Leverage Geolocation Targeting to Power your Mobile Marketing Game

Do you remember the global craze that the viral mobile game, Pokemon Go, sparked back in mid-2016?

The incredible application of AR and user geo-location data went a long way in creating app stickiness and user engagement.
As brands are realising the value and possibilities that geo-location data brings to the table, they are leveraging the same to strengthen their customer connects.

Here is an effective rich push notification campaign run by Starbucks:

Users today expect every single message that they receive to be personalised and relevant to their requirements. In fact, generic promotional content, in the long run, causes more harm than good, being of no relevance or value to mass broadcasted audiences.

What is Geolocation Targeting?

Using the inbuilt GPS in mobile devices, the accurate location of the device’s user can be known. This data is accessed through apps that the user has given sharing permissions to. Brands now know where a user is geographically located and can personalise their content based on the context of the individual user, bridging the physical and digital gap to provide real-time actionable content.
The impact of such content is way higher too because of its high relevance in terms of time and user’s current location.

How Does Geolocation Targeting Help?

The more the relevance of your content, the greater the impact. Whether you are a food delivery app, an e-commerce platform, or a banking app, here are some of the most important benefits that geolocation targeting offers:

1. Enhance the Effectiveness of Campaigns

Content-driven by geo-location data enables marketers, like you, to connect with users in close physical proximity to your business. This definitely increases the effectiveness of any marketing campaign.
For instance, if a retails app sends a sale offer on a Friday evening to users when they are in the mall that houses your outlet, it would definitely nudge them to go ahead and avail the offer.

2. Drive User Acquisition

One of the most rewarding benefits of geolocation marketing is the ability to target potential customers.
You can effectively convert both physical and online traffic into new customers at brick-and-mortar locations using location-based real-time content. These can be delivered across appropriate channels such as push notifications, emails, or SMS, depending upon the historical responses of your users over a period of time.

Individuals who may never have considered using your product can be subtly persuaded to sample your offering for the first time.

3. Convert impulses into sales

A push notification about a discount in the nearest store when the potential customer is actually near the brand’s store can entice him to make a purchase.

Assume that it is a rainy day and a potential customer passing by your store is just thinking he/she might need to buy an umbrella.
Your location-based message is triggered on his/her smartphone, offering umbrellas at a discounted price in your nearby store. His/her impulse to buy an umbrella gets converted into a sale for your business.

4. Boost Sales During Low Periods

Like with every business, you too may have lull periods during which the business isn’t that great. Location-based marketing can help to even out this disparity.

Assume you own a restaurant and mid-afternoon time is typically pretty quiet. You could develop an 11 AM — 1 PM discount campaign that targets students in the area with special discounts. Or, you could target the corporate crowd in your area, enticing them to check out your “Happy Hour” lunch deals!

With the growing use of mobiles, and the accuracy of GPS, the effectiveness of geolocation targeting is only going to improve further.

How You Can Leverage (All Your) Customer Data to Scale Marketing Success

Some Practical Tips for Successful Geolocation Marketing

1. Consider venues where the target audience has specific requirements and leverage the attributes of customers to time, personalise, and tailor-make your marketing content.

For instance, airports on weekdays are flocked by business travellers looking for high-end restaurants and lounges. On weekends, shopping malls attract more leisure visitors and families looking for more casual dining options. These are examples of how venues define audiences and hence your strategy and campaigns.

1. Utilise your user’s search history to discover location intent. Marketers can send location-specific campaigns using the search history even If the user’s tracked location does not match the physical location of where he/she was searching.

For example, a user searching for information on the Gateway of India, Chowpatty, or Siddhi Vinayak temple predicts a trip to Mumbai. A travel app can use that search history data to deliver a relevant and timely search-related ad, push notification, or email suggesting accommodation options in Mumbai.

3. Make the most of geographic attributes. Events based on geographic attributes like weather or traditional local holiday celebrations, can be used to target users

4. Location history of your users provides a lot of specific information about his/her persona: where do they like to shop, what do they like to buy, how often they make the trip, and even how they get there. This information gives great insights that helps you enhance the ability to target users with precision and deliver relevant, responsive location specific ads and information, even if the user is not currently in that area.

For instance, a brand store might serve up a free coffee coupon to anyone who’s visited a Starbucks location more than once within 10blocks of its outlet. The customers may be from anywhere in the city but their location history allows brand to target those who are likely to be in the area in the future.

5. Location specific landing pages boost the efficacy of the content. Geolocation data can help in getting the right people to the right landing page.

For instance, if an individual from a high income neighbourhood visits a real-estate website or clicks on a paid search display ad, he/she can be directed to a landing page displaying luxury homes, while those located in a lower income area may be targeted with a deal on an affordable housing complex.

Geolocation data plays an important part in creating customised and targeted marketing campaigns. And, it goes without saying that customers respond better to relevant content. Geolocation targeting can prove to be the most powerful tool in your mobile marketing strategy. Get started!

This blog was originally published here.