Mobile users have warmed up to the prospect of sharing their location data with interested brands. Consumers recognize that sharing their information can yield benefits like better app services, more relevant advertisements, and compelling content specific to their GPS coordinates. Marketers also see benefits from this relationship—namely, more consumers coming through their doors. Here are some key ways your local mobile marketing strategy can drive conversions for you.
Local Search Listings and Maps
Companies in virtually every industry vertical are using location data to drive conversions among mobile consumers by taking advantage of local search listings. As Search Engine Land points out, Google has recently upgraded its local search features to include a “local pack” of relevant results, along with an increased number of dynamic filters that refine based on local information. Facebook has also beefed up its local targeting game. As Street Fight reports, the social network’s Dynamic Local Ads design ad copy specific to individual store locations, even when a company operates chain stores in a range of different places. The company is also integrating local maps into its advertising, following the lead of Waze’s GPS-enabled marketing strategy. Advertising your business on GPS and other location-based apps that customers in your neighborhood regularly use is a great way to increase awareness and target your audience with promotional offers.
Geotargeting
Local data is more than just the knowledge of where a consumer is located. It’s also an important part of the mosaic of information that makes a consumer an individual, and, along with other behavioral and contextual data, it serves as another way to add a personal touch to your advertising. Local data can tell you what your audience likes to do in their spare time, when they’re most likely to visit your business, and what they tend to do before and after visiting your store, among other things. Then you can use that knowledge, plus your knowledge of their location, to create personalized ads delivered right to their mobile devices.
For example, an Applebee’s located inside a mall can use location to send geocoupons to nearby consumers—they can target based on time of day and offer hungry shoppers a special promotion just in time for dinner as their long day of shopping is winding down. Alternatively, a running store that sells product both at a retail location and online can market their company through two separate email strategies: one general campaign applicable to consumers in any part of the country, and another targeting local runners that could highlight upcoming in-store events, local road races, fundraisers, and other community-based information. In both cases, the brands are using location to improve the relevance of their marketing.
Calls-to-Action
Calls-to-action can also leverage location data by encouraging consumers to visit a specific store location while they’re in the area. Mobile offers can be delivered based on proximity, with a CTA telling consumers to “visit our location just down the street for a free beverage” or “stop by between noon and 3pm for 10 percent off.” When running these campaigns, you should test your local mobile promotions against promotions that don’t use location-based filtering. This will provide some measure of understanding for how effectively local data can increase conversions.
As CMS Report points out, smartphone conversion rates are up 64 percent over desktop conversion rates. Your local mobile marketing strategy is therefore vital in helping you drive conversions.
≥≥ Need a Shortcut?
1. Expanding location-based information is creating new layers for filtering and targeting.
2. Geotargeting allows you send deals to interested consumers right in your neighborhood when they’re likely to convert.
3. Include enticing calls-to-action that encourage consumers to take action.
This article was originally published in The Compass– an industry resource for mobile, native, and location-based marketing.