Picture to yourself the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning, and the last thing you do before you go to sleep at night. Chances are it involves checking your smartphone. In fact, there’s a good chance you’re on a mobile device right now reading this blog post! After all, ComScore found that seven out of ten hours that users spend with digital media is on mobile. And in 2016, mobile web usage overtook desktop for the first time—ComScore even recorded that virtually all digital growth now stems from mobile users. This consumer obsession with all things mobile represents a tremendous opportunity for advertisers in the form of location-based marketing.

There are two key elements that make location-based marketing such an effective tactic: mobile usage and location data. As we’ve discussed, consumers spend an inordinate amount of time using mobile devices. This gives advertisers an ideal platform to serve ads to consumers throughout the day. The second piece is the devices’ location services that use GPS data to know where we are when using these mobile devices. It’s one of the reasons we love our smartphones, and it also gives advertisers the power to target consumers at the hyper-local level. This is the beauty of location-based marketing.

So how can marketers take advantage of this mobile fixation? In this five-part series, we will dive into advanced strategies for how advertisers can leverage Simpli.fi’s Geo-Fencing technology to capture an ideal target audience while they are on the go.

To kick the series off, let’s talk loyalty marketing strategies.

Leveraging Mobile Location Data to Drive Loyalty Marketing Efforts

With Simpli.fi’s Geo-Fencing, advertisers have access to the most advanced location-based mobile advertising technology on the market. What makes it so unique, you ask? Backed by GPS-derived data, Simpli.fi’s Geo-Fencing uses latitude and longitude coordinates to target specific geographic areas around town with incomparable scalability and pinpoint accuracy. Our granular localization targeting capabilities allow advertisers to set parameters using custom shapes and sizes so you can target only the area(s) you want to hit with mobile ads.

With the ability to apply variable recency, advertisers can target users who have visited specific locations from instantly or up to 30 days ensuring that you are reaching the right consumer at the right time with the right messaging. What this means for loyalty marketing is that you can precisely target customers who have already been to your business and serve them timely and relevant mobile ads with promotions and loyalty-reward offers.

Geo-Fencing in Action

People who have visited your physical locations have already shown interest in your product/service, and are ripe for promotional and loyalty offers via mobile ads. You can stay top-of-mind by geo-fencing your store location(s) and targeting customers based on the recency (i.e. timing) of their visit. Let’s explore a few use cases on how you can bring your loyalty marketing strategies to life using Simpli.fi’s advanced Geo-Fencing technology.

Limited-Time Only Promotions

This loyalty strategy is based on the premise that customers will be more motivated to make a purchase from a business if they believe that a promotional price or giveaway is temporary. Simpli.fi’s Geo-Fencing is a perfect complement to this strategy, as advertisers are able to apply variable recency to target customers who have visited their location. With the ability to target them instantly or up to 30 days after the visit, advertisers can hit consumers with mobile ads reminding them of limited-time only promotions and encouraging them to take action and revisit the business.

Rewards for Future Purchases

This is a great way to generate recurring business from current customers, or convert customers who have been to your location before but didn’t make a purchase. By geo-fencing your physical location(s) and then serving mobile ads to those consumers who have visited your targeted store(s), advertisers are able to bolster reward programs and promote additional benefits to future purchases, helping to drive sales and build an audience of loyal customers.

Seasonal Sales and Events

Taking advantage of major holidays and seasons is a time-honored advertising strategy, and an effective way to stay top-of-mind with consumers and draw them in for a visit. For example, a local party warehouse store could geo-fence their location in the weeks leading up to a major holiday (e.g. Halloween) and deliver ads promoting new costumes and special sales to those that have previously visited their location.

Connecting Advertising to Foot Traffic

There is no surprise that when someone visits a business’s location, it is a sure sign that they have some level of interest in your products/services and thus are a critical audience for your customer loyalty efforts. But even the most thoughtful advertising and effective targeting isn’t much good if you can’t measure its impact. Luckily, Simpli.fi gives advertisers the unique ability to track offline (i.e. “last mile”) conversions of those customers who have visited their location, were served an ad, and returned to that location. By tracking online-to-offline conversions, advertisers can gauge and optimize their mobile campaign effectiveness.

If you’re not utilizing mobile location-based marketing in your customer loyalty strategies, you’re missing the mark. Interested in learning more? Check out this case study to see how Simpli.fi’s Geo-Fencing helped one of our clients significantly improve their customer loyalty efforts and drive more sales. And don’t forget to check back for more advanced Geo-Fencing Audience Strategies. Next up, we will discuss competitor conquesting.