In our daily job, advising agencies, brands and retailers on Location Based Marketing, we use a special program to structure the discussion and planning.
<This article has appeared in Dutch on Sprout>
It revolves around six steps you need to take into account when devising an LBM campaign, or integrating location into the strategic marketing mix. In short, the steps are
Link
… your physical, offline assets to online assets (public or proprietary). You can think about linking
- Locations to platforms
- Products to online information or commerce
- Inventory to mobile platforms
- Staff to social media
Locate
… your (prospect) customer. Targeting your audience by location can be done by
- The customers themselves – through e.g. a check in, tweet, or location tag on a smartphone
- The merchant or mall – through indoor positioning for analysis, or event triggering
- The mobile carrier or their partner – through cell tower triangulation and a geofence around your shop
- An ad network – using the phones location capabilities to deliver display and search ads
Listen
… not just to the conversation about your shop, restaurant, brand, etc. (as in Social Media Marketing) but focusing specifically on the things people say and do at your shop. This can be done through using
- Location-Focused social media analysis platforms
- Individual platform merchant dashboards
- The location of search trends in Google Analytics, or of tweets in Tweetdeck/Seesmic
- A crowdsourced mobile workforce for field research?
Attract & Engage
… using an integrated approach to location marketing, considering not just mobile, but all marketing media available at a location for example:
- In Shop
- Display Window
- Personell
- Shelf space, Music, Scent, In-store traffic
- Point of Sale
- Print
- Local Advertising
- In-store merchandizing & magazines
- Out of Home
- Local Billboards
- Digital Signage
- Online
- Reviews, Publishing (e.g. Yelp)
- Search (20% of Google Search is Local)
- Social (Like, +)
- Mobile
- Routing, Navigation
- Group buying
- Check-in deals & badges
- Coupons
Transact
… towards the purpose of the engagement, was it for a
- Loyalty Reward?
- Points, kickbucks, badges, etc. etc.
- Exclusive privileges
- Deal redemption?
- Offers, deals, specials, coupons
- Cash (e.g. PayPal, AMEX Credit)
- Non cash (e.g. prizes, incentives, merchandizing)
- Sales incentive?
- Discount
- Cash Credit
Retain
… not just any customer, but the right type of customer, through analyzing the results of the campaign or program. Think about a direct connection to your
- Loyalty Program
- Internal or external / industry
- Apply best contingent game dynamic
- Deals Platform
- Groupon, Google Offers, LivingSocial etc. etc.
- Or proprietary group buying schemes
- POS systems and Gift Cards
- Social CRM