Marketing legend Dan Kennedy is fond of saying that sales come from displaying the right message to the right prospects at the right time. The most persuasive ads in the world wont sell anything they’re shown to uninterested buyers. This is why so much time and money is spent gathering demographic data and doing market research before ad copy is written. But until recently, there were severe limits on how much could truly be discovered about prospects. Beyond high-level demographics like age, sex and income, marketing messages could seldom be customized much further. Fortunately, the last decade has seen tremendous growth in geolocation marketing. Today’s marketers can target their promotions using not just basic characteristics, but the exact, current locations of specific prospects.
Location Based Services
The most sweeping development in geolocation marketing is the availability of Location Based Services (LBS) such as FourSquare. FourSquare (which boasts around one million users as of April 2010, according to TechCrunch) allows businesses including restaurants, coffee shops, bars and clubs to register and appear on their network. Upon registration, participating businesses agree to offer discounts or special treatment of some kind to FourSquare users. From then on, FourSquare users who happen to pass by these businesses on foot or by car will receive mobile alerts about the discounts and offers available to them. This way, the seed is planted in the minds of passersby that even if they weren’t already planning on visiting that coffee shop or bar, there’s a special deal waiting if they come in immediately. FourSquare users are also encouraged to “check in” at various locations by being awarded points that count toward future deals and offers. Several other companies offer similar LBS platforms, including GoWalla and MyTown. While Location Based Services continue to rack up users, critics such as venture capitalist Dave McClure contend that mainstream consumers will not embrace them until substantial cash incentives are offered.
Geotargeted Pay Per Click
(bigpresh)
Geotargeted pay per click advertising is another rapidly growing means of geolocation marketing. Every major PPC network (including Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Ask) now allows marketers to restrict their ad campaigns to specific geographic regions around the world. You can geotarget as widely or as narrowly as you believe your campaign will benefit from. Let’s say, for example, that you’re an affiliate marketer for a credit card company that only pays commissions for approved applications. Advertising to every searcher in the country would be highly wasteful for such a campaign. After all, it’s well-established that each state varies in term of what the average citizen’s credit score is. Using geotargeting, you can ensure your ads appear only in states with higher-than-average credit scores, which boosts the odds that the people clicking your ads will have their credit card applications approved. Or, perhaps you run a cable company that only services certain regions of a few states. Most search engines now allow you to geotarget within specific ZIP codes. This way, you never waste ad spend promoting to customers who are ineligible to buy. The result is a marketing campaign that is both more highly targeted (and thus, more appealing) and less wasteful.
Entire online retailers have begun using IP addresses to customize their online promotions. In July 2008, DirectionsMag noted that retailers were using IP data to track where their website visitors were located. Using this information, retailers are personalizing what types of merchandise and offers are presented to visitors.
The Future
Geolocation marketing is here to stay. Unlike passing fads of the past, the ability to discern a prospect’s location fulfills a vital and timeless marketing purpose. Remember: the reason most marketing messages fail to close sales is that they are untargeted. Few of us are stirred into action by promotions that appear to have been blasted out to thousands of other consumers. But a marketer who knows where his customers are can craft more personalized ads and deliver them when they are most relevant. Each of these makes it more likely that your customers will follow through.
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