Location Marketing: Catchy Buzzword or Essential Marketing Strategy?

[Garrett Sussman]

Location Marketing: Catchy Buzzword or Essential Marketing Strategy?

Give me what I want, or else.


Customers expect you to give them what they want. They expect you to get them, to "do your research." It's a paradox though, isn't it?


They expect you to know but they refuse to tell.


When you do use your research, customers often respond with frustration and fear. "Behavioral targeting? That's so incredibly creepy! Ads? I hate ads with a passion," consumers aren't fond of tracking and that's the problem.



Location marketing is a problem because...

It's creepy.


It hasn't gone mainstream yet, but it's already being listed by journalists as "creepy." But, is location marketing really the problem? Is it a catchy buzzword or an indispensable part of your marketing?


Believe it or not, it's quickly becoming indispensable.


How do we know?


Customers tell us.


1. More and more customers expect us to know (and remember) details about them, yes, the very same details they may be unwilling to share.


2. These very same customers expect personalization and customization, which is more often than not, viewed as the starting point.


3. They also expect you to make them wildly successful, which as it turns out, requires information. About them.


What can give you the conclusive answers you need to meet your customer's incredibly high expectations?


Location marketing.



Is it a problem if you don't know what location marketing is?

What exactly is "location marketing?"


The Mobile Marketing Association defines location marketing as:


?Any application, service, or campaign that incorporates the use of geographic location to deliver or enhance marketing message/service.?


Sounds a bit vague, doesn't it?


How does location-based marketing work? What does it look like?

• Beacons are low energy Bluetooth devices that marketers can use to broadcast deals, discounts and special offers to compatible apps and devices (e.g. tablets, smartphones) enabled to receive their messages. Marketers can use these beacons to welcome fans at a concert or sporting event, provide information on a museum exhibit, or incentivize customers to buy. Customers opt-in when they download a compatible app.
  

• Wi-Fi hot spots. Bricks and clicks retailers are using their Wi-Fi hotspots to launch and run location marketing campaigns. Customers who log-on to your Wi-Fi receive marketing messages. Restaurants and retailers uses Wi-Fi hotspots to attract email addresses, generate traffic, leads and sales.

• Geofencing uses GPS to create a virtual, geographic boundary. Apps are then able to trigger a response when a customer physically enters or leaves a particular area, usually the physical boundaries of the bricks and mortar store itself.

• Location awareness platforms like Placed use a combination of statistical models, location platforms, and a location database to provide marketers with specific, detailed and actionable demographics ? data you can use in all kinds of creative ways.

• Local search advertising. Google, Facebook, Snapchat and other providers have slowly integrated location based marketing into their platforms.

But why?


This seems like a lot of extra fuss for a few location based extras. What's the big deal?

Read the rest of Andrew's post here.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Garrett! You share so much info from every post here - but it always amazes me how many more valuable insights are found in the full post on your site.

After you guys click through to read the rest, please come back and share your thoughts.

 

[Garrett Sussman]

Thanks Linda! Glad you found this post insightful!