Using Location-Based Social Media Marketing

In the not-so-distant past, if your customer or prospect was looking to find a business that offered what they needed, they’d open up a Yellow Pages directory and turn the pages until they found relevant business listings. The Internet completely transformed the way people find local businesses with technology that made location-based marketing possible.

What is location-based marketing?

The definition of location-based marketing is "a direct marketing strategy that uses a mobile device’s location to distribute content or services associated with a particular place." Some examples of location-based marketing that is triggered when someone is in the vicinity of a business include:

1. Push notifications to smartphones. This can be available through mobile app advertising or a custom app that you have developed for your business.
2. Digital ads on social networks, search engines like Google, websites, streaming services like Spotify and Hulu, and mobile apps like Yelp and Instagram.
3. Add-on features on mobile apps that enhance the app experience.

Some ways location-based marketing can be used include:

1. Offering discounts when a customer is at your place of business
2. Pushing coupons to someone in your store to encourage purchases
3. Providing a custom lens on Snapchat to people who are nearby and using the app

What type of business can benefit from location-based marketing? While it seems obvious that any business with a physical location-such as a restaurant, retail store, or medical or dental office-could benefit from location-based marketing tools and techniques, you don’t need a brick-and-mortar presence to take advantage of this type of highly targeted advertising.

For example, if you participate in trade shows, you can use geofenced ads - ads that appear only in specific geographical areas - to push marketing messages to people who are nearby. If you’re trying to reach a younger audience, you can create Snapchat lenses - unique graphics that overlay and alter people’s selfies on the app. You then pay to have the lenses appear in a certain location-such as at a concert, fair, or festival-for a set timeframe.

One location-based marketing tool that builds on social media word-of-mouth is the "check-in" feature on various apps including Facebook, Yelp (a reviews and recommendation website with business listings), and Foursquare (a Yelp competitor). By encouraging people who visit your business to check in on their favorite app, your company name and location will be shared with their social media friends, increasing exposure to your brand.

Something to keep in mind with push notifications is that they only work if a person has not restricted their notifications. You can encourage people who enter your place of business to turn on their notifications by placing signs with instructions and offering incentives such as exclusive discounts if they do. You can also use this tactic to encourage them to download and use a specific app-either one that offers location-based marketing tools, or one developed specifically for your business-when at your location so you can interact with them when they are nearby.

Having your own branded app can exponentially increase customer engagement, however, going that route can be extremely expensive. There are easy and affordable app builders that let you assemble a mobile app without having to learn coding such as AppyPie, Adalo, and BuildFire. If you decide a custom app will be useful for your business, make sure the builder you use includes a push notification feature so you can implement location marketing tactics. Once your app is built and available in the app stores, your next step would be inviting your customers to download and use it.

Another way to power your business with location-based marketing tactics is to set up "proximity beacons" around your place of business. These can be Bluetooth-powered physical devices or platforms that send out signals to receptive smartphones to push notifications or in-app messaging.

The easiest and most affordable way to take advantage of location-based marketing is to pay for geotargeted ads on popular social networks and mobile apps geared toward your target audience. Targeting people with ads based on their location helps you reach the right people with marketing messaging that can be more relevant to them when those messages appear.