Use geolocation data to present just-in-time mobile offers

Serendipity. The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. Consumers crave experiences that are spontaneous - relevant to what they are doing just at that moment. Imagine that you're shopping at your favorite sporting goods store. As you enter the paddle sports section, you get a text alert presenting you with a 20% discount on any item in that department that you purchase in store today. Serendipity.

Merchants can supercharge their loyalty program using geolocation (also known as geofencing or beacons) data to provide a more personalized experience to their members. Data from geolocation tracking provides insights into member behavior including the stores they shop at, how often they shop at that store, and how much they spend in a typical visit. By integrating geolocation data into your loyalty program, you can reward members with offers and points based on where they are right now and what they like to buy. The result is increased customer engagement and satisfaction.

Strategy

Use geolocation data to present just-in-time mobile offers.

Here's the scenario: Analyzing sales data, Fancy Fries determines that the midday traffic at restaurants in suburban locations is falling short of projections. To drive more lunchtime business, Fancy Fries decides to run a promotion that uses geolocation data to detect when a member with the mobile app is within two miles of a restaurant. The mobile app then texts the loyalty members, alerting them that they are nearby a store and enticing them to stop in for a special deal. Let’s look at how this is done in the SessionM platform.

SessionM solution

The SessionM loyalty platform enables you to forge stronger, more loyal and more profitable relationships with your members. The platform provides an integrated set of capabilities - including data management, loyalty management, offer management, campaign orchestration, and analytics & optimization - that enable you to build compelling member loyalty programs.

Key modules

The strategy described in this article use the following modules:

Offer
Management

  • Single use, multi-channel closed loop offers
  • Define offer type, value and restrictions
  • Select eligible menu items
  • Real-time validation at POS
  • Comprehensive offer reporting and tracking

Campaign
Orchestration

  • Manage scheduled and behaviorally triggered campaigns across email, push, SMS, digital channels
  • Real-time interaction management
  • Rules-based promotions
  • Centralized and actionable campaign analytics

See SessionM Features for a full discussion of SessionM platform features and functions.

Implementation workflow

The following procedure describes the workflow for implementing the loyalty program described in this article. The procedure captures the workflow at a high-level, providing you with a sense of the scope involved in implementing this program in the SessionM platform.

Take note

As you follow this workflow, note that this strategy uses a custom event to detect when a member is in the vicinity of a Fancy Fries restaurant. The SessionM platform uses events to capture member actions, for example, completing a purchase. The SessionM platform supplies an extensive set of predefined events that cover campaigns, engagements and purchases. Working with the SessionM delivery team, you can define custom events that capture member actions that are not already defined in the platform. Once defined, custom events are available for use in rules and behaviors.

The following workflow uses the “Member in Vicinity” custom event to detect when a loyalty program member is within a defined distance of a Fancy Fries restaurant. Note that the geolocation capability is provided by the merchant's mobile application. The merchant's mobile app detects when a member crosses the boundary and then sends the custom event to the SessionM platform. SessionM then handles the event according to the behaviors defined in the campaign (in this case, presenting an offer).

For step-by-step procedures for implementing the functionality in a SessionM module, see the Procedures section in the SessionM Help Center.

Step 1. Offer Management module: Define offer for 50% discount

  • Create the "Half Off Lunch” offer. Set the offer type as a 50% percent check discount.

  • Set the issuance period for the offer to 12pm to 3pm today. Set the redemption period to "same as the issuance period". The offer is only valid from noon to 3pm on the day that the text is sent to the member.

  • Select the menu items that qualify for the discount. You may want to limit the offer to select menu items, or make the entire menu eligible for the discount. Here you choose to make the entire menu eligible for the discount.

  • Publish the “Half Off Lunch” offer. The offer is now ready for use as an incentive in the corresponding promotional campaign defined below.

Step 2. Campaigns module: Define promotional campaign that emails discount to new members

Create a promotional campaign that “listens” for the “Member in Vicinity” custom event. When the campaign detects the event, it texts a message to the member alerting them that a 50% discount is available for immediate redemption between noon and 3pm today.

  • Select the Campaigns module and create a promotional campaign.

  • Set the runtime to begin on the first day of October and end on the last. The campaign runs throughout the month of October.

  • Define the outcome available to members (here the discount offer). For this campaign, set the outcome to the "Half Off Lunch" offer created in the Offer Management module in step 1.

  • Select the event that triggers the outcome. For this strategy, Select the “Member in Vicinity” custom event that detects when a loyalty program member is in the vicinity of a Friendly Fries store.

  • Define the text message sent to the member and the behavior (customer action) that triggers the message (the “Member in Vicinity” custom event).

  • Launch the campaign. The campaign now "listens" for the "Member in Vicinity” to trigger. When the campaign detects the event, it sends the notification text offering the discount.

Analysis

Successful loyalty programs adapt and evolve. It’s crucial to evaluate your program to determine where it is performing well and where it needs to improve. Built on a series of intuitive dashboards, the SessionM Insights reporting & analysis tool enables you to understand program performance by measuring key performance indicators such as customer spend and customer frequency.

This strategy features an offer for a discounted lunch. Using Insights, you can examine valuable metrics related to offers.

  • On an individual offer level, you can find information about how many times the offer has been issued, redeemed, expired and revoked.

  • Additionally, Insights provides information on the total offer performance, which includes metrics such as total offers issued over time, redeemed over time, expired over time and current offer redemption rate.

For detailed information on SessionM Insight features and functionality, see About Insights in the SessionM Help Center.

Key takeaways

Harness the power of location data to engage members

Use geolocation data to personalize engagement with your members by presenting relevant offers at the right time and at the right place. Gather valuable insights about your members' shopping habits and then leverage these insights to increase engagement and improve your member's loyalty experience.

Use custom events to track member actions

By defining custom events, you can track almost any action that members perform. You can leverage these custom events for audience segmentation, personalized rewards and more. This strategy uses a custom event that detects when a member is in the vicinity of a restaurant and immediately presents the member with a discount for lunch.