A Complete Guide to Location Based Marketing in 2023
Welcome to the Fluid Ads guide to Location Based Marketing
As mobile device usage continues to soar in popularity, Location Based Marketing has emerged as a pivotal marketing strategy for businesses looking to maximise their reach.
However, many marketers still struggle to harness the full potential of this approach, leaving untapped opportunities on the table.
In this guide to Location Based Marketing, we explore the different ways to target potential customers and clients using the various methods Location Based Marketing has to offer.
What is Location Based Marketing?
Location Based Marketing involves using a person’s location data as a primary or secondary targeting option to promote products or services.
By targeting individuals in a particular geographic area, you can effectively send them personalised and relevant marketing content.
This approach to marketing is typically achieved through the use of location data on mobile devices, which allows you to reach customers based on their current location or recent whereabouts.
It is a targeted approach to marketing that has proven to be highly effective in improving engagement and driving leads and sales for businesses of all types and sizes.
By using Location Based Marketing, you can drive engagement, conversions, and increase the ROI from your marketing campaigns.
What are the main types of Location Based Marketing?
There are various methods of Location Based Marketing, some being more popular and successful than others depending on the goals of the marketing campaign.
Geofencing
Geofencing involves drawing a virtual fence on a map and serving adverts to people who enter the geofenced area.
Advertisements can be served to a consumer’s mobile device through various channels, such as app notifications, text messages, or display ads on websites they visit.
To start using Geofencing as part of your marketing strategy, there are some digital marketing platforms that offer this functionality, such as the Fluid Ads Platform.
Using our platform, you can easily set up geofenced areas, design your own display ads and deliver targeted ads to people who enter.
The Geofencing Ads feature in the platform gives you the ability to continue targeting potential customers for up to 30 days after they have left the geofenced area.
Geotargeting
Geotargeting is a method of marketing that targets people using their current geographic location.
Geotargeting is often used by businesses who want to increase the personalisation of their messaging and accurately target their audience in real world locations.
Geotargeting campaigns can be applied to large areas such as countries or continents, down to postcodes or neighbourhoods.
Geotargeting Ads are available on the Fluid Ads platform and some social media platforms.
Geo-conquesting
Geo-conquesting is a Location Based Marketing tactic that involves using location data to target individuals who visit your competitor’s premises.
The goal of this approach is to lure customers away from your competitor’s by offering incentives such as promotions or discounts to visit your premises instead.
Burger King famously used this strategy to lure customers away from McDonald’s locations with a very tempting offer of a ‘One cent Whopper’.
Proximity marketing
Proximity marketing uses technologies such as beacons, augmented reality, or near-field communications to deliver targeted ads, alerts, or content to a user’s mobile device when they are within close proximity of the beacons, typically within a few metres.
Local SEO
When it comes to marketing your business online, you probably already know that search engine optimisation (SEO) is a highly effective form of Location Based Marketing.
But what about local SEO?
Local SEO plays a crucial role in Location Based Marketing, as a staggering 87% of consumers rely on Google to find and evaluate local businesses.
By using local SEO, you can improve your visibility in local search results and drive more traffic to your website and footfall to your premises.
With millions of consumers using local search to find nearby businesses every day, it’s crucial to rank high on search engine results pages (SERPs) to increase your chances of being discovered.
Why use Location Based Marketing?
The benefits of using Location Based Marketing are evident when you examine the data.
According to a report by Factual, nearly 90% of marketers reported that including Location Based Marketing in their marketing strategies has resulted in an expansion of their customer base and an increase in sales.
This highlights the significant impact that Location Based Marketing can have on your business’s marketing strategy, particularly in driving engagement and sales growth.
By effectively leveraging Location Based Marketing, you can enhance your messaging and connect with your audience on a more personalised level.
According to the Location Based Marketing Association’s Global Location Trends report, 46% of global respondents identified the ability to geographically target their audience as the most beneficial aspect of mobile marketing. This was followed by the ability to increase brand recall (21%) and driving sales at the point of sale (17%).
For the first time in history, consumers are now spending more time on their mobile devices than they are watching TV, and the time spent watching TV is expected to reduce even further.
The benefits of Location Based Marketing
Location Based Marketing offers many benefits, from increased customer engagement and loyalty to improved lead generation, sales and revenue.
One of the key advantages of Location Based Marketing is its highly targeted nature, which allows you to deliver relevant messages to consumers based on their physical location.
As a result, you can achieve impressive returns on investment (ROIs), making it one of the most lucrative and cost-effective marketing methods available.
Highly targeted and cost effective
Thanks to the growing availability of platforms offering geographic targeting options, implementing this strategy has become more accessible and cost-effective than ever before.
With a range of options available, businesses of all sizes and budgets can leverage the power of Location Based Marketing to reach their target audience in unique ways.
Get to know your customers better
Location Based Marketing allows you to get to know your customers on a personal level.
Marketing relevant ads on each mobile device, apps, websites or browsers will almost certainly attract more customers than a mass scale campaign that pays no attention to geographical locations.
By monitoring the results of Location Based Marketing campaigns, you will get to know what works best for each audience segment, and as a result, the success of your campaigns will increase over time if you optimise your campaigns with a data-based strategic approach.
Boost business during quieter periods
It’s natural to experience periods of low activity which can leave you feeling anxious about generating new business.
However, Location Based Marketing offers an effective solution to drive immediate results; whether you’re looking to increase store visits, drive online sales, or generate new leads.
Attract new customers
If you’re looking for an effective way to attract new customers and grow your business, Location Based Marketing is a must-have strategy.
By targeting consumers based on their physical location, you can reach out to people who may never have heard of your business before and encourage them to try your products or services for the first time.
Increased creativity
One of the key benefits of Location Based Marketing is the opportunity to get creative with your messaging and make your promotions more engaging and relevant to your audience.
When consumers feel that ads are personally targeted to them and their location, they’re more likely to take notice and respond positively.
By creating ads that are geographically specific, you can increase the ROI of your marketing campaigns and drive greater engagement with your target audience.
Disadvantages of Location Based Marketing
While there are some potential downsides to consider, the benefits of Location Based Marketing typically outweigh the drawbacks.
In this section, we explore the disadvantages of Location Based Marketing and how they can be mitigated.
Privacy concerns
There may be privacy concerns associated with Location Based Marketing, and some consumers may feel uncomfortable with the idea of their location being tracked or used to target them with marketing messages.
Requires consumers to opt-in or enable location services
One of the main disadvantages of Location Marketing is that most methods either require users to opt-in to notifications or the device to have location services turned on.
Monitoring and management
Another challenge is that your campaign requires ongoing monitoring and management.
You must continuously track location data and consumer behaviour to ensure that your campaigns are effective and location data is accurate.
This can be time-consuming and may require additional staff or resources.
Mitigating risks and building trust
Despite these potential drawbacks, you can mitigate the risks by ensuring that you use accurate and up-to-date location data.
Being transparent with consumers about how their location data is being used you can build trust.
Outsourcing campaigns to companies who offer a managed service will ensure campaigns run smoothly and are always performing at their full potential.
Giving consumers control over their data and offering incentives for opting in, you can establish long-term relationships with your customers.
Industries that use Location Based Marketing
Location Based Marketing has taken digital marketing by storm.
Here’s some examples of industries using this highly targeted form of marketing:
Talent Acquisition & Recruitment
Location Marketing is an effective targeting strategy that recruiters use to send details of vacancies to potential candidates in real-world locations.
Recruiters can target specific locations like job fairs, universities, and other places where they believe suitable candidates for a role may be.
Using Geofencing, recruiters can reach out to candidates with job openings and employer branding messaging, increasing the chances of attracting qualified candidates and enhancing their clients’ employer brand.
Retail
Retail stores can enhance the in-store experience, increase footfall and store visits by implementing Geofencing advertising.
With the use of Geofencing Ads, the retail industry has seen increases in brand loyalty and a better understanding of consumer behaviour.
Charities
Charities can use location based marketing techniques to increase donations.
By targeting real world locations, charities can increase brand awareness and encourage donations.
Events
Event organisers use Location Based Marketing to sell tickets and merchandise to consumers within a certain radius of the venue.
It would be a waste of ad budget to target people hundreds of miles away from the location of an event when the majority of people who will be attending the event will be local to the stadium.
Travel
Whether it’s advertising hotels, tourist attractions to explore, or a nice place to eat, marketers promoting the travel industry use Location Based Marketing for its highly effective targeting options.
Automotive
Car dealerships are a good example of businesses that use Location Based Marketing to reach out to customers.
They can use Geofencing to target competition locations and advertise their inventory to anyone who enters the geofences.
How to start Location Based Marketing
Now that you are familiar with the different types of Location Based Marketing, you may be wondering how to get started.
Well, that all depends on the goals of your business.
If, for example, you are a local bakery hoping to increase foot traffic to your premises, local SEO may be your best option.
Your aim would be to appear at the top of the search results or map listings when someone searches ‘bakery near me’.
Being at the top of the results for this search term would almost certainly increase foot traffic to your bakery, especially if you are not there already.
To get started with local SEO, you could read about the best practices and apply them yourself or team up with an experienced SEO agency.
For large companies seeking to increase sales, brand awareness, or charities looking to increase donations, Geofencing, Geotargeting and proximity marketing are the perfect option.
By leveraging these Location Based Marketing strategies, you can deliver personalised and timely messages to consumers based on the local weather, seasonal trends, and other location-specific factors.
For example, global fashion retailers can utilise Geofencing, proximity marketing and Geotargeting to effectively promote their products in different store locations around the world.
Get the most out of your location based campaigns with Fluid Ads
The all-in-one ad platform by Fluid Ads is an excellent choice if you want to include Location Based Marketing in your marketing campaigns.
The platform allows you to create location based display ads that are tailored to your target audience, monitor your campaign’s performance in real time, and make adjustments as needed.
Furthermore, we offer fully managed campaigns, freeing up your time to focus on other aspects of your business.
Check out this video to see how geofencing works within the Fluid Ads platform.
If you want to leverage the power of Location Based Marketing, book a demo or create an account today to get started.