the hottest new mobile and social media marketing strategy "Location
Based Marketing" also known as "LBM" and help you understand how you
can use this to help your business succeed and why you need to start
using location based marketing today.
This special report will feature a breakdown of all the major topics
involved in location based marketing today.
The report will definite location based marketing, show you all the benefits
it offers for you and your business, and show how you to use it to crush
your competition.
This limited edition PDF report also features 2 free chapters from the
definitive guide to location based marketing available today.
Are you ready to unleash the power of location based marketing, growyour sales, create deep relationships with your customers, and hammer
your competition? Everything you need to know about location based
marketing is available in this free report.
What is Location Based Marketing?
something that has the potential to change the way businesses interact
with their consumers?
Here is a working definition of location based marketing that I’ve created, to help people understand and get more clarity about exactly what
location based marketing is.
Location Based Marketing: A social media marketing strategy focusing on
At its core location based marketing stands at the intersection of social
media marketing and mobile marketing. Also known as “LBM” – location
based marketing is creating a way for businesses to literally bring value to
the palm of their customers hand.
Customers can “check-in” to at a store on their mobile device to unlock
specials and deals. This takes the often mushy concept of “social media”
and creates a way for businesses to quantify exactly how their social
media presence is generating revenue.
This is exactly why Location Based Marketing has so much potential and
has generated so much buzz lately on major social media sites – it is finally
a way for brick and mortar businesses to generate concrete revenue with
social media.
How Location Based Marketing Is Revolutionizing Social Media
Location based marketing is the hottest new trend in online advertising
and social media marketing. Location based marketing takes advantage
of GPS enabled “location based services” or LBS such as Foursquare,
Gowalla, Facebook Deals, and SCVNGR in order to allow customers to
access coupons, deals, and specials in real time on their mobile devices.
Location based marketing is changing the way that businesses both big
and small are engaging their customer base.
Also known as geomarketing or proximity marketing – location based
marketing let’s small businesses reach their customers in real time using
social media.
Small businesses have often wondered – how does social media really
help my business? It is very difficult to quantify exactly what benefit social
media marketing has on your bottom line.
It’s great to have twitter followers or fans on Facebook, but until you can
monetize that revenue stream – there is no tangible impact. Location based marketing turns these soft social media platforms into
concrete social distribution platforms that can be used to directly
increase your sales.
“Brick & Mortar” Social Media Marketing
Location based marketing takes social media from a mushy internet
marketing tool to something I like to call a "brick & mortar" social media
tool.
What do I mean by Brick & Mortar social media marketing? I think that the
next step for social media marketing and location based marketing
specifically is for more mainstream adoption by more traditional brick and
mortar or mom and pop type businesses.
Social media is currently the playing field for big national brands and tech
startups – but a space largely ignored by smaller businesses. Small
businesses in the restaurant and retail industry specifically will be the next
people to start really getting involved more actively in social media
marketing.
The key to this transition is location based marketing. Why? Becauselocation based marketing is a way for those businesses who may have
previously had no interest in social media, twitter follows, or facebook (as
an aside – I think every small business that faces consumers should have a
facebook page) can now use location based services to drive customers
physically into their store and to track those visits with check-ins.
This is a very compelling value proposition for small restaurant and retail
locations – one that I think smart business owners will be jumping on
sooner rather than later
7 Reasons Your Small Business Needs Location Based Marketing
Location based marketing is an immensely powerful tool for small business
marketing. Here are 7 reasons why every small business should implement
an LBM campaign.
1. Customer acquisition location based marketing helps you reach outto new customers. You can offer deals or rewards for first time check-ins
to encourage new visitors to your store. These customers can find your
deals either by using location based services like foursquare, or by
finding online deal listing like Gowalla city pages.
2. Reward loyal customers – location based marketing lets you reward
your most loyal customers. You can choose to use mayor specials to
reward your top customers with special goodies, or you can use repeat
check-ins to reward customers with something similar to the Smoothie
King punch card.
3. Monetize your social media presence – what are you going to do with
all those fans on your restaurant’s facebook page? Location based
marketing lets you drive those customers into your store by offering
them specials or promotions – and its measurable because you can
track check-ins and monitor all your lbm analytics.
4. Low Risk / High Reward – there is little to risk for setting up an LBM
campaign, spending 15 minutes to set up foursquare and get your
campaign going is your only real cost (other than the promotional
items). So what if no one checks in for a few days? Even 1 or 2 sales
extra sales would still make 15 minutes a worthwhile investment.
5. Free to use – foursquare and Gowalla are both free to use for small
businesses – there is no cost to set up your campaign. Do I really need
to say more?
6. Differentiate yourself from your competitors – be the first of your
competitors to get ahead of the trend. If you dominate
the location based marketing space before anyone else then you will be the go-to spot and your brand will be associated with location
based promotions in your customer’s mind.
7. Proven marketing methods at the end of the day, none of these
tactics are new or untested. Location based marketing takes the
proven and successful tactics of coupons, customers loyalty cards,
promotions, and discounts and moves them all onto a mobile platform
in the social media space.
What are you waiting for? Go set up your location based marketing
campaign today. There isn’t much to lose but it could really help your
business grow sales and outmaneuver the competition.
How Location Based Marketing Can Help Your Business Survive The Recession
The economy has been tough on small businesses across the board and in
the last few years, only businesses that have been able to stay lean and
keep their customers have survived.
Think about the fast casual restaurant segment – it has survived and
even grown during the recession by creating value for customers and has
a smaller more nimble business model than traditional casual dining.
Location based marketing is an excellent customer acquisition tool thatcan help your business survive these tough economic times.
There are a few key ways that location based marketing can let you thrive
even in a down economy.
With the economy in the dumps, customers are hunting for bargains and
looking for ways to save money.
Location based marketing deals are an excellent way to offer your
customers real value.
By giving your customers relevant deals and discounts, location based
marketing lets you turn economic downturns into an opportunity to
acquire customers.
You can also use location based marketing as a way to differentiate your
brand during a tough economy.
While your competitors are losing customers by the day, you can use LBM
strategies to build customer loyalty and reward your customers.
In tough economic times – keeping your core customers is an essential
part of surviving.
Location based marketing is the tool for rewarding loyal customers and
keeping them in the store.
The lifetime value of loyal customers, especially in a recession, is what
keeps many businesses afloat.
Location based marketing campaigns are also free to launch and cost
very little to run, making them a great tool to deploy for businesses that are looking for cost effective ways to grow their customer base during a
recession.
The Future of Location Based Marketing – What Drives User Adoption?
There is an interesting piece over at Wired about the future of location
based marketing: The Future of Geo-Location: Faith, or Science?
This article points out some of the doubts people have about the future of
location based marketing and the number of users currently on the major
LBM platforms.
The article does a great job of addressing the two major concerns people
have about user adoption of location based services.
The first major concern about location based services is that users will be
too lazy to check in.
Checking-in is an action, something active. People have to pull out their
mobile devices and actually click the check-in box. Unlike watching TV
which is entirely passive, checking-in requires an extra step.
This is often cited as a major stepping stone to mass adoption of location
based services and a reason why location based marketing can’t scale
effectively.
However, the entire app universe is built around the fact that people
enjoy using their mobile phones for all sorts of activities from texting, to google maps, Zagat, etc – people use their mobile phones as a portal to
access information and take action – and location based services stand
at the nexus of this.
The Wired article also points out that activities like web browsing and even
something like video games are very active behaviors and yet those are
still things people spend tons of time doing both on their computers and
on their mobile devices.
People also already take time out of their day to clip coupons, use punch
cards, and take advantage of similar discounts or promotions – location
based marketing simply makes it even easier for people to access these
deals in the palms of their hand.
The second big concern about location based marketing is that users will
fear a loss of privacy when announcing their location to their friends and
other users on their location based service.
This is the major reason cited for the small number of users on location
based services right now and the fears people have about growth in the
industry.
The article makes an excellent point that starting with Facebook and now
many other services like Twitter or even Gmail – people are willing to give up their private information as long as they perceive that they get value
out of that exchange.
The key is to offer the customer something in exchange – show them that
giving up their location is worth the value of finding relevant and
interesting deals or specials in their area.
“People are also willing to give up lots of private information, or are
Wired does a great job of pointing out what I also think about the location
based services market – as with other social media – location based
marketing will become part of people’s daily experiences and something
that is natural and expected – people want relevant, timely, and
interesting information – and location based marketing can deliver it to
them.
The Real Potential of Location Based Marketing
The key to unleashing the real potential of the location based services
market, turning location based marketing into an essential marketing tool
for small business, and growing the location based services user base is for
the major location based services to re-conceive what business they are
in and understand the true potential for location based marketing.
While things like badges and special rewards for exploring cities are
interesting distractions – the meat of location based services is in the value
they can offer consumers.
To drive users onto Foursquare and Gowalla – they need to realize that
nifty gadgets and cool features are not the end game. Give people
value.
Give them a reason to log in and check-in at their local coffee shop. It’s
all well and good to be the mayor, but at the end of the day, as a
consumer, I want that extra dollar in my pocket. I want that free order
of French fries.
Promotional marketing and coupon marketing have been highly
successful marketing and sales tactics for a long time. These are tried and true marketing methods and ways to generate sales and build customer
loyalty.
Foursquare and Gowalla need to realize they are in the location based
marketing business – they are in the business of location based coupons,
location based promotions, and mobile marketing.
They don’t need to be focusing development on a cute and fun user
Facebook Deals coming to market shows that there are big players in the
market who understand the underlying dynamics. Facebook doesn’t
bother with badges or other such functionality - Facebook Deals is
designed specifically to leverage Facebook’s user base and deliver
relevant content and value to them. That is the future model of location
based marketing and the other play