To that end, one of the most powerful types of segmentation is location. Simply knowing where your audience is located provides you with a wide array of options to make your email marketing better targeted and more effective.
On the most basic level, location helps you determine what promotions will have the greatest impact. For example, sending a promotion about low-cost international shipping is useless to those in your native country, but very useful to customers abroad.
It also helps with cultural and language differences, some of which can be very subtle. For example, knowing that your customer is in a region that uses “pop” instead of “soda” can help better target your message about a new cola-related product or a sale.
However, such cultural differences barely scrape the surface of what location-based email marketing can do.
The power of check-ins
Location is most powerful when fed by other indicators, more specifically check-ins. Though it can be done in many ways, it is most easily done through a customer rewards program that connects a purchase with the user’s email account. Most major chain stores have rewards programs like this in place.
This approach provides two very important pieces of information for the purpose of location-based marketing. They are of course where the customer shopped and when.
Knowing where the customer shopped makes it easy to tailor marketing so that messages are specific for that location. Most customers will have a favorite location and will be interested in learning about specials and holidays specific to it. Location-based marketing allows them to form an attachment not just with the brand, but also with that specific location, making it more of a home away from home that they know very well.
Knowing when a customer visited allows marketers to customize the timing of email marketing campaigns. You can send a marketing piece either shortly after a visit or after a period of absence in the hope of tempting the shopper back. You can also use it to segment your market to target those who visit once a week differently to those who only come monthly.
This makes it easy not only to target your most valuable customers with the most relevant information, but also to give all of your customers the greatest benefit possible. This will minimize opt-outs and reduce marketing fatigue.
But why email?
With so much focus on location, it might seem more practical to use text messages or push alerts to reach customers. After all, an app, if location services are enabled, can detect when a customer is at a specific location and present them with relevant marketing immediately.
The problem is that push alerts and text messages are still considered annoying. They demand the customer’s attention in the moment. This is one of the reason why some industries have an opt-out rate of 60% when it comes to push alerts.
Email can be read on the customer’s own schedule. While that may mean the message gets there late, it’s less likely to be annoying. Email opt-out rates are significantly lower, usually just 1-2% after each delivery. These rates can be even lower with great targeting.
So while email may not allow for split-second timing of a marketing message, it’s close enough for the purpose of location-based marketing and much less likely to drive customers away.
Bottom line
In the end, effective email marketing is all about automation, segmentation and personalization. It’s getting the right message to the right customer at the right time with minimal effort.
For that, location-based marketing is a valuable tool not only allowing you to highly customize and hone the content of the message, but the timing of it as well.
As a bare minimum, it will help you speak in a language your customers will feel comfortable with and avoid wasting their time on offers that don’t apply. At best, it can help build a very strong attachment not just to your brand, but also to their preferred location.
At any level, location-based marketing will make your email campaign stronger and is a must-have for any marketer hoping to reach out via the medium. Without it, there’s a good chance that you’re wasting a great deal of your effort and, most likely, being ignored or even disliked by the customers you’re trying to reach.
