Have you ever heard of location marketing? If you haven’t, you are not alone. There are many business owners who haven’t. And a few who have aren’t maximizing it to its full potential.
Basically, location marketing is raising local awareness and driving traffic to a business’ physical location by optimizing their local online presence.
Simply put, location marketing helps you target the people who live near your place of business. Whenever they search for businesses like yours, the search engine will bring up your business in the results page with your address and contact information.
Location marketing is the new ‘word of mouth’. While word of mouth can spread your business in your immediate locality, there is only so far it can go. Location marketing gets your business in front of potential customers who may never have been reached by word of mouth.
What’s more?
This type of marketing is gaining popularity for one major reason. And that reason is the increasing number of people who are finding businesses through the internet.
Quick fact:
Did you know that 97% of consumers found local businesses through the internet in the year 2018?
The reason behind this increase in the use of the internet to search for businesses is the proliferation of mobile devices. The major portion of those consumers in the quick fact above made their search on mobile phones.
Now given that most mobile devices are equipped with fairly accurate geo-location technology, search engines provide answers to queries using the user’s location at the time of the search.
For this reason, location marketing should be considered as a priority, especially for offline businesses. It makes sense to put your money where your mouth is – in this case mouth being your location.
You may ask…
Why should you consider location marketing?
Location marketing puts you ahead of your competition. For one, it gives you exposure to potential customers around you. These customers can serve as a solid customer base on which to build your business. And also, it is easier to reach people who are close to you, than people afar off.
Another reason you should consider location marketing is that it is affordable, sometimes even free. Running ads online to reach customers outside your locality can quickly turn out to be expensive. Therefore, location marketing is a great option for you if you are looking to maximize your marketing budget.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at why location marketing is crucial to the success of your business.
- It Improves Your Sales
It’s pretty obvious – the reason for marketing is to get more customers and generate sales. So, what better time is there to get your business in front of those who matter than when they are actively searching for you?
Online businesses are easy to find because they are online. But if, for instance, a person is searching for a restaurant, they most likely would be looking for one nearby. It also means they are ready to buy. This is where location marketing shines.
Running location marketing puts you in front of such customers and increases your chances of being seen and chosen.
A few years ago, searchers used the phrase ‘near me’ when looking for businesses online. Nowadays, mobile devices coming with geo-location tech and so search engines provide results based on the searchers device location.
Consider that 44% of consumers make purchasing decisions using the first three results. Therefore, if you aren’t among the top three, you may be leaving money on the table.
- It Makes Geo-Segmentation Really Easy
In some of our previous posts, you will learn how important it is to segment your customers using certain criteria. Location is one of such criteria. Location marketing makes segmentation by location incredibly effortless.
Running location marketing exposes your business to customers who are within walking distance of your business. You come up at the top of search engine results, thereby increasing your chances of being chosen over your competitors.
Location marketing helps you target customers in a really specific geographical area. This geographical area may cover less than a mile around your business, most likely a walking distance from where the customer makes the search.
- Location Marketing Improves Your Customers’ Experience
A typical customer’s buying journey begins with an online search for a business to meet a need. The next step is locating the business offline. With accurate information on your business listing, customers find it easy to locate your business.
This experience will register in the minds of your customers and will make them eager to leave you a positive feedback.
Remember, inaccurate information on listings can cost you customers and earn you a bad name. Thoroughly check all your listings to be sure all business address and contact information are accurate and updated.
- It Can Get You Facebook Reviews On Autopilot
Ever heard of geo-tagging on Facebook? It’s a feature that allows customers to ‘check in’ when they visit a local business. With location marketing you can use accurate business information to help potential customers find your business on Facebook.
A couple of days after they check in at your business, Facebook will send them a request to write a review about your business. This way, you don’t have to run after your customers to ask for reviews.
And finally…
- It Helps You Get New Customers
Nearly every social media platform has a recommend feature. Facebook is no exception.
But Facebook takes it to another level. It allows customers to ask their friends or families to recommend businesses, for instance, a restaurant.
To do this, a customer enters ‘Ask for recommendation’ in the search bar, picks a location, and enters the kind of business they are interested in – restaurants in this case. When a family or friend recommends a restaurant, Facebook tags the restaurant’s page and displays it on the map.
If you run a restaurant business, imagine how many new customers you could get through this feature. But you can only take advantage of it when you use location marketing.
There’s more…
When you use location marketing to reel in new customers, you can use Wi-Fi marketing to keep them.
How?
By offering free Wi-Fi.
Let me explain…
As new customers come into your place of business, they will try to access your Wi-Fi network. A Wi-Fi marketing and analytics software collects their data through a captive portal. With this data, you can communicate with your customers off site and send them newsletters about new products, special deals, upcoming events, and more.
This constant communication will build trust for your brand and foster loyalty.
Want to learn more? Send us your questions right away through our contact us page and we will get right back to you.
POSTED ON October 23, 2019Share:
