Leveraging Location Data for Enhanced Customer Insights

June 5, 2024

Location data offers insights into the what and where of customers. Understanding where customers are and who they’re interacting with helps marketers craft messages that resonate more personally with their audience.

However, as with any other tool or technology, its true value is unlocked only when used properly and strategically. And that’s exactly what we discuss in this blog. From unpacking what location-based customer insights are to discussing geo-targeting strategies, let’s see how you can leverage location data for enhanced customer experiences.

What is Location Data?

Location data is collected from your consumer’s past or present location through their mobile devices. When this data is used to create relevant marketing content, the process is called location-based or geo-targeting marketing.

Similarly, location-based customer insights means analyzing customer behavior, preferences, and demographics using location data. This includes data from mobile devices, GPS, beacons, and geotags on social media. Using this data, businesses can trace movement patterns and interactions between customers and physical businesses like cafes, restaurants, retail shops, and more.

Types of Location Data

Location data is of many types — each providing different context and insights. Some of the most common types include:

GPS data: Global Positioning System or GPS data provides precise latitudinal and longitudinal insights from satellites. This data is highly reliable and often used in applications, navigation, and customer analysis.
Beacon data: Beacons are small Bluetooth-enabled devices that transmit signals to nearby mobile devices. When these devices catch these signals, the mobile apps can determine the beacon’s proximity to trigger relevant marketing messages and content for nearby retail stores, restaurants, and events.
Geotagged data: Geotagged data includes the metadata tagged in photos, social media posts, and other digital content, indicating where the location was created. This data provides location-based customer insights into where and how consumers are engaging with your content.
WiFi data: WiFi-based location data utilizes information from WiFi networks to determine a device’s location.

Using this data, brands can harness location intelligence for businesses to uncover patterns, trends, and relationships that might not be blatantly obvious when viewed in isolation.

Geo-targeting Strategies for Businesses

Location-based customer insights are a goldmine for marketers. They’re effective because they’re precise, targeted, and relevant to customer needs and preferences.

If you’re looking for some effective geo-targeting strategies, we’ve got you:

1. Localized SEO

Localized SEO focuses on optimizing website content and online listings to maximize visibility among your target audience. This is a fail-safe strategy for businesses with in-store locations that target customers from a specific geographic area.

Some geo-targeting strategies for businesses include:

Google My Business: Optimize your Google My Business profile with accurate, up-to-date information, including details like your business name, address, phone number, and location.

To simplify this process, competent partners such as SingleInterface, make managing your online presence hassle-free through robust marketing-to-commerce capabilities. You can manage all your listings, respond to comments, and engage with your audience without having to handle multiple tools at once.

Reviews and testimonials: Encourage customers to leave reviews on your website and online listings. While not all reviews are guaranteed to be positive, be sure to thank customers for leaving their reviews anyway.

Pro tip: Approach each review with empathy. If a customer leaves negative feedback, address their concern and use this feedback to mend any gaps in your business.

Landing pages: Another geo-targeting strategy is to create location-specific landing pages with relevant keywords tailored to local audiences. For example, if you’re a cafe owner in NYC, you can create different landing pages with targeted keywords for different locations — like Brooklyn, Manhattan, Harlem, etc. — around the city.

2. Geofencing

Geofencing is the process of setting up virtual boundaries around physical locations using GPS and RFID technology. This means that whenever someone enters this marked area, they will trigger certain actions — like targeted messages or promotions on their devices.

Here are some examples of how to use it below:

Retailers: Retailers can use geofencing to send personalized offers or discounts to shoppers when they enter a store or a shopping mall.
Service businesses: For instance, a restaurant or cafe can send push notifications to customers who enter a geofenced area and entice them to visit their location with special promos and menu items.

3. Event Targeting

As the name suggests, event targeting involves aligning marketing efforts with specific events and festivities in a particular geographic location. By tailoring your messages, content, and even offers according to the festivities, you can hop on the neighborhood buzz and garner more engagement.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Special offers: To attract customers during peak periods of activity, you can offer event-specific promotions, discounts, or giveaways.
Tailored campaigns: Capture your attendees’ attention by tailoring your business campaigns with major events and festivals.

Bonus: This strategy will make your brand stand out as a champion of local festivities, fostering a sense of community with your audience.

4. Content Personalization

Different people have different preferences when it comes to food, music, and even humor.

Content is no different. That’s why you need to tailor your content according to your audience. Using spatial analytics for customer insights, you can tailor content based on neighborhoods, streets, and demographics.

For instance, streaming services such as music and video platforms have a diverse audience with varying tastes. As a business owner, you can curate content, playlists, and recommendations that resonate with different regional and linguistic tastes.

Wrapping Up

Utilizing location-based services for customer understanding has enhanced how businesses interact with their audience on a daily basis. As technology continues to advance, we can expect even more innovative uses of location data to emerge.

Sophisticated technology like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT) will play a pivotal role in the way businesses harness and leverage location-based customer insights to transform marketing strategies. We’re talking about real-time insights, hyper-personalized recommendations, and highly accurate spatial details.

But with great knowledge comes great responsibility. This vast access to data comes with tremendous responsibility — and the onus is on businesses to respect customer privacy as their priority. Businesses that understand this fine line will emerge successful and stay ahead of the rest.

By staying ahead of these trends and strategically leveraging location intelligence, organizations can unlock new opportunities for growth and forge deeper connections with their customers in the dynamic landscape of tomorrow.