Loyalty glossary · 10. Marketing and engagement (20)
In App Messaging
In app messaging is a channel for displaying targeted messages to members while they are inside a loyalty programme's mobile app, as opposed to push notifications sent to a phone's lock screen or email. It is used for nudges, offers, and service alerts, and its value depends on showing the right message at the right moment.
In-app messaging is a delivery mechanism, not a strategy. It only earns attention when the content matches the reason a member opened the app. Operators who treat it as push notifications inside the application waste the only asset this channel has: the user is already looking at the screen.
The usual mistake is broadcasting generic offers, such as a new partner or a double points weekend. Members inside an app have already completed the hard step of opening it. A banner about something they did not ask about gets dismissed, and the operator then reports a higher active member rate without any change in accrual.
A loyalty programme claims a 30 percent active member rate among its installed base. Of those who open the app in a given month, 80 percent see a specific in-app message. The true reach across the whole base is 24 percent, because 0.30 times 0.80 equals 0.24. That gap means the channel looks broader than it is.
The channel earns its keep when it reflects a member's own accrual position or progress toward activity based qualification. A message that follows a transaction and states the remaining distance to the next tier changes a routine purchase into a visible step. That type of communication does not need to persuade; it provides information the member was seeking.
The honest measure is not an open rate or a click-through rate. Those numbers reward interruption, not value. A controlled test that compares redemption and accrual in the 30 days after an in-app message against a group that did not see it will often show no effect. Most programmes skip that test because it is easier to count taps than to count revenue.