Why Capturing Customer Attention Starts with Location Data

Location, location, location. It's a phrase we all know about real estate, but the same could be said for marketing efforts. Capturing customer attention starts with location data because it allows companies to reach customers where they live, shop, and work, ensuring more relevant marketing touchpoints and increased sales.

Most people, three-quarters of all app users, by estimate, allow apps to access their location. It provides insight into what they're doing and where they're doing it. Providing real value for your customers means tapping into their actual, real-life needs, and one of the best ways to do that is with location data. It allows you to serve your customers with offers and information based on their lives, daily routines, and whereabouts.

In a recent report published by CARTO, a location intelligence provider, 66 percent of respondents believe location data is very or extremely important to their organizations' success, and 85 percent say it will be even more important three years from now.

And yet, according to Forrester, almost all, 94 percent, of marketers have difficulty working with location data.

The most tech-savvy organizations have grasped the ways to use location data and leverage the insights it provides, but many are at sea, knowing the intelligence is out there but not quite sure what to do with it.

It's not an exact science, and using location data can quickly enter the Big Brother realm if marketers aren't careful. If a consumer is walking by a business and suddenly gets a coupon for that business sent to his or her smartphone, it may not be well-received... but sending it half an hour before? Well, that may just seem serendipitous. Location data depends very much, in other words, on timing as well.

There's also GDPR to consider because location data falls under the types of data that are protected under the new regulations.

That's why it makes sense to use a custom data solution that segments your data in terms of key customer information (whether it's location or consent response), and in turn, organizes, interprets, and activates it to safely leverage those powerful insights.

Here are some ways marketers can use location data to target people right here, right now:

Special events

Sports games, concerts, parades, and any big event where lots of people will gather are prime opportunities. Well-targeted, personalized messaging can create top-of-mind recognition for brands.

Use history

Location data can allow you to see a customer's patterns, where they go, where they shop, and when. Using live location data, you can deliver a coupon to someone who walks by your business every day on their way to work.

Local search ads

This is a basic location data tool that sends opportunities, offers, and ads only to people in the vicinity of the business. You can tailor your message to locals who are doing internet searches for your product or service.

How does it work in practice? Here's one example:

Foreknow empowers brands in the food and beverage industry with real-time location data and predictive customer insights. Using Lineate's data orchestration solutions, they analyze past location data to determine when users are most likely to use a special offer. It can, for example, determine the best time to send a coupon to a specific customer who regularly passes a coffee shop at 9 a.m.

To learn how you can easily activate location-based marketing for your brand, contact us for more information today!