The use of location data has been on the rise, but the challenge many retailers encounter is how to use this data effectively. Consumers are adopting new digital channels, and the reality is we live in a mobile-first world, where many are willing to share their data in exchange for relevant content. Targeting accuracy is decisive when creating a digital marketing campaign. Geomarketing is a data-driven approach that allows retailers to target consumers with purchase intent and in a location of their interest.
Through geomarketing, retailers can target their ideal audience at the right place and bring more customers to their stores by combining online and offline channels. This form of marketing can gather insightful information about consumer behavior and increase the efficiency of digital marketing campaigns for retailers. In the following post, we will explain the main concepts of geomarketing and how they work.
What is Geomarketing?
Geomarketing is a form of marketing that can help retailers reach their target consumers at the right time of their journey based on their location. In other words, geomarketing uses location-based technology to identify where consumers are and impact them with ads. Retailers can collect location data using technologies such as apps, GPS, Bluetooth, and wifi. Using these technologies, retailers can locate consumers accurately and gather insightful information about their shopping behavior.
Using geomarketing, retailers can craft ads that capture their consumer’s attention using messages tailored to their interests, needs, behavior, and location.
Geomarketing can help retailers create meaningful ads for their possible consumers through personalization. Using geomarketing, retailers can craft ads that capture their consumer’s attention using messages tailored to their interests, needs, behavior, and location. Geomarketing can benefit retailers by targeting their ideal customers through different marketing strategies.
What is Geofencing?
Geofencing is a geomarketing strategy. Retailers can use geofencing to target a specific area, where they can find their ideal customers. As its name suggests, geofencing creates a virtual fence around a particular area the retailer wants to target. Geofencing uses the consumer’s GPS or IP address to locate them accurately and send them relevant information about a product or service. There are different ways retailers can apply geofencing, but the most common is to target consumers near their stores.
As its name suggests, geofencing creates a virtual fence around a particular area the retailer wants to target.
For example, let’s imagine you own a restaurant near an office building. By applying geofencing, you can create a virtual fence around this building and send personalized offers about menus to people who work in that building. Moreover, if a retailer is looking to target their competitor’s customers, they need to apply geo-conquesting. Geo-conquesting is when you target your competitor’s surrounding area. Therefore, when a consumer is near your competitor’s store, they will receive ads about discounts and offers at your store.
Geofencing can also help retailers target consumers who went to particular events. For example, if you are a car dealership, an event you would like to have geofenced is a motor show. People who attend the motor show have clear purchase intent and are the type of consumers you want to target. By doing this, consumers who went to the motor show will receive meaningful ads about your car dealership.
What is geotargeting?
Geotargeting is another marketing strategy, and unlike geofencing, it uses other targeting criteria besides location. First, the area used for geotargeting is broader, and other targeting criteria include demographics, interests, and behaviors. Therefore, the ads delivered to consumers must follow all of the set criteria, and that is why this strategy is applied when targeting large groups of consumers.
For example, let’s say you are a retail chain opening in a new city and sell men’s clothing. Then, you would target men in that city and could add age to refine your target audience. Unlike geofencing, geotargeting doesn’t target all the consumers in the selected area. Also, geotargeting uses GPS and IP addresses to gather location data about consumers.
What is a beacon?
Beacons are small devices placed inside stores that detect nearby smartphones using Bluetooth technology. After they detect these smartphones, beacons send them pertinent messages about a product or offer inside the store. Beacons can benefit retailers by improving customer in-store experience through these relevant messages. Beacons are used inside stores because the range in which they can detect a smartphone is limited. Therefore, it is effective for communicating specific offers inside a store. For example, a grocery store can place a beacon near their pasta section and send a message for discounts in this section.
Geomarketing can have many benefits for retailers. It can improve their ad engagement through personalization and location data and reach their ideal audience. To discover more benefits of geomarketing for retailers, download our complete Geomarketing Guide!
