By Location

Location-based marketing allows organizations to target consumers at a granular, person level with online or offline messaging based on their physical location. Using location data, marketing teams are able to reach consumers based on qualifiers like proximity to a store, events happening in their region, and more. 

Location-based marketing has proven effective across customer lifecycles – from discovery and purchase, to engagement and retention. When used properly, location-based marketing allows marketers to hone in on specific customer segments with targeted offers, while improving customer experience for a population that increasingly values instant gratification. For example, location-based marketing may alert a prospect that a product they have been considering is stocked in a nearby store, allowing them to pick it up right away. 

Location-based marketing has largely been enabled over the past several years by the growth of connected devices. Today it seems that everything is connected to the internet – phones, cars, watches, and more. These devices are often tracking their owner’s location, meaning there is an abundance of location and spatial data available. Insights derived from this data provide marketing teams with greater context into how to reach customers and improve their overall experience.

There are several different ways marketers can channel this location data into their marketing efforts:

Geotargeting

Geotargeting is used to determine the location of a user, to then serve them personalized messaging based on their location. If a consumer has opted in to let an app access their location, they may get messages in the app or push notifications based on region or proximity to a store.

Geofencing

Geofencing is the creation of a boundary within a specific region. When target audiences enter that boundary, they will become an active target of the marketing strategy. This might mean they receive content, offers, or some other form of messaging from the brand. An example of a boundary is an area that encompasses a popular shopping center at which the company has a store. 

Beaconing

Beacons are connected devices that use Bluetooth or WIFI to connect with predetermined applications that are operating within range of the beacon. Beacons work well to target existing customers within a small geographic area.  

Mobile targeting

Mobile targeting occurs when marketers target consumers with ads on their mobile devices. Because consumers typically want to avoid advertising, marketers aim to make their ads context specific, which can be based on time, device, or location. 

Geo-conquesting

Geo-conquesting uses location data to divert prospects away from competitor locations. For example, car dealerships might create a boundary around a competitor’s lot. When a target consumer comes within that boundary, they will be sent an offer to users that encourages them to visit the other dealer.

The Benefits of Location-Based Marketing

Reach Relevant Audiences

In the past, marketers have relied on sending generic messaging across the media landscape. All they could do was hope their advertising resonated with the audience. Not only was this method a bit of a shot in the dark, but it was also a waste of valuable resources, since there was only a slight chance messaging would reach relevant consumers. Now, advanced data and analytics processes, including geo-targeting, allow marketers to deploy hyper-targeted, personalized messaging that addresses the four Ps of marketing. Geolocation data allows marketers to:

• Send consumers advertisements or promotions when they are within a certain distance of the business
• Reach out to consumers when they are within a certain distance of competitors’ businesses

These techniques help marketers serve person-level content to consumers who are in strategic physical locations and are therefore more likely to make the purchase decision. In fact, these person-level insights enable detailed optimizations that can quickly increase ad effectiveness by 20% or more.

Improve the User Experience

Beyond content personalization, which enhances the user experience on its own, marketers can also leverage location-based marketing to customize online experiences for consumers as they travel and go about day-to-day activities. For example, you can set websites to display certain information based on where consumers are located, such as your nearest retail location. This strategy streamlines users’ experiences with your marketing content— no searching around for the location, coupon, or other information they’re looking for. Instead, it’s presented right to them.    

Understand Consumers Better

Beyond optimizing marketing campaigns in the here and now, geo-targeting data can also help improve marketing efforts in the future. Take location data like foot traffic patterns—marketers can use this information about where, how, and when target consumers are shopping to create new, more effectively targeted campaigns going forward.

How To Use Location Insights to Inform Your Influencer Marketing

Brands comparing potential ambassadors should ideally be looking for someone who has a high concentration of followers in the territories being targeted with a particular campaign. However, its important to note that a celebrity or influencer may not be from that country or city themselves, despite having a concentrated demographic in that region. The location map will list an individual’s top countries and also drill down into top cities. Remember these metrics are not mutually exclusive. For example, an influencer could have their biggest fanbase in the US, but conversely display London as their top city. Results will also be illustrated on a heat map with the areas with the strongest presence highlighted in the darkest shading. A function commonly overlooked is the ability to filter results into three options: World, US and UK. Brands looking to target the US, for example, should make use of the US heat map to easily take stock of the primary populaces at a glance.

Brands must also consider volume of followers and how that fits into the equation. If an influencer has millions of followers overall, their individual location percentages are far more likely to be diluted across the board. This could potentially mean data looks less impressive on first glance. However, in actual fact, even a tiny percentage of an influencer with 1m follower’s audience could be a far greater number of actual people, than what appears to be a huge percentage of an influencer with a 10K audience.