We recently published a guide to driving customer usage of mobile money for the unbanked. In this guide, The MMU team highlighted the key challenges that operators have faced when it comes to customer activation for mobile money and identifies the tactics that have been effective in overcoming them.

In this video interview from Microsave and the Microfinance Podcast, Evelyn Stark, Senior Programme Office at the Bill and Melinda Gates discusses the importance of marketing mobile money. She highlights the importance of building awareness & understanding of a mobile money product. At the beginning of a customer’s journey, a user becomes aware of a mobile money service, but it is clear that it’s not enough that consumers know the name of the mobile money service or even that they know what mobile money is. Rather, awareness campaigns must build understanding to help users see how this new service is both relevant and beneficial to them.  This lays the groundwork for behaviour change.

It is clear that the adoption of mobile financial services represents a significant behaviour change and to drive customer usage, operators must guide customers on a journey from their first encounter with mobile money to habitual use of the mobile money platform.   The video also touches upon the importance of sub-branding and customer service.