Founder of KPItarget, an agency that helps brands meet their objectives through personalized data & marketing strategies.
getty
Are you taking full advantage of geotargeting in your marketing efforts? There’s a lot more to this tactic than simply advertising to local prospects via paid search campaigns.
We’ve used geotargeting to help clients increase brand recognition, drive foot traffic and boost in-store sales. How? By putting ads in front of our target audience while they were in (or near) a store where the product was sold — at a time when they were highly likely to be making a purchasing decision.
But if you think that geotargeting is only for businesses that depend on foot traffic or home deliveries, think again. Geotargeting has gotten a lot more sophisticated. These days, you can get pretty creative when targeting by location — especially when you start thinking outside of the limited “service area” box.
Geotargeting can be an effective way to reach hyper-specific prospects at precisely the right time with personalized messaging that resonates. We’ve found that using location data works best when it’s one of many layers of data used to target prospects. Once you’ve defined and targeted specific personas based on various attributes (everything from app usage to credit card history), adding in a geotargeting layer can be the icing on the cake.
Let’s take a look at four ways you can use location data to connect with prospective customers.
1. Use ‘Look-Back’ Data To Get Granular
Let’s say your company is trying to target fitness and wellness enthusiasts, like we did for one client. How can you reach this specific set of people beyond using basic demographic information and keyword targeting? With geotargeting, you can deliver your message directly to people who are active users of fitness and yoga studios — based on their mobile location data. But how can you ensure that these individuals didn’t just pop into the studio once using a guest pass or take advantage of a free trial month?
Going back in time via “look-back” data can make geotargeting even more effective. In this case, going back in time allowed us to identify “active users” by pinpointing people who had been coming to the yoga studio regularly for the past 12 months.
To access look-back data, you’ll need to partner with a vendor that provides an IP targeting tool. This technology can identify and aggregate the IP addresses of devices that enter into a geofenced area, which enables you to engage with a particular device.
2. Pinpoint Specific Locations
This can be an extremely effective way to deliver your message to the intended audience. Consider a clinical examination company that approached us to help them market to nurses who were close to finishing nursing school. We started by entering the addresses of 30 nursing schools across the country into Google Earth and using a mouse to draw a circle around the buildings, which is fairly simple when you zoom in.
We were then able to target every device that entered those schools. Look-back data helped us get more precise results. By targeting devices that entered the building in the fall of the prior year, we ensured that the students we reached had completed at least one year of nursing school and would be finishing the program shortly.
3. Market Across Channels
Building on the examples above, let’s say a nursing student’s computer or a gym user’s mobile phone was tagged when entering the buildings. You can then use your IP targeting tool to track the individual’s device back to their home, where their home IP address can be identified.
Then what? You can market to your target audience across devices: on their home computer, their tablet or even on their TV via an over-the-top (OTT) ad. Not only that, but you can now target the individual’s significant other, roommate or anyone else with a device on the same IP address.
4. Meet Pressing Needs
Sometimes connecting with a target audience is a good way to encourage them to make a purchase, and other times it’s more a matter of meeting their pressing needs. Consider a nonprofit we worked with that offers free support, tools and education for individuals who have been impacted by a natural disaster. After the devastating tornadoes that swept through the South in April, the nonprofit teamed up with us to deploy targeted search campaigns in affected areas. We used location targeting coupled with relevant keywords to ensure that those who had been impacted were informed about the free recovery services.
Does your company sell personal protective equipment or other products that are in high demand right now? You can geotarget areas of the country where there may be a pressing need or a shortage of supply — such as areas where face masks or other PPE are mandated.
Considerations
Personalized marketing can be challenging due to new data collection and usage regulations. For example, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) complicates tactics like geotargeting in Europe and requires marketers to get permission before tracking individuals. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) has given consumers the right to know what data companies are collecting on them. Make sure you understand such regulations before employing geotargeting.
At its best, geotargeting can be a win for both marketers and consumers. The latter benefit from convenient, helpful messaging that often can meet a pressing need. The next time you’re building an audience for a campaign, take a moment to think about how geographic data can help you get even more granular in your outreach.
Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
Go to Source
Author: Mike Rowan, Forbes Councils Member
