Leverage Geo-targeting for Successful Mobile Marketing

One of the key features of mobile devices when it comes to marketing is geo-locating. Fact is, the opportunity to deliver the right message in the right place is a marketer’s dream.

Geo-location is the ability to determine a smartphone’s location. Clearly an advertisers ability to deliver personalized content to a user, based on their exact location sounds like a fantastic opportunity.  The tools are available now, are you taking advantage of them?

Before you discuss geo-location with your iPhone application developer or Android application developer, familiarize your self with the different approaches. While you may know about geo-location you may not understand the details or the differences of different types of campaigns.

Geo-fencing

Geo-fencing allows you to deliver ads, messaging or notifications within a specific perimeter around a location. Typically 5 miles is considered the most effective radius as results fall off quickly at distances further in studies (JiWire). Your messaging must be effective to get results but communications within this range have been shown to have greater effectiveness due to increased relevance.

Geo-conquesting

This is simply a variation on geo-fencing where you create a perimeter around a competitor’s locations and deliver ads, messaging or notifications in that area. There are several cases of geo-conquesting shown to have great results but you must be careful to use it when appropriate. It has also not worked well in cases where a great deal of customer research is involved in selecting a product. Make sure to decide if customers view your product as more of an impulse buy before implementing a geo-conquesting strategy.

Part of the reason that location oriented marketing is so powerful via mobile devices is that phones have become the de-facto source of local information now. Users are quick to check their phone to find local information so location relevant messaging can leverage this to be truly effective. This extends to consumers using mobile phones while on the showroom floor making mobile devices important to purchase decisions.

A well thought out campaign can draw customers in at the most opportune times. Savvy brands are expanding the mobile marking programs with improved data retention and analysis to improve performance, but already mobile ads and location based campaigns are showing impressive results.

Photo: Gonzalo Baeza (Flikr) http://bit.ly/1AZIa6b