On this blog, we usually talk about digital marketing strategies — SEO, web design, PPC  campaigns, great content, email nurturing and more.

Today, we are going to focus on the place where brick and mortar meets digital; the latest technology, location-based marketing, is a great way to reach prospective customers who are doing business with your competition.

Location-based marketing is an amazing technology and it’s the reason you sometimes see ads online or receive notifications of sales for items you just happen to be interested in! Imagine that? Each time you think someone might be peeking at your search history, the truth is, in a way, they are.

Location-based marketing is a strategy that sends prospects information, on their phones, about restaurants and stores when they are nearby. Consider that when you walk into a mall, Google knows this and sends you ads and messages for stores in the mall that use geo-targeting.

Once we, as marketers, design the campaign based on geography — the town, a store, a street, etc. — and then reach out to prospects (who have agreed to receive these types of messages) with ads and notices of your business. In other words, we figure out who you want to sell to, literally “find” those people when they enter a targeted location and tell them about your company. Pretty cool, huh?

There are actually three types of location-based marketing strategies: geo-targeting, geo-fencing and geo-conquesting.

For the purpose of this discussion, let’s pretend I own a vitamin shop in a small town.

• With geo-targeting, we find prospects based on places they have visited before. So, I will target local gyms where I know people are working out and, therefore, likely interested in health products. I’ll send them information about my weight loss supplements or protein shakes, as well as any sales on vitamins I believe they might think will boost their nutrition.
• Geo-fencing refers to an area around a particular location. We can “draw” a fence around a business or point of interest — the mall, as an example — and send real-time content and ads to someone’s phone when they enter the location. The drawback to this strategy is that we would be casting a wide net. If I “fence” the mall, I will be sending information to people who work out and those who don’t, as well as people who are at the mall going to GNC to buy vitamins and those who never take vitamins and supplements.
• Geo-conquesting is where attracting competitors’ customers comes into play. We “fence” the competitor’s store, a GNC, for example, and every time someone walks into that store, we’ll send them information about a big sale at my vitamin store in an effort to get their attention and perhaps lure them away from my competition.

The best part about location-based marketing, in addition to the fact that we see results very fast, is that we can track campaigns to measure how well they are working and tweak the “fence” or audience as needed.

At Harmonia Media, our clients have enjoyed tremendous success with location-based marketing! We can do the same for you. Contact us today to discuss how we can drive quality leads to your door (and/or website!) fast.