Market Your Products Like Never Before With Location Technology

In the highly competitive retail sector, targeting audiences with the highest likelihood of purchasing your products is crucial. And what better time and place than when they are in your store! Enter the marketing power of location technology. It has been discovered as a key driver that allows business firms to offer specific marketing messages based on geographic location. In this blog we will explain more about location-based marketing technology, how it can benefit your business and marketing technology best practices.

What is Location-Based Marketing Technology?

How do we use technology in marketing a product? Location-based marketing technology communicates to smartphone users at  your location who have location settings activated. By delivering messages, promotions and push notifications based on the user’s current location, companies can effectively target possible buys when they are most receptive. For instance, a bakery could send a pop-up coupon in front of a person passing by to lure them into the store.

This form of marketing is among the most effective as it involves customers who are most receptive to the message. Location-based marketing technology can send advertisements through push notifications, text messages and social media actions such as the location-based Geo-filters on Snapchat and different ads in search engines.

Types of Location-Based Marketing

Location-based marketing involves using geographic information to promote messages, advertisements, or notifications to potential buyers, depending on the location of their device. There are several location based marketing strategies that go under this category, but geofence marketing and proximity marketing stand out the most. Let’s take a closer look at these location based marketing strategies to discuss their workings, uses and advantages.

1. Geofencing

Geofencing is a marketing technique in which a particular region is marked with a virtual fence that marketers use to target consumers. This boundary, also known as a “geofence,” can span a few city blocks or hundreds of yards or be drawn tightly around a single store. Geofencing is created when a user with location services enabled on their smartphone enters or exits this defined area. This generates an action such as sending a push notification, displaying an advertisement, or launching a text message.

How Does Geofencing Work?

Geofence marketing entails using GPS, WiFi and cellular data to set boundaries. It constantly tracks the location of devices within its coverage, which, in this case, is the geofence. Whenever a device crosses the set boundary, the system initiates the action of sending highly relevant and timely messages to users depending on how near they are to the set area.

Applications of Geofencing

• Around Your Location

Purpose: To capture the attention of those around your store and make them your customers as they are informed of offers or events in your store. 

Example: Suppose you are running a newly established pet boutique business. Using the geofence technology, you can let people nearby the store know they can get pet toys at 50% off the normal price. This real-time alert can make pet owners in the surrounding areas interested in your store and increase the chances of making the sale.

• Around Competitors’ Locations

Purpose: To lure customers away from competitors and into your store by offering better deals or highlighting unique products. 

Example: Suppose you run a fast-food restaurant and your competitor down the street is promoting $2 burgers during lunchtime. By geofencing their location, you can send notifications to their customers offering $1 burgers at your restaurant, just a short walk away. This strategy can effectively divert traffic from your competitor to your establishment.

• Around Events or Conferences

Purpose: To reach thousands of potential customers through a single event and promote your products and services. 

Example: If you own an acrobatics class business and you are aware that a circus is coming to your city, you can create a geofence around the area where the circus is expected to be held. If the parents who have come to this area with their children receive a notification about your acrobatics classes, they might think about enrolling their children.

Benefits of Geofencing

• Precision Targeting enables businesses to send messages that are highly personalized to potential customers depending on their location.
• Real-Time Engagement: Markets to consumers when they are most ready to buy or when they are making a purchase.
• Increased Foot Traffic: This will bring in more visitors to your physical store because it focuses on people in physical proximity.

2. Proximity Marketing

Proximity marketing is a more improved version of LBS that does not include the use of hardware. It does this much more creatively by utilizing technology to send consumers relevant notifications according to their location. It effectively reaches the client with the right message at the right time and place, thus increasing the chances of making a sale.

How Does Proximity Marketing Work?

Proximity marketing is more strategic as it uses advanced audience targeting and customer interaction technology to send advertising messages. It is based on data analysis. It identifies the precise location of consumers to notify them of offers without using beacons and similar equipment. This approach effectively reaches the target audience with timely and relevant messages, enhancing the chances of a response and conversion.

Applications of Proximity Marketing

1. Triggering Coupons

Purpose: To inform users about certain products and entice them to buy the merchandize by offering certain promotions.

Example: A store attempting to sell outdoor equipment may employ proximity marketing to send push notifications with coupon codes next to a stand of exotic life jackets. This instant reward can easily encourage any customer to buy the product since they stand a chance to benefit immediately if they do so.

2. Enabling Virtual Payments

Purpose: To make the payment process more efficient and convenient for customers, it is necessary to minimize the amount of contact people make at the time of checkout. 

Example: A retail store can employ proximity marketing to support other payment contingencies during checkout. Once the customers are at the checkout point, they are alerted on their smart devices. They can pay through their phones, eliminating the need to carry their wallet or a card.

3. Augmented Reality Experiences

Purpose: To provide diverse, fun and educational in-store experiences by incorporating AR features. 

Example: Proximity marketing can also prove useful in a cider company to improve people’s engagement with their ciders. Using an AR code on the label of a cider bottle, people can get a lot of information about the contents of the cider, how it was made and what it tastes like, which will definitely make shopping more unique and informative.

Benefits of Proximity Marketing

• Highly Granular Targeting: Allows businesses to engage customers with content tailored to their exact location within a store.
• Enhanced Customer Experience: Provides valuable, interactive content that enriches the shopping experience.
• Increased Conversion Rates: Proximity marketing can significantly boost sales by delivering relevant offers and information at the right moment.

Benefits of Location-Based Marketing Technology

1. Reaching Users at the Ideal Moment

Location-based marketing is effective because it targets customers during the right time period when they are most likely to buy a particular product. For instance, if a customer gets a $40% off coupon on clothing and bags as she passes a shop, she is likely to get into the shop and do the shopping instead of getting the same coupon while at home.

2. Making Shoppers Feel Special

Personalization gives customers a feeling of being special in the sense that they are offered unique coupons and offers from the company, empowering them to make a purchase. This exclusivity can also lead to repeat business and other forms of word of mouth, which helps drive brand awareness.

3. Increasing Foot Traffic During Slow Hours

Businesses can use location-based ads to target their members during slow hours of the day, such as late morning and after business hours. For instance, a fashion brand such as a boutique, which may have few customers in the afternoon, could use geolocation to send alerts of discounts that are valid in that area and for a specific time of the day.

4. Boosting App Downloads

Promoting app downloads through location-based marketing can enhance customer engagement. For example, a store could offer exclusive in-store benefits to customers who download their app and enable location services.

5. Data-Driven Insights

One cannot argue about location-based marketing technology, seeing that it has been proven beneficial. A study also reveals that 96% of Americans possess a mobile device and 265.9 million possess a smartphone. Considering the fact that many people use smartphones, location-based marketing proves to be very lucrative for businesses that seek to reach out to customers at the precise time when the likelihood of a conversion is high.

6. Increasing Sales and Revenue

Businesses can easily influence their target customers and get them into their stores, leading to increased sales and, thus, increased revenue. This also helps generate sales quickly and improves customer retention, especially for regular consumers.

Strategies for Implementing Location-Based Marketing

If you are thinking how to market product with location technology and want ensure your location-based marketing strategy is successful, follow these best practices:

1. Ensure Users Enable Location Services

Ensuring the customers turn on the location services is essential to the campaign’s success. Encourage the clients during billing and through receipts and notices within the store to enable location services for special offers.

2. Target Users Based on Their Stage in the Marketing Funnel

Tailor your messages based on the buyer’s journey of the user and the level of interaction they have with your brand. For instance, give a first-time comer a welcome message and an extra complimentary one that a second-time comer enjoys.

3. Carefully Choose Your Geofence

When choosing the geofence locations, consider the areas where your targeted group of consumers is most active. For instance, a pet shop owner might target a geofence around vet offices, puppy training schools and pet grooming facilities.

4. Complement Location Marketing with Local SEO

Integrating location marketing with local SEO makes your business visible in local search results. Ensure your website and social media profiles are optimized for local search to attract customers in the vicinity.

5. Track and Analyze Performance

To refine your location-based marketing efforts, continuously track and analyze the performance of your campaigns. Use metrics such as engagement rates, conversion rates and foot traffic to assess the effectiveness of your location based marketing strategies and make necessary adjustments.

Conclusion

In the age of digital marketing, location-based marketing stands out as a powerful tool to engage customers in a highly targeted and effective manner. By leveraging technologies like geofencing and proximity marketing, businesses can deliver relevant, timely messages that resonate with their audience. Whether you are a small business owner or part of a larger enterprise, incorporating location-based marketing into your strategy can drive sales, enhance customer experience and ultimately lead to increased revenue. Embrace the power of location technology and take your marketing efforts to new heights!

If you loved this blog, learn more about the proximity market here or watch the video here.