We all have needs, multiple needs, unwavering needs. When one need is fulfilled, another one is right behind it to take its place. For any of these needs, whether it is choosing an auto shop to get your Subaru up to snuff, a used music store to sell that old gear of yours, or a place to buy gear for spelunking…our needs can sometimes be a bit far-out…we look to those companies and places of expertise in their fields to assist us in making sure that our needs are met. Each time we have a need, we are faced with a potentially daunting task, that of having to do our due diligence to see who will earn our business, based on multiple criteria. This is where the notion of geomarketing comes into play. As a business owner, whom we would assume would like to actually have steady and constant business, this is a vital tool to make sure that you are seen as visible or present within the world of commerce. Like a needle in a market haystack, before you can conduct any business whatsoever, you must first be found and found suitable to fulfill these needs however you can. Let’s explore geomarketing and see how it will help your business get on the map.
You are a business owner with a location or multiple locations. While many businesses are making a major push towards heavy implementation of online shopping, digital web stores, and the like, you are still primarily based out of the physical brick and mortar paradigm. This is totally cool, you’re still in great shape in the world of commerce, with the majority of retail sales being in-store purchases and only 8% of retail sales being completed online (ycharts). While many sales may take place in the physical realm of commerce, a vast amount of make-or-break information resides in the digital aether that can and does have a major dictation on our success. Of all the people that visit your physical stores, 93% of those customers looked up your store location or other pertinent information before even stepping out of their homes (greysuitretail). With this being said, although it may not be necessary in all cases to uphold a large digital platform with the primarily goal of selling your goods and services, imperative digital measures still have to be taken to ensure that you are selling your actual business to ensure that you are giving your company the best representation you possibly can.
As stated, before people ever even step foot in your brick and mortar store, they do their research to find out about your business. And as stated throughout the entirety of the history of professional business, you never get a second chance at a first impression. For this reason, it is absolutely vital that all of the information that is presented is perfectly in line with what is true to your business. Relative to the total sum of your customers, some 73% admit to a loss of trust when the information listed on a business website is incorrect or get lost finding your business due to an inaccurate location (greysuitretail), an inexcusably large number of people from which to lose business on small, easily-addressed details. Along with the proper geomarketing’s utility in upholding trust within potential buyers, it is also important with regards to the portion of people whose trust was not faltered by this location hangup. An update of your geographical information is still in order to ensure that those folks will be able to find your business. After all, it still stands, that no matter what, for people to be able to do business with you at your brick-and-mortar store, they must first be able to find your location for the first time.
While customers finding a business’s physical location is very important, location can be equally important for the business owner in being able to hone in on potential clientele. Looking at the entirety of the business world when sitting in your brick-and-mortar store, it can be extremely overwhelming or uncertain as to how you could reel in potential customers. With a combination of having to grasp who all is in your locale, who all is in the market for what you are selling, and if anyone fitting these criteria is seeing you within the scope of their needs, all of the dust settling with you as a buyer’s choice can seem like a tough conclusion to reach. Geomarketing tools can make this doable when implemented into your business. When people fulfill these specifications, that being a need for products like your in your area, that geographical data and the tag words for the search will bring back your business as a result to fulfill the needs of that potential buyer, putting you high in the running to earn their business through promotions and ads campaigns that designed by your company to attract buyers that ultimately are apparently wanting to do business with you, based on all these factors.
Paralleling the ways that you could be benefitted by the location and needs of potential buyers is a similar way in which buyers could be benefitted with the acknowledgement of these same factors. Additional to the web searching utility of geomarketing is mobile marketing, a great tool considering the growth of mobility and on-the-move lifestyles of the day. As of December 2015, smartphone penetration in phone users reached 79% overall, and 93% within cell phone users aged 18 to 34 years old (marketingland). With this gravitation towards smartphones comes an equal shift towards conducting in online activities, and thus e-commerce, even with regards to brick-and-mortar businesses. As shoppers find businesses, and find that those business they’ve encountered are who they want to trust with their purchases, they will leave with these business means by which to uphold business communication, that being email addresses, phone numbers, and the like. Accompanying these means of communication is opportunity for companies to express promotions and for buyers to take advantages of these promotions. Diving further into the detailed parameters of this arrangement is an added use of the geographical functions which have been discussed. As people with specific inquiry history on their mobile devices and enabled gps signalling come into your locale, your businesses ads and promotions can be seen first by those doing web searches, making the acquisition of results simplified for buyers and the attention of your business primary. Wherever buyers may go, they will be able to find exactly what they need of your business.
In summation, geomarketing is a great tool for all walks of business, especially for those on the run so to speak. From the basic function of being able to let buyers know where you are successfully, all the way to being able to present buyers with promotions given their geographical location as they move about, the utility of such a tool, especially given the mobile emphasis of the time, is apparently present and worth implementing into any business’s efforts. From smaller local brick-and-mortar shops all the way to larger chains, the power of location and business information relative to it is immense and educating oneself on it is vital in today’s market. To learn more about geomarketing and what it can do for your business, contact Rave Retailer and see how location-oriented marketing can benefit your business endeavors.