RK Mitchell Internet Marketing

Geo Marketing As a tool For Local Businesses.

Internet Marketing is essentially communicating your business, its product or service to potential customers using the resources of the internet.

It is a way of creating interest and describing the advantages and features that your company offers.  The question becomes, however, is your message reaching the
intended consumer?

Traditional marketing broadcasts or prints the message where it is assumed that many potential consumers will receive it.  In reality,  it will be applicable to very few.  Because of this, marketing, which had been evolving slowly, has become much more focused on specific demographics, enabled largely by improvements in communication, the internet, as well as the need to consider previously “unconventional” marketing methods.

For example, it is relatively easy to develop marketing campaigns that focus on certain locations, such as advertising in a neighborhood paper, or to target a specific demographic, such as advertising your fitness center on a healthy living website. However, it can still very difficult to reach viable consumers, consumers that turn into sales, mainly because of the constraints posed by location.

Location-based marketing is the missing element. (Case Study) Without it, over 90 percent of ad impressions are wasted on consumers who are outside your geographic area. Fortunately, technology has advanced to allow geo-location marketing. For instance, mobile marketing on smartphones allow marketers to obtain device-location data and modern search engines, such as Google, enable consumers to find what they need based entirely on what is near them. Better targeting equals bigger demand and better conversions. Geo-Marketing (or Geographic Marketing) is the new method of marketing a business and its website through web searches, mobile phone searches and social media.

Get In Early! The difficulty with any new marketing tool is a business’s inability to adopt the methodology early.  When it comes to technologies and the Internet, in the past, by the time most businesses are ready to adopt a marketing tool, the industry has already moved on to something new.  Being an early or at least an earlier adopter of marketing methods on the Internet and through digital devices such as mobile phone or IPads can only benefit the business.

Mobile Phone Marketing is becoming a significant geo-marketing tool for local brick and mortar businesses. SMS Texting, mobile applications, mobile version of your website, and mobile advertising are the key components.  The starting point in this process will be with SMS Texting to get your alerts out to customers that subscribe to your short bursts of information.  The reason why this is your starting point is that it will take time to build your list of subscribers.

Here is how to make it work for you:

TARGET YOUR CAMPAIGN AS SPECIFICALLY AS POSSIBLE: The easiest, and most obvious SMS campaigns are those targeting current customers.  A Pizza shop can offer a value giva-way to customers who text a specific, (and track-able) keyword to a “shortcode” number.

This ‘keyword” and “short-code” can also be used within other, traditional media.  Fliers, Ad-Packs, billboards and newspaper ads can display them, allowing the business to build a subscriber base of leads for future campaigns.

Make sure that your campaign is targeted specifically to the area you do business in. Search engines like Google, allow you to target your marketing campaigns based on City, ZIP codes, neighborhoods, or even a specific street intersection.

This way, when you advertise your Pizza shop or coffee shop, you can be sure that biggest percentage of consumers exposed to your campaign are within a range that would make sense for them to choose your business.

USE YOUR LOCATION TO YOUR ADVANTAGE: You can use your location to your advantage in promotions by focusing on providing consumer incentives at a hyper-local level. For example, you could provide a time-sensitive coupon to consumers within a few mile radius of your business.

EXPLAIN YOUR LOCATION: With geo-location, you can also explain your location, preventing a situation where you have a customer who is interested in what your company offers but does not want to bother looking up directions. Not only could you provide a map, but you could even provide directions from the person’s location (walking, driving, or by bus).

PLAY UP THE NOVELTY: Lastly, make sure that your geo-location marketing campaign plays up the novelty presented by location based marketing. Major retailers, such as Starbucks, are using programs such as Foursquare and Facebook Locations to turn location into a game. Consumers can “check in” at your location, allowing you to provide incentives for consumers to visit a specific location more frequently by offering status (e.g. mayor status, badges), points, or incentives based on the number of visits (e.g. free appetizer on your fifth visit).

Local Internet Marketing is a key part of growing your business and brand, to attract local consumers.
Local Internet Marketing isn’t just about having a website, it includes being findable in multiple places when local consumers are looking for your product or service.   A Local Internet Marketing Consultant can help you determine the best route for your online marketing plan.