is palpable. Nowadays, a comments section full of brand comments can often be more entertaining than the video itself. 

As trends like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt transcend mobile screens and lead to empty store shelves, the opportunity for brands to authentically engage with customers is moving beyond social platforms and into unique spaces. In-store community events, in-app product review forums, and immersive brand experiences inspire brand evangelization and drive more purchases. Continually fostering these experiences—and using mobile touchpoints to do so—creates a harmonious relationship between customers and the brand, shortening purchase consideration timelines and improving brand loyalty over time.

The mobile experience matters to customers now more than ever. Every action that a brand can take to increase user personalization, integrate and emphasize loyalty program benefits, and engage with customers will pay dividends in the long run. We appreciate our partners AppsFlyer, Foursquare, Google, PlaceIQ, Snap, The Trade Desk, and Waze, among others, for joining us at PMG’s Mobile Day Summit to deliver a fascinating look at the state of mobile today and what we will be essential to the mobile customer experience tomorrow.