Complete Guide To Location-Based Marketing

Location-based marketing is all the rage these days. Mobile marketing, digital marketing, and real-world marketing blend into one exciting new marketing strategy. We’re hearing a lot about location-based marketing, but do we really know what it is and how we can integrate it into our own marketing plans? This article will discuss everything you need to know about location-based marketing.

What Is Location-Based Marketing?

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes for a minute. You’re reading an article about marketing, so it’s pretty safe to assume you’re interested in marketing topics like conversion optimization, digital marketing, etc. 

While there’s plenty to learn from this article, it’s not totally relevant to your world. Now imagine you’re reading an article about sports. Would you be interested in what the author has to say about marketing?

The answer is probably not. You’re more likely to be interested in topics related to sports – like baseball, football, and so on. That’s what’s interesting about sports. It’s a combination of topics that you might be interested in – marketing, technology, strategy, and so on. 

The Benefits Of Location-Based Marketing

This kind of marketing provides many benefits to businesses and marketers. Here are just a few:

More Engagement

People who see your business or marketing brand in their local area are more likely to think of you. More importantly, when customers or potential customers see your business or marketing brand in their local area, they’re more likely to connect with you, whether it’s a product review, a suggestion for a place to eat, or something entirely different. 

This type of marketing allows you to engage with your audience, leading to more customer loyalty, advocacy, and even sales.

Increased Brand Awareness

Your customers probably already know what your business is about, but having a physical location where they can see, touch, and experience your brand helps increase brand awareness. 

This kind of marketing allows you to establish connections and rapport with your audience to understand better who you are and what you offer. If you want to increase brand awareness, consider investing in location-based marketing.

More Conversions

When people think of conversion optimization, they usually think about increasing the number of visitors that come to their site or app and make a purchase. While this is an important metric, it can be difficult to track. Instead, focusing on increasing the number of ‘conversions,’ or actions that result in revenue, is a more effective way of measuring the success of an online marketing campaign. 

For example, if you run a restaurant, increasing the number of customers who try your food is a more effective means of measuring the success of your restaurant than increasing the number of people who come to your website.

Improved SEO

Invest in location-based marketing if you want to appear before the audience that is most likely to convert into paying customers. When people search for your business, services, or products, having a physical location helps to improve your SEO. If your objective is to appear near the top of the results, consider investing in location-based marketing.

Types Of Location-Based Marketing

There are different types of location-based marketing, each with its own set of pros and cons. Here are some of the most common types:

1. Traditional Location-Based Marketing

This type of marketing involves putting up posters, billboards, and other types of advertisements in your target audience’s vicinity. The idea is to make the audience think of your business or brand when they see these types of advertisements. 

This type of marketing can be effective when you want to market to a large audience – like consumers walking down the street or attendees of a local shopping mall. It’s also useful for businesses with a large footfall, like restaurants and malls. 

The primary con of traditional location-based marketing is that it’s slow – you can only reach a limited number of people with this type of marketing. For example, if you put up posters in a local shopping center, you might only reach potential customers who live in that particular mall. Traditional location-based marketing isn’t a good fit for every business.

2. Digital Location-Based Marketing

This type of marketing involves using digital media to reach your audience, usually via paid search ads or social media. The advantage of digital location-based marketing is that you can target the right audience, whether local residents or people living in a nearby suburb. 

It also allows you to connect with your audience regardless of where they are – whether they’re in a shopping mall, on the street, or even sleeping! The downside to digital location-based marketing is that you can only target people with internet access. 

This means there’s a portion of the population you’re not reaching. Consider investing in paid search ads or social media marketing to boost your reach.

3. Real-World Location-Based Marketing

This type of marketing involves using offline methods to target your audience, like displaying advertisements in magazines, local newspapers, and websites. The advantage of this type of marketing is that it allows you to target people who don’t normally use the internet. 

With these methods, you can also identify customers who might not have heard of your business or brand, meaning you can introduce them to it. The downside to real-world location-based marketing is that you can only reach people who are already aware of your business or brand. 

For example, if you want to target women who are interested in fashion, you might put up an ad for a boutique that sells women’s clothing. The demographic you want to reach is the one that is already familiar with boutique brands like yours.

Marketing Channels For Location-Based Marketing

In addition to the type of location-based marketing you should consider pursuing, it’s also important to focus on the channels your audience uses. As we mentioned above, people use different platforms, like search engines and social media, to discover businesses and products. 

When customers type‘ luxury shoes’ into a search engine, they look for information about the shoes. However, if they see your business or product name in their social media feed, they might be interested in your brand or product, regardless of what they’re searching for.

To best utilize location-based marketing, you need to understand your audience’s channels and build a strategy around reaching them.

Why Do Businesses Use Location-Based Marketing?

There are four main reasons why businesses may choose to ignore this channel.

1. Consumers Have Poor Reminders

If a business relies on consumers to keep returning for more, they need to make sure each visit is memorable and worth retaining. If a consumer gets tired of constantly being marketed to, they may decide that your business is not worth their time and attention.

Studies have shown that when users initially see a brand’s logo or hear its name, their brains automatically interpret the information and store it in memory for later reference.

If a user visits your website or lands on your social media page for the first time without previously being directed there using an advertisement or a paid search campaign, your brain may assume that they are uninterested in your brand or the products you offer.

 As a result, you may lose a potential customers who could have been persuaded to spend time with your company if the information they needed was easily accessible and of obvious interest to them.

2. Consumers Are Afraid Of Missing Out

Even if a business’s products and services are of interest to a consumer, they may choose to stay away if they think there’s an equal or greater chance that they will miss out on something interesting if they decide to follow the link.

For example, if you’re a business that sells women’s clothes but discovers that many of your website visitors are men, you may decide that your clothes aren’t for them. So, you’ll have to adjust your approach and find a way to reach the men in your audience who might be interested in your products.

On the flip side, if you offer online learning and your website visitor is located in a city far from your physical location, you may decide that it’s not worth the effort for you to travel there to teach them. After all, you may decide that there are other locations closer to them where you can provide the same value proposition.

In this scenario, location-based marketing can work in your favor. When a user finds out that you’re operating in a place far away, they may decide that it’s less of a hassle to simply visit your website or Facebook page to learn about your offering.

3. Consumers Are Unaware Of The Location Of The Place They Are In

While consumers may be familiar with the idea of being located in a certain place, they may not always know exactly where. If your product is location-based, and the user is in a place they believe is not relevant to your product, they may simply decide that your product is not worth their time and effort.

For example, if you’re an online marketplace for buying and selling secondhand items and you discover that a large portion of your website traffic is from Germany, but your physical location is in the United States, you may decide that your audience there has different needs than your typical U.S. audience. 

So, you’ll need to change your approach and find a way to cater to this specific group of consumers.

4. Consumers Feel That They Have It All.

If a user feels that they have all the information they need, then it may be difficult for them to spend more than a few minutes on your website or social media page. 

In these cases, location-based marketing can actually work against you. Once a user decides that your business is not worth their time and effort, your marketing dollars will have been for nothing.

You may decide to test out location-based marketing in select cities or regions and observe the results. If you do see positive results, you can expand your trial to additional cities or regions. However, if you don’t see an increase in web traffic and/or sales, you may decide that it’s not worth the additional effort.

In summary, location-based marketing can be an effective tool if you’re looking to grow your business. However, you must ensure that your target audience is of the right fit for your product or service.

Integrate Location-Based Marketing Into Your Strategy

As the world becomes more digital, location-based marketing (LBM) has become a very popular tool among businesses.

LBM allows businesses to target consumers who are near or at the places where they operate. Hence, when a consumer clicks the ‘Shop now button on a product page, the company’s information and the associated product can be delivered directly to the consumer’s mobile device.

So, whether you’re a business looking to expand your reach or an advertiser looking to increase your conversion rate, try utilizing LBM for maximum effect.