Mobile wallet advertising is a solid strategy to boost engagement with prospects and customers.

If you don’t know about mobile wallet advertising, or you plain don’t believe us, take a moment to digest these numbers with your lunch.   We were (sadly) perusing our inbox when this MediaPost article popped up, and we almost lost our sammies when we figured out the gist of it.

Google has just reported that you’ll be lucky to get your customers attention at all.

In fact, about half of users now rely on more than one type of gadget in an average day, while a fifth report using another device while concurrently using a computer.

“Fluid movement between devices changes our approach to marketing,” according to the search giant’s new report. “Consumers now interact with your brand concurrently on more than one type of device, making it critical to provide the same great experience across screens.”

After spitting some iced tea on the monitor, one of our staff writers just kept shaking her head… (we’ll be nice and keep identities secret in this case lol, really, who drinks iced tea these days?)

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“But it doesn’t have to be that way!” – Yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus.

[Tweet “What?  How did a jolly fat man wearing a pair of red velvet smoking pajamas get into this article?”]

There’s a secret to getting massively great engagement rates, and we’re going to tell you what it is, right this very minute – it’s the lock screen.  There’s really nothing else that drives a Call to Action response like seeing it on the small screen.

ERM, don’t forget that the mobile wallet advertising notices go straight to the lock screen. 

Often you’ll see SMS listed as the best response rate among contact means (including email, banners, social, search, etc) and that’s great, except that SMS is simply another type of lock screen notification on most smartphones.  It’s also expensive and dangerous if you haven’t triple opted in your numbers to message.

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There are people who turn off notifications, yes, but there are also people who don’t answer the phone, won’t read email, and couldn’t tell you what that radio ad that just played was about.  That’s just the law of averages, the amount of traffic and the conversion ratios at work.

Mobile wallet advertising enables you to drive traffic to ALL of your content from one central location.

What does that mean, exactly?  In simple terms, it works like this:

#1 – Let’s assume you’ve got a variety of content distribution methods for your campaigns.  

  • Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
  • A basic (or complex) website with more stuff on it.
  • Some search optimized pages or perhaps Adwords or other SEO bits and pieces in play.
  • Some video content on YouTube; a podcast in multiple channels, or FB Live/Vine/Periscope/Meerkat, etc.

#2 – Let’s assume that you’ve got a way to contact your fans, customers, Likes, follows, etc (probably using the ingredients above), and you know how to write a short, coherent line of text.

#3 – People respond to different mediums at different times of the day.  If they’re goofing off on FB, that’s the content they’ll respond to best.  If they’re searching for a restaurant for dinner, sending them to your website is probably a good bet.  If they’re watching videos, now is the time to get yours into the queue.

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#4 – Mobile wallet advertising ties it all together from one central location.  The back of the card (pass, drop-in, whatever you want to call it) is your own private link playground and you can drive your traffic to whatever medium they want to use – all from the same lock screen notification to the front of the card.

#5 – Let’s add in the location/time/proximity factor.  If you own a restaurant and there’s a sports arena down the street, on game day, that’s your likely customer pool.  So you get a guy who stops in for a beer one day, and he likes the place.

You ask him to add your update to his mobile wallet (which takes about 20 seconds tops on iPhone and not much more on Android), and you tell him you’ll give him a free appetizer on his next visit if he does.  So he adds you.   He shows up for another game next week but he forgets all about you.

BAM!

The mobile wallet advertising knows he’s walking by the corner at the stadium, this triggers a lock screen notification, he sees it on his phone and thinks, “wow, I can go and get my appetizer today, I’m kind of hungry”…  he comes in, buys a beer, gets his appetizer, and the same cycle repeats (minus the freebie) the next time he’s at a game.

You’ve just sold this guy at least two more beers (more like 4 beers minimum), got yourself a repeat customer, and are making money off this deal.  You message him when you run an Instagram competition and he responds to the CTA, takes a pic of himself outside the restaurant, posts it on Instagram and his friends see your fine establishment in his Instagram AND his Facebook feed.

Nothing like a positive recommendation from a friend on social.  Maybe you should send him a lock screen message with a link that earns him more free appetizers if he shares your loyalty program pass with his friends on social media?

Whoa, that just went viral, real fast.