Recent data suggest real-time location based marketing is not only becoming more popular, it may also be more effective.
Restaurant, retail and travel businesses lead the way in this marketing segment and two variants of this marketing have shown impressive growth in the last year.
Location based ad platform Verve Mobile recently collected data from more than 2,500 of its U.S. mobile ad campaigns and released results indicating that two real-time location based marketing approaches – geofencing and geoaware targeting – had more than doubled in the past year from 17% in 2011 to 36% in 2012.
Real-Time Location Based Marketing
Geoaware marketing uses real-time location data collected from customers’ mobile devices to deliver targeted messages based on proximity to a particular location or business. Geofencing uses similar data to tailor specific marketing for individual customers based on proximity to a location or business they have regularly frequented.
According to Verve Mobile, the two techniques resulted in higher customer clickthrough rates than any competing location based marketing approach. Other location based marketing techniques like Designated Marketing Area, based on specific geographic market designations, remain dominant in the industry. Most likely, because they require less specifics and less real-time data about the locations customers can generally be found, reported eMarketer.
Still, some businesses that rely heavily upon drawing in local customers showed a particular affinity for real-time location-based campaigns like geoaware and geofencing, according to Verve Mobile data.
For example, restaurants were responsible for 43 percent of these ads over the past year, while the retail industry generated 32 percent of geolocation and 30 percent of geoaware ads, and the travel industry made up another 30 percent.
Local Search and Mobile Commerce
Additional data hinting at the importance of location based marketing real-time or otherwise isn’t hard to find.
The infographic feature below, created by real-time local product search platform Milo, shares data suggesting that shoppers with PCs, smartphones, and tablets average five times as many local searches a week as shoppers who own a PC only, while the majority of shoppers (56 percent) would prefer to travel no more than 10 minutes for a retailer.
[Click image for full infographic]
Another infographic on in-store mobile commerce from payment solutions provider Merchant Warehouse compiles information from a variety of sources suggesting that 73 percent of consumers use mobile phones in a stores, 38 percent of smartphone users have used their device to make in-store purchases and 21 percent of consumers search for mobile coupons on their smartphones while in the store.
[Click image for full infographic]
Ti Roberts
Great infographic, Shawn. Thanks for sharing it with us. I think that local marketing is actually a great opportunity to take SEO for all it’s worth. Although I’m not a huge fan of SEO, as you know, I do think it’s extremely beneficial to use it locally.
Ti
Martin Lindeskog
Shawn: I moderated a Social Media Club event in Gothenburg in October, 2011, on location based services, such as Facebook places, Foursquares, Gowalla (now defunct), Sonar and Roamz. The local is becoming the glocal (local + global & brick & mortar + geo location apps).
The challenge is the new behavior by the mobile user. The mobile phone is not only for talking, it is becoming a personalized compass for business transactions, serendipity meetings and gamification activities such as geo-cashing, collecting badges and becoming “mayor” of different locations.
Chris M
This is great information. I want to keep my business on the forefront of marketing, and keep ahead of the curve. My business is a small niche with limited competition, but the few companies that are competing are really going after clients actively. Anything I can do to improve my odds of getting in front of the client first is a huge advantage!