Geomarketing is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies for marketers today. It allows you to hyper-target and directly engage with potential customers or clients in your area by sending them your offers straight to their mobile devices.
As such, geomarketing might be the solution to the competitive advantage that you have been looking for. But on the other hand, you could lose out on many potential leads if you do not have a location-based marketing strategy.
Here’s what you need to know about geomarketing.
What is Geomarketing?
This refers to any marketing incorporating location-based intelligence to improve the odds of your message reaching your target audience at the most opportune moment.
While the desired results of geomarketing can be attained using various means, the underlying theme is that location data or awareness must be utilized as a part of the marketing effort – thus, the ‘geo’ element.
The guiding principle behind geomarketing is, ‘where you are is who you are.’ The idea is that the locations a potential customer visits tell a lot about them. Thus, they can be used as predictors of intent.
For example, if a consumer has visited several car dealerships over the past week, they are likely looking for a car. Thus, a dealer who can utilize geomarketing and send them a relevant ad or offer will make a sale.
Types of Geomarketing
As mentioned earlier, geomarketing is a marketing strategy that encompasses various location-based marketing tactics. Thus, it is not a tool by itself. As such, if you are looking to target your customers based on their location, you can utilize either or all of the following geomarketing tactics:
- Geofencing
- Geotargeting
- Geoconquesting
- Beacons
The following sections shall look at these geomarketing tools in broader detail.
What is Geotargeting?
In geotargeting, marketers usually target a potential customer using their web browser’s IP address instead of GPS location. This practice has been around for a long time. Since the inception of the internet, websites have been utilizing their visitors’ IP addresses to serve them with personalized content. For instance, you might have noticed that an online retail store usually displays your local currency even though the store might be international. This is a premier example of geotargeting in action.
Nonetheless, there is a drawback to using geotargeting. IP addresses are not usually exact; they only give the general location of the consumer. As such, targeting a specific neighborhood using just an IP address is tough.
Therefore, geotargeting is better suited for broad regions, such as an entire city or state. However, to be more specific in your targeting efforts, you should consider geofencing.
What is Geofencing?
This is the mobile generation’s solution to conventional web-based geotargeting. In geofencing, marketers utilize the consumer’s mobile device’s precise GPS location instead of its IP address. The benefit of geofencing is that the GPS location updates itself if the consumer moves. As such, it allows for more relevant and timely messaging.
For example, if a shopping store’s app detects a potential customer near it, it can use time-limit marketing strategies such as discount coupons. This can serve as an incentive for the customer to visit your store.
Additionally, geofencing parameters can be calibrated to suit your goals and objectives. For example, you can have a fence as wide as the city or as small as a street. Nonetheless, geofencing has been found to work better for smaller regions, such as specific streets or neighborhoods. It can be a convenient tool for brick-and-mortar stores and restaurants looking to direct more foot traffic into their establishments.
What are Beacons?
Beacons allow you to target your audience even more precisely than geofencing. A beacon is a small device that receives location data from any nearby mobile device via Bluetooth. Since beacons are Bluetooth-based, they can be used in areas that do not have good cell reception, for instance, the interior of a department store.
The data that a beacon collects usually gives the app precise details about the customer’s exact location. This can help marketers provide their customers with a better in-store experience by directing them to products they are likely interested in.
Nonetheless, there is a drawback to using beacons. They will only work as long as the customer’s device’s Bluetooth is turned on and is within the beacon’s range.
Additionally, beacons can be challenging to use on public property since they have to be physically placed, secured, and monitored.
What is Geoconquesting?
This is a geomarketing tactic that utilizes a geofence to draw away consumers away from the competition. This means that rather than having a defined geofence around your establishment, you create a geofence around your competitor’s store and use it to draw their potential customers to your business instead.
For example, if a small, local coffee shop is looking to stay competitive in the presence of giants such as Starbucks, it can create a geofence around those stores and then target its consumers with tempting deals. This technique, however, can also be used by larger businesses looking to acquire all potential customers within their vicinity, using the same incentives.
Benefits of Geomarketing
Localized marketing allows your businesses perks such as:
Local Optimization
Geotargeting is one of the most effective ways of getting your business to rank highly in local searches. This is because of the relevance and timeliness that it allows your messages to have. Search engines use those two factors to determine how to rank a local business.
Improved Data
You can evaluate many metrics if a consumer comes to your business due to your geomarketing efforts. Geomarketing allows your valuable data, such as message effectiveness, stay durations, how often consumers visit your establishment, and when they are near your location.
Combining this data with what you get from analytical tools such as Google Analytics will give you pretty good information that can help you improve your marketing tactics.
Personalization
The data you gather using geomarketing can also help you tailor-make offers for your customers. This is especially relevant since research shows that up to 74 percent of consumers usually experience dissatisfaction when the information provided by a business does not match their interests.
As such, consumers are more than likely to transact with businesses whose offers match their interests. In addition, geomarketing data provides valuable information regarding the claims of the local population, allowing you to customize your offerings accordingly.
Cost-Effectiveness
Geomarketing can make your marketing expenditure more effective. Since it allows you to reach only the desired audience, you will not spend as much as you would when targeting a broader audience.
Trends in Geomarketing
In addition to geo-conquesting, predictive analytics via artificial intelligence is slowly revolutionizing geomarketing.
Predictive analytics algorithms can unearth real-time historical geomarketing data and user behavior. This will allow marketers to create personalized offers for customers before they leave their homes.
For instance, the app can forecast when the user will purchase a particular item based on the user’s tendencies and shopping patterns. Data from these patterns will allow the business to tailor-make a discount for users when shopping for that product.
Statistics about Geomarketing
Looking for concrete reasons why you should incorporate geomarketing into your business? Consider the following statistics:
- Thirty percent of the world’s population is already using location-based marketing services.
- Eighty percent of consumers say they would like location-based alerts from businesses.
- Seventy percent of consumers say they will share their location if they get something valuable.
- Optimizing for local search has yielded twice the click-through rate of traditional advertising.
- About 72 percent of consumers say they usually follow through with a call to action if the business’s location is near them.
- Sixty percent of consumers say they use their mobile devices to search for local information, and 40 percent do so while on the go.
- People are twice as likely to visit a store after seeing an ad if you use geomarketing.
Final Thoughts
Geomarketing is an incredibly effective marketing strategy, allowing you to hyper-target consumers. As a result, your marketing efforts will likely bear fruit since you are targeting someone who needs what you are offering.
Additionally, the data you collect from geomarketing allows you better insight into your customers, and this helps you customize offers that appeal to them. Also, geomarketing allows you various tools to help you with those efforts. However, geofencing is the most effective geomarketing tool.
The others can also be effective, depending on your situation and needs. Do you have a geomarketing strategy in place? Consider incorporating one, and let us know how it goes.