Effectively Using Location-Based Marketing Strategies for Your Business

One of the keys in an excellent marketing strategy is reaching the right person, at the right time, in the right place, with the right message.

If you get any part of that first sentence wrong, your ads will underperform. Getting those four things right is the only way to ensure success.

For brands reaching their audience, at the right place, has a few parts. One part is the physical location, the other is how they are accessing information, i.e. what platform they are using to get information. That is what location-based marketing is all about. Let’s look at what it is, how it is used, and if it can benefit your brand in gaining more clients.

What Is Location-Based Marketing?

Location-based marketing is promoting your business to people through the context of their location. It involves online and offline tactics designed to help businesses plan and implement marketing strategies based on geographic locations.

It is a local marketing strategy for businesses that targets people near your business or in a particular location that is important to your brand. Location-based marketing accounts for the location a person is in, why they are in that location, where they might go next, and in which locations they are most likely to engage with your business.

Why Should Businesses Use Location-Based Marketing?

Location-based marketing is a valuable tool for large and small businesses. With consumers spending more time daily on mobile devices, it only makes sense to grab them. Location-based advertising to target mobile device users is a smart marketing strategy. Here are some of the biggest reasons why businesses should consider adding it to their strategy.

Generate More Business – Getting your business in front of customers when they are most interested in purchasing your product or service. If you are a local Med Spa, your clientele is within your city. Therefore, you can create Facebook advertisements that are limited to people within your specific zip code – which increase the likelihood of reaching potential leads.

Makes Segmentation Easier – Segmentation is about grouping customers based on interests, activities, and attributes. Location is one way to segment a group and creating a message that is tailored to that area thus making it more relevant to that consumer.

Better Return – Good marketing strategies are about working smarter, not harder. With any marketing, you want a good ROI. Collecting, analyzing, and using location data can help you generate more engagement on your promotions and improve the return on your advertising dollars.

Online Location-Based Marketing Tactics

There are several ways to start using it to market your business.

Optimize for Local SEO

Local SEO typically refers to the organic traffic generated from your Google My Business listing for consumers searching for businesses that offer a specific good or service.

You can improve your local SEO by creating location-specific content on your website, encouraging reviews from your customers, and optimizing your Google My Business listing.

Inserting location-specific keywords into your website content will help get your website found by people searching for your product or service in your area.

Social Media Marketing Strategies

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter allow you to use location tags in posts. Use them to inform people where you are located. It increases the probability of your post gaining organic impressions when users search for more photos based on location.

Hashtags are another great way to tie your business to your local area and get discovered by people who live there and those that are visiting.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

If you are not taking advantage of the location-specific data and segmentation options with your PPC campaigns you are missing out on a massive opportunity. Location-based targeting lets you filter the audience that has access to your PPC advertisements. This helps you target a specific group based on location, help you avoid wasted clicks from people outside your targeted area.

Incorporate Location Into Your Marketing

It is important for businesses to incorporate location into their marketing. A good marketing strategy is about getting your message in front of the right people at the right time. If you can’t pinpoint where your target audience is then you will have a hard time getting your brand noticed by them.

It has the great potential to increase foot traffic to your physical location and for them to find you for online shopping. It will make your marketing more effective and your campaigns speak to the right audience.