In today’s digital world, it’s no surprise that location is an important factor for savvy marketers looking to gain a strategic advantage. With the rise of mobile and connected technology, location-based digital marketing has become a key part of any successful marketing strategy.
The Benefits of Location-Based Digital Marketing
Location based digital marketing allows businesses to target their advertising to customers who are or have been in certain geographic locations. Geofencing is an important tool in this type of marketing as it allows the creation of virtual fences around specific geographic location(s). Mobile devices that were seen at these locations can then be served advertising messages. This provides businesses the opportunity to directly reach consumers who may be interested in their goods or services and narrows the delivery of their advertising campaigns to insure they are reaching their most valuable and relevant customers.
Businesses can also gain a better understanding of their customers, or those of their competitors, by leveraging the location data from mobile devices. Mobile Foot Traffic Reporting analyzes the mobile devices seen at specific locations and uncovers valuable anonymized visitor insights like top home zip codes, household income, demographic data, cross shopping patterns and common routes taken to a location as an example. By uncovering this visitor data, businesses can gain a deeper understanding into their customers and identify new opportunities to reach them more precisely online.
How to Incorporate Location into Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Using location-based targeting can be a powerful tool for businesses looking to reach their most desired audiences and eliminate the expense of wasted impressions. It is estimated that 97% of the US population currently carries a cell phone with over 85% being smart phones. This means nearly every person walking into a location has a GPS capable device with data that strategic marketers could be utilizing to help inform and refine their marketing strategies.
To begin incorporating location into your marketing plans, businesses must first start with analysis of your actual customers. This includes an understanding of where your customer lives/works, their demographics including household income, interests, and the locations (competitive or non-competitive) they may frequent. Too often we speak with clients who have been basing their customer segmentation on assumptions or inferences rather than on data and insights. This can lead to campaigns that are either too broadly or too narrowly targeted and yield poor results and inefficient marketing spend.
Mobile foot traffic and website audience reporting are two tools that can be used to gain a deeper understanding of the customer.
- Mobile Foot Traffic Reporting utilizes technology that analyzes the devices seen at a specific physical location and provides valuable anonymized insights into that location’s visitors.
- Website Audience Reporting can be used to further identify your customers targetable attributes if a tool such as Google Analytics 4 has been implemented on your website or through deeper analysis of audiences built from retargeting or conversion pixels.
Once your customer analysis is complete you can begin translating the insights gathered into a targeting strategy. By understanding where your target market is located or has been, you can tailor your digital campaigns to reach them more efficiently and ultimately increase your bottom line.
At Enradius, our team specializes in guiding our clients through this process to ensure campaigns are reaching the precise locations and audiences that deliver against their objectives. From Research to Analysis to Strategy to Campaign execution, we help B2C, B2B and Non-profits maximize the power of local. Contact us today and let us show you what we know about one of your locations!
About the Author
Rob Andreski is the VP, Sales at Enradius. He has spent over 25 years in the digital media industry working with some of internets leading publishers and platforms including Monster.com, Advertising.com and Aol. Rob can be reached at [email protected].
