How to Implement Location-Based Marketing

We’ve already covered the basics of location-based marketing (LBM) and why it is a great marketing technique to help your small business reach target customers, based purely on proximity. In this post, we’ll dive into how to implement location-based marketing techniques for your small business and how to measure success. 

Before You Begin

First, confirm that LBM is the right marketing tactic for your product or service. LBM is often a great option for boutique or gourmet grocery stores, retailers, restaurants and any other brick-and-mortar store that sells unique goods. Before investing in a more advanced tool, you might want to dip your toe in the LBM waters using online geo-targeting tools from Google or Facebook. You can start by sending ads to people within a specific proximity to your location and measure whether you see an impact on sales, traffic or other measures of success. 

Consider privacy and legal concerns. Data privacy is a growing concern among businesses and consumers alike -- small business owners should be certain users can opt into and opt out of location sharing services. There should be security measures in place to ensure that any data collected about behavior and preferences is not linked to specific names and that the data remains protected from attacks. 

Set Up Your Campaign

Determine your goal and select an LBM method that aligns with it. Are you trying to improve the customer experience? Or spread brand awareness to new customers in the area? Maybe you want more in-store visits. Or you want to drive transactions at a specific time of day. Once you’ve  reflected on your targeted outcomes, you are ready to choose the best location-based marketing method and software tools to achieve them, including: 

• Geofencing creates a boundary within a specific region. When someone in the target audience enters the boundary, they can receive content, offers and messaging from the brand. This works to engage customers with your products and increase foot traffic. WebEngage, PlotProjects and AirDroid Business are popular tools for geofencing. 
• Geo-conquesting utilizes GPS technology for location data to target users in the proximity of your competitors. This is a great tool to divert customers from competitors when it is known they are shopping for a product in a specific space. Check out GroundTruth or Reveal Mobile to implement this tactic. 
• Beaconing uses Bluetooth to share information with user phones. This technology leverages users' proximity and targets messages within a small range. Beacons are a great tool for converting users in-store. Proxi.cloud or Xtremepush are two options for beaconing. 

Post-implementation

Analyze results and update your campaigns. After implementing a location-based marketing method, it’s important to look at the results and analyze which tactics were successful for your business and which were not. Reflect on what words and messages worked for your users and led to an increase in transactions, awareness, traffic or whatever goal you set out to achieve. Continue to tweak and make adjustments for future campaigns to reach even more potential customers. 

Leverage data insights for other marketing efforts. You can take the data and insights garnered from your LBM campaign to learn more about your customer’s behavior and what they respond to. This can help you make decisions about marketing efforts across all platforms, including sponsorships, social media, PR, advertising and more.  

Location-based marketing is a valuable marketing technique for small businesses to attract customers, understand behavior patterns and ultimately drive sales.