geo-marketing
Geo-marketing is a tool that uses geographic, or location-based, information to help companies put together marketing strategies and campaigns. Using digital mapping to organize and display data enables marketers to analyze data by region or a particular physical location (for instance, a store).
The advent of digital technology has made geo-marketing increasingly affordable so that companies of any size can tap its benefits. As part of a digital strategy, geo-marketing employs geographic information systems (GIS) and data with a geographic context to market businesses and their websites through internet searches, mobile searches and social media. Most geo-marketing services are compatible with multiple smartphone, tablet and PC platforms.
In geo-marketing, customer data from online transactions, mobile devices and other sources is stored in company databases. This information is applied to digital maps, for example, a zip-code map or a street map.
Analysis of geo-marketing data helps marketers determine where their customers are, link data to a digital map to understand where their customers are in a geographical context, locate something on a digital map, create summary information for specific locations and choose customers in particular areas. Geo-marketing can also help marketers select customers similar to a specific type in the rest of the country or address problems regarding the location of a new office or store.
Geo-marketing can be used for choosing a website for a new business or branch, determining key locations for advertising, displaying website content that is distinct to a user’s origin and offering online advertising based on a user’s location. Other applications include showing how a customer segment might be distributed in a particular region and setting up service networks.
Over time, geo-marketing systems should also be updated to reflect changes in customer data.