Location, location, location: the golden rules of real estate and now technology

“Location, location, location!” It’s been the golden rule in real-estate for years and it now holds true for marketing technology as well.

Facebook recently announced their Store Visits metric in the “Local Awareness” Ad product, which helps brands measure the effectiveness of their digital advertising campaigns in driving sales and store visits. This was a big announcement for many and I, for one, believe it represents more than just an attribution play – it’s the next frontier and now the golden rule for marketing as well.

While Facebook is by far the dominate force in location data and insights (with formable assets including four of the top five apps, and Parse, a leading MBaaS solution with more than 600,000 installs) (See TopApps Image/JPG), the Store Visits capability for the location awareness ad product signifies how mobile signals will revolutionize marketing as we known it in three core areas.

TopApps

If you are looking to target users, create better user experiences or track ROI – location will be at the center of your success – here’s how.

1.Attribution

Connecting online to offline has always been a major challenge for retailers and marketers with physical locations.

Mobile location data is the bridge and although Facebook is the dominate player with its massive app footprint, use of it will be limited to brands who are running Location Awareness Facebook campaigns.

Expect other providers to aggressively offer similar services as demand accelerates and advertisers look for and independent third party source to validate attribution and to apply attribution and conversion metrics across mobile ad networks outside of Facebook.

While these advances are all great for the industry in general, it does complicate attribution as digital advertising and mobile signals determining conversion rarely existing in a vacuum multi-channel marketing attribution increasingly complex.

2.Consumer insights and audiences

Location signals can provide great insights on who your customers and prospects are and how best to market to them based on their visitation and linger/dwell time.

Frequent visits to Starbucks, restaurants, malls, etc. translate into critical variables for targeting (coffee lovers, foodie, shoppers) and multichannel messaging.

Brands will increasingly look to in app activity and mobile signals including location and dwell time to determine user/customer segments that power multichannel messaging.

3.Mobile Moments

We live in a world defined by moments – micro moments to be exact — where time and opportunity meet to create exceptional experiences.

Linking mobile signals — including location and dwell time with marketing execution capabilities (push, mobile ads, SMS, email) in real-time — can drive new and compelling experiences.

Advances in predictive decisioning and machine learning allow us to not only leverage these behaviors in real-time, but almost sense and respond to customer needs in their precise moment of needs.

Creating a technology stack that integrates data with critical execution channels including dynamic content creation and analytics will help enable brands to execute in the mobile moment.

While the benefits of using location data represent the next frontier in marketing, the sensitivity around using this data and using it in ways that improve the customer experience should not be overlooked.

A study last year by the MMA and Brainstorm found:

  •  74% of consumers were willing to share their location based data to third parties with certain provisions.
  • 37% want reassurance they won’t be bombarded with adverts.
  • 32% want a tangible sociable benefit just as improving healthcare or crime.
  • 30% would want to personally benefit – free services, vouchers, money off.
  • 29% to improve customer service.

In addition, tracking locations also requires reassurances with 32% indicating they would want the details to remain anonymous, 27% would like transparency into the proposed use of the data and 25% insist on actively opting in.

SurveyInfographic_v1.5

Ask any real-estate pro to list the most important things a property should have and your likely to hear “location, location, location.”

I predict in two years, ask any marketer to list the most important component in building a successful marketing program and you will likely also hear the same.

‘Til Next Time.

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