The hottest trend in brand communication is GEOservices – using location-based data to efficiently link consumers to products or services. It uses a lot of the same technology that your car navigation system uses to get you to your favorite coffee bar. GEOservices tools help you to guide people to products. The sister technology, GEOanalytics, helps you to build a fence around where to target campaigns optimizing what you spend and getting customers to products faster.
Getting started with location-based GEOservices takes two pieces of data: a mailing list and a target location or set of locations. A personalized map can be generated for as many people as there are on the list guiding them to where the products and services are available. Adding location-based GEOservices to draw a fence around where you should be pinpointing brand marketing efforts ensures that you deliver the right message to the right doorstep or mobile device, every time. Not only is there engagement, but by eliminating ineffective marketing, there are cost savings.
A trusted partner of ours, is the leading company in this market, locr. They were early to market with technology to create personalized maps that can guide a consumer from their home to a business on paper, in a mobile app or online in static or video formats. They leveraged their mapping experience to create their GEOservices offering that creates target campaign specifications based on the address of the consumer and the location of the products or services.
When our customers want to speak to the market, they carefully craft campaigns to intrigue, entice and amuse their target audiences. In the current market, there is a plethora of new engagement tools for paper-based, packaging-based, online and mobile interaction, but most miss a key element. Many fail to link the location of the consumer to the location of the product or service. And, that can cost sales!
There seems to be an assumption that a consumer will be so interested in a product that they will find their way to where they can interact with it. While some consumers will work hard to find their way to a product, most will take the path of least resistance taking the easiest route to a nearby store or going elsewhere because it “seems” more convenient. When data-driven GEOservices is added to a communication, it changes the way consumers make decisions about where they shop, where to access services and where to be part of loyalty programs and events. Most importantly, GEOservices delivers the actual time/distance a consumer would experience, not the highly inaccurate radius used by list companies.
GEOservices provide the context to the target of your message. It covers the marketing practices that take advantage of the same data about location used by cartographers and GPS systems to identify specific points on the ground. Those points include locations on both sides of the buyer/seller equation, and they can be used in many ways to add depth to the conversation.
Personalized Maps with static location (left) and navigation map (right)
Campaigns that use maps to guide consumers to retail outlets and other services are not new, but the ability to select from different types of maps and to control the formatting and colors is new. Helping a consumer find their way to a product on the most efficient path saves time and creates a higher level of engagement. But, mapping isn’t the only way to use GEOservices. By leveraging the full power of knowing where consumers are and where they can engage with your product or service, you can make strategic decisions about how to link your story to where the consumer is. You can also make smarter decisions about where to engage and where not to engage.
For every innovation in brand communication, there are stories of how hard the path to success can be. With Tukaiz and locr as partners though GEOservices can be a welcoming and comfortable experience. It takes just a few steps to get started. Start with a fresh look at your customers. Where are they? How do they buy from you? How many new customers are you gaining against the number of customers who fade into the past? How are you talking to them today? Many brand managers who do this simple self-audit learn that there is room for improvement. Even the flashiest, well-designed campaigns that are missing that location context could produce better results. Campaigns that use GEOservices require a partner who is not only expert in creating personalized maps for marketing, but a partner that understands the technology behind the maps. Contact a Tukiaz rep today to get started on your next GEOservices campaign now!