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Mobile Marketing and Location-Based Services: How Mobile Marketing Went Local

Guest Blogger ,

The following post is authored by Louise Frosell of Locaid. 

Your customers are digital omnivores. They use a number of digital channels to interact with your brand. The fastest growing channel? Mobile. Goldman Sachs says that by 2018, we’ll be seeing roughly as much mobile commerce ($626 billion) as we saw in e-commerce last year. This year revenues will triple from 2012.

It’s not just m-commerce. Consumers are relying on their mobile phone right along the path to purchase from research and showrooming to coupon redemption and in-store navigation. That’s where mobile marketing comes in. Retailers are using mobile marketing to engage their customers throughout the duration of their shopping journey. And whether those campaigns are delivered through a mobile website, app, or SMS, the smartest marketers are adding location to optimize both the ROI of campaigns and share of customers wallets. Why? Because location adds relevancy. Enabling mobile campaigns with location data produces measurable results because it makes them relevant. The mobile ad networks are boasting 5x lifts in CPMs when a lat/long turns a campaign into high click-through rates.

How? Nearly three-quarters (74%) of U.S. consumers already use location-based services on their smartphone. So long as location is not abused and opt-in flows are clearly defined, consumers value location-based marketing messages. Over 60% of the participants in an Alliance Data Geofence pilot told us that they were not concerned with security, privacy, or communicating with a retailer via mobile, and 68% indicated that they will likely sign up for future location-based SMS campaigns. Those numbers are high because the campaign was relevant and the frequency of the alerts was just right according to 80% of the participants.

That’s why mobile marketing is going local.  Mobile messaging ad spend will reach $7.4 billion by 2017, driven by a surge in location-based services. And the number of U.S. mobile coupon users will rise from 12.3 million in 2010 to 53.2 million in 2014, driven by the rapid adoption of smartphones.

But not everyone gets it right. So here are our five top tips on location-based mobile marketing best practice:

1. Only use location when you need to.

Location provides a highly effective way to send locally-targeted, relevant content to your customers at times that most benefit your business. Run a happy-hour? You only need to look up the location of your customers and send them a promotional message once a day to drive traffic. Sales slow between 10-11am? Look up the location of all customers in the area at 9:30am and send them a coupon to redeem when they buy something in (what used to be) that slow hour.

2. Use geofences.

Geofencing provides a unique opportunity for you to target your ads at nearby consumers, increasing the personalization of your customer service and adding value to your customers.

3. Use the right tools.

Make sure you choose a campaign management platform that is simple to employ; has the location-reach you need to get to 100% of your customers; gives users the ability to manage their profile, category interests, and frequency of offers received; and can deliver highly contextual and targeted offers so opt-out rates are very low.

4. Don’t rely on an app.

Over 4 billion people in the world still have feature phones. That’s 4 billion people your app can’t reach. So be sure to use a location-as-a-service platform that can reach 100% of consumers whether they are using a smartphone, feature phone, or driving a connected car.

5. Analyze.

Location gives you a new data point for analyzing customer behavior. The key is to make sure you turn that information into intelligence to inform your business decisions.

 

About the Author

Louise heads up marketing for Locaid, working daily with customers, partners, and leaders in the location-based services industry to drive results-driven, integrated marketing, and lead generation campaigns.