Hyperlocal and GIS
Marketing analytics is an ever-expanding web of tools and techniques. The part of the job that I find most neglected is GIS(Geographic Information System) analytics.
Our campaigns are so frequently designed around a store or DMA level, however, the reporting and media planning around those aspects is frequently lacking (Lucky for me I work at an agency which is the exception).
GIS is easy to use in the realm of retail, collect data behind your clients' store lists, and gather the store lists of their competitors. Load them into a tool like QGIS (Free to use).
You get a neat little visual, use the vector > analysis tools to generate a distance matrix.
With these few steps you now have the distances between every store and their competitor, use this data to plot out where you have highly competitive areas, or to better understand the density of competitors within a given radius.
There are many other uses for marketers using QGIS:
- Matching many addresses to their TV DMAs
- Creating logical unbiased trade areas with Voronoi analysis for hyperlocal campaigns
- Heatmapping valuable information from demographic layers
Analysts and data scientists need to make sure they are looking into what geospatial analysis is possible and how GIS tools can help them accomplish their goals.
