The New Kind Of Marketing: Mobile Meets Location
Mobile devices now have the ability to track people’s locations more accurately than ever before, and consumers and businesses alike are taking advantage of this technological breakthrough. According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2015, over 64% of adults own smartphones and approximately 74% use their smartphones in order to obtain information that is related to their location. This means that smartphones are extensively used for their location services, which opens up a big potential market for targeted location-based advertising.
Mobile location marketing is the newest player in the popular game of real-time marketing. With new geo-fencing, WiFi, and beacon technologies, businesses are discovering a variety of ways to reach out to the customers that will provide them with the greatest return on their marketing investment.
WiFi – The Key Enabler
WiFi technology for example, has the ability to reach a large and relevant audience. People like to use WiFi while out shopping and dining in order to check reviews on Yelp, compare prices on Amazon, and stay connected with their friends on Facebook. Data can get expensive and, as a result, consumers are beginning to expect WiFi from their favorite stores, cafés and restaurants. Also, unlike beacon technology, consumers do not need to download any applications on their phones or keep Bluetooth on in order to connect with local businesses. WiFi based location marketing allows audience targeting that complements inherent consumer needs for constant connectivity and personalization. Most importantly, consumers prefer WiFi! Two-thirds of consumers now prefer WiFi to cellular data (Deloitte).
Applications of Location Marketing
This location-based advertising system is not only limited to consumers once they are in a specific store, however. Many businesses are using a new geo-fencing mobile location marketing system that allows them to send push notifications and alerts with useful promotions to customers who enter that store’s ‘marketing range’. Though it seems intrusive initially, the response to these push ads has actually been overwhelmingly positive. Over 72% of customers said that they were more likely to respond to a CTA in a marketing message if the retailer was in sight. That is a powerful statistic that highlights the opportunities available through mobile location marketing. Filling the gap between what customers want and what businesses are doing right now is the perfect place for all companies to begin innovating with marketing techniques.
Location is especially valuable for chain retailers because every community is different and every store, even if it is the same brand, must cater to the specific customers of that area. With mobile location marketing, businesses can send specific promotions to customers in and around the retail premise when they are already looking to spend time and money. WiFi in particular automatically attracts all customers within a certain range, and when simply coupled with a few rewards, can provide enough incentive for a person to come by and make a purchase. Some companies are even taking it a step further by layering past behaviors on top of location in order to send customers even more tailored and relevant messages.
Clearly, there is a huge push right now towards new mobile marketing techniques and the largest driving factor is merely the ability to reach consumers at opportune times, when they are already predisposed to spend. Along with all of the other perks of a smartphone, location services enable consumers to continuously receive relevant and timely information, which is what consumers now expect. Mobile location marketing can provide both consumers and businesses with what they want by sending information out to the people who actually want it so that the return on marketing investment is higher. And that is the very goal of every marketer.
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