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Mention location-based marketing and many people immediately think of services such as Foursquare, or Shopkick. However, that would be a very narrow view of what location-based marketing really is.

location based marketing can pull in customers

Location based marketing or LBM is a term gathering lots of attention because it focuses on ways to attract and retain customers that are already in YOUR location. The fact is Location-based marketing is becoming an important part of many social media marketing strategies.

Properly implemented this type of marketing  can actually help consumers by offering discounts and making items available to consumers based on the data collected by the business. In some cases businesses can also explore the data of previous purchases to get a good understanding of what their customers liked or didn’t like and where they are.

By taking all these items into consideration a business can create an enhanced customer experience leading to greater customer loyalty and repeat business.

Does This Really Get Me More Customers?

A major concern for any business is offering discounts or deals to new customers who only use the offer and never come back.  However, according to Utpal Dholakia , a professor at Rice University, 20 percent of deal users do become repeat customers.  A major reason for this outcome is that people who are enjoying their experiences with daily deal purchases are willing to go back and spend more.

How to get started

The first step is to design and develop a mobile app.  In order to do this it is important that you do some customer based research.  This means really being able to understand what the needs and preferences of your customers truly are.

Remember it is not about you Too many small businesses make the mistake of developing marketing campaigns based on what they feel is important to them as the business owner rather than looking at it from the customer’s point of view.  This is a major reason why at times apps do not receive the use and attention of customers.

When using a location based marketing strategy it is important that the customer feel in control of the relationship.  The customer should be able to determine how often they want to receive an offer as well as select the categories that they are interested in.

Mobile advertising is expected to be direct and personal in nature.  There is no room for generalities like the old newspaper ads where a business could offer anything and everything.  That type of approach in this case would be disastrous.

Imagine a single male agrees to opt-in for offers from a local grocery store via the mobile app.  Then, imagine the same young male receiving offers on feminine hygiene products and diapers.  It would not take long for this customer to delete the mobile app from his phone and opt-out from any communications from the grocery store.

Connect it all together

As with any marketing strategy it is a good idea to integrate your various marketing tools so that they work together giving you maximum effectiveness.  First, don’t stick with just one platform.   It is recommended that you offer both the Android and iPhone platforms as these are the most popular platforms for smartphone users.

Secondly, think how the various social media services can be combined to give you maximum effect.  For example, a business can increase engagement in their mobile initiatives by repurposing customer-generated content from such places as Foursquare and Instagram.

One way this could be done is for the business to post any published tips and geo-tagged photos from their customers to corresponding Facebook pages.

Next, the business could tweet (in this example the Foursquare users) who originally posted this content, and let them know that their photos or tips were posted on the businesses’ App.  All this activity would increase the interactivity and relationship with the customer base leading to more business and profits.

As you can see there are many different ways to use location based marketing and mobile apps to increase the experience of your customers. With a little imagination and planning any business can take advantage of this innovative marketing strategy.

Want to learn more about mobile apps and how your business can profit from them?  Then, continue to visit GoMobile Solutions for more on the mobile app industry and how it’s forever changing the way the world connects. Your comments are welcome.