“Data-Driven Thinking” was written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas about the digital revolution in the media.
Today’s column is written by Darren Goldie, CEO / Founder, Locationify.
Before the digital revolution, location data was clear – it was related to fixed physical stores.
Location data is important these days because people check their phone before entering a store. Since the pandemic, these location-based queries have grown to 700%. This increase is due to increasing “local” demand for local transportation, local car service and a range of home services. At Amazon, 58% of total sales came from small and medium-sized businesses of the 1.9 million US companies using Amazon as their marketplace (oom.com, 2021).
Here are some tips to help you transition to customer-centric and location-centric business.
- Research customer intent by location. Location data is changing the way companies understand “local intent data” about hundreds of consumer touchpoints. Whether you are B2B, B2C or increasingly a B2B2C company, your company is generally successful because it serves or creates a demand. A quick look behind the scenes, however, often reveals a treasure trove of different, local customer demand patterns that can significantly increase the effectiveness of marketing. Adjusting your location marketing in response to this changing demand can help you set yourself apart in increasing overall sales. As of 2019, we know that 46% of surveyed shoppers confirm their inventory online before going into a store (HubSpot marketing stats, 2021).
- Customize the content journey by location. Whether an audience lives in a fast growing city, an established city, near a mall, or somewhere in the country, they value local information or recommendations when making local purchasing decisions. Even if the product is purchased online, local product visibility, local customer service, and local reviews can be a driving force behind online purchases compared to data that doesn’t consider location.
- Schedule privacy compliance compliance by location. Location data faces two fundamental challenges: protecting privacy and demonstrating the value of data collection to consumers. Although obviously related, data protection primarily concerns the use of location data, which is increasingly based on consent. Value relates to the way consumers proactively share location data with third parties to improve their lives, from hiring a taxi to accessing local product offerings. With location-oriented thinking, companies can adapt their data protection management at the national level. This means they can take advantage of the varying rates of adoption of laws across the country to cope with the continuous flow of non-fixed, continuous mobile data.
- Vary the visibility of shopping opportunities near me and service centers depending on the location. The biggest platforms – Google, Facebook, and Amazon – are investing in expanding their location-based ad services, so savvy marketers should do the same. By combining Google My Business with ads with local product availability, companies can, for example, quickly develop a location-first strategy and evaluate the possibilities for varying their marketing depending on the location.
- Vary SEO tactics based on your location. In addition to optimizing their presence in directories, companies should rethink location prioritization within their SEO strategies. Local SEO has been popular for a while, but leveraging the insights from local SEO and connecting those insights to cross-channel paid strategies is only just beginning.
In the past, companies focused on optimizing their first-level domain within Google’s organic search. As competition increases, the conversion rates of audiences in different locations for different products and services increase, causing brands to rethink their local strategy. By connecting local inventory, consumer demand insights, and localizing offers, businesses can generate instant incremental revenue from subdomains or pages by location.
Marketing customization based on location data challenges the one-size-fits-all marketing approach that is widely used in the industry. From local warehouse availability to locally oriented offers and promotions: “Location-first” thinking increases relevance and improves the customer experience.
Of course, audience targeting will continue to be a priority for many marketers, but location data is quickly becoming the top product and price driver for advertisers. As programmatic and content marketing grow in popularity and new channels like CTV, Internet of Things, and audio devices become accessible, marketers are inundated with ways to reach their audiences.
Thinking locally will help simplify this challenge, generate more consumer revenue, and increase brand visibility in the various locations most important to driving business growth.
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