LATEST BLOG: Identity Resolution: A Comparative Analysis of Leading Customer Data Platforms Read More

Location-Based Marketing: Using Geo-location to Improve Direct Marketing

Location-Based Marketing: Using Geo-location to Improve Direct Marketing

I have always considered myself to be somewhat of a skeptic when it comes to downloading mobile applications. Usually, I would just shut off the location-tracking feature, but there have even been moments where I have deleted the application. So, what am I doing when I refuse to disclose my location information?

All I am doing is not feeding my geolocation to these companies, making it more challenging to market to me.

Location-based marketing may seem alien (scary?) to many people who are not aware of today’s marketing technology. However, I assure you, most applications are just trying to use your geolocation to improve the quality of personalized advertisements.

The potential for this technology is enormous. Let us assess some likely use cases to see how location-based marketing is shifting ways companies engage with mobile users.

1. Location Identification:

Nowadays, most businesses are interested to know where you are responding to their advertisements. Whether at home, at work, or on the move; this is vital information for any marketing campaign. The more details stored in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, the more efficiently companies can tailor their mobile advertisements.

Let’s imagine your employer has given you a list of customers from a few different regions/cities. They then ask you to run a promotion mobile advertisement to that customer list. How could you identify where each customer resides? Well, there are two principal methods you could explore.

First, you can approximate someone’s location using their Wi-Fi signal. Companies can find a user’s signal by triangulating their position between two Wi-Fi towers. So, the next time a customer logs on your website using their Wi-Fi, a trigger could be sent off to track that signal by identifying which Wi-Fi towers have been engaged. With that information, you can approximate, within a certain radius, the customer’s region or city.

The second method uses the phone’s Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates to identify the user’s geolocation. GPS signals provide highly accurate positioning capabilities across the globe. So, if the tracking is active, companies can usually pinpoint the exact location of any user.

With this method, companies can target different groups of users within an area by running programmatic display campaigns. These areas are defined using geolocation targeting and are reinforced by confirmed GPS coordinates. An advertising company can then engage with its prospects and customers across these locations of choice. Be it public events, trade shows, Starbucks, auto dealership; you name it, all these places become likely targets.

After assessing both methods, take the time to align your business and customer acquisition objective with campaign targeting parameters. However, of course, your volume of clients is the key to success here. Targeting just a small amount of locations will not yield enough result. Advertising companies need to identify dozens and dozens of target areas for a campaign like this to work efficiently.

2. IP Resolving:

The main idea here gravitates around managing IP data and resolving it with geolocation based data. This use case could potentially help narrow in on incoming website traffic by identifying the geolocation or the even the address of those IPs that passed through your platform.

Keep in mind, something of this nature would require high levels of traffic to develop individual segments. It would not be sufficient to target a point just because you found one IP in your analytics. However, if you do acquire enough data, you can target these high cluster areas with mobile ads and promotional content.

3. Event Marketing:

Event oriented targeting is a much more straightforward tactic, but extremely effective in engaging people with mobile advertisements. If you use the techniques detailed above, you will be able to target attendees using the event-related promotional material.

This marketing strategy is a very common practice seen at large public events. Most conferences even develop their own application to guide participants through the proceedings and stay up-to-date with relevant information.

These apps are great portals for collecting both geolocation and behavioral data on the participants. It is also an efficient platform for displaying advertisements, as it generates high amounts of traffic during that period.

What's Next?

Location-based marketing is still a growing concept in the marketing world. However, companies or applications that use features like “track my location” don’t always get the best success. Why? Primarily because it is a feature, not a requirement.

Fascinatingly, companies can expect higher success when users passively engage with geolocation. Situations when using social media is a great example. Tagging a picture or uploading a video on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook tend to provide a more real-time location. This passive behavior also tends to be more voluntary, where users feel more comfortable sharing certain bits of information with their network as opposed sharing with an unknown application.

So instead of being as skeptical as I was, understand that location is just another criterion in a company CRM. Location-based marketing is a big step closer to understanding audiences, collecting data, and engaging with personalized direct marketing.

Talk To Our Experts Today

All fields marked * are required

Sales Inquiries + 1 (514) 223 3648
General Inquiries + 1 (514) 392 9822
sales@munvo.com

© 2024 Munvo is a trademark of Munvo Solutions Inc.


Pin It on Pinterest

Plus Company Privacy Policy

Underline

(Canada) EN

Updated as of September 11th. 2023

“PLUS COMPANY” AND “COMPANY” MEAN PLUS COMPANY CANADA INC. AND ITS AFFILIATES AND BUSINESS UNITS IN CANADA.

Plus Company respects the privacy of its customers.

This Policy concerns you. It describes how we collect, use, disclose and protect your personal information, including when you visit our website or any website we own, operate or control (collectively, the “Site”), when you contact us by phone or email or when you communicate with us via social media.

We may update this Policy (see “Changes to the Policy” below).

You should read this entire Policy before submitting information to us or using our Site. If you submit personal information to us, we assume that you authorize us to use and disclose it as described in this Policy.

What is personal information?

Personal information is information that identifies you directly or indirectly, on its own or with other information, such as your name, contact details or IP address.

We may make full use of all information that is de-identified, aggregated or otherwise not in personally identifiable form.

Information collection and use

We collect personal information …

  • From you
  • Using automated technology when you visit our Site or communicate with us through email
  • When third parties, such as service providers, collect such personal information on our behalf

When do we collect your personal information?

  • When you browse our site
  • When you contact us by phone or email
  • When you communicate with us via social media

What type of personal information do we collect?

  • Usage information – IP address, information on the device, domain name, browser used to visit our site, pages displayed, time spent on a page, link clicks
  • With your consent, we may have access to your geolocation and
    site-navigation patterns.
  • Information you provide to us, such as personally identifiable information or contact information, as well as your comments or questions.

Why do we need it?

  • To better understand how you use our Site.
  • To modify or improve our Site, services and business activities.
  • For marketing, research and legal purposes.
  • To comply with our policies, procedures and legal obligations, including complying with law enforcement or governmental authority requests, investigating fraudulent activity, resolving disputes and enforcing our legal agreements and policies.

With whom do we share this personal information?

As part of our business operations, we may disclose personal information to the following categories of third parties:

  • Consultants, service providers and contractors we use to support our business and operations (e.g., hosting or operating our Site and services, data collection, reporting, Site metrics and analytics, data analysis, fraud detection services) who have agreed to keep the information confidential and use it only to provide the applicable services.
  • Government authorities, agencies, if required to do so by law, regulation or court order, or to respond to governmental and/or law enforcement requests.
  • An acquirer or successor in interest in the event of a reorganization, merger, sale, change of control, consolidation, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any part of Plus Company or its affiliates, including any negotiation thereof.

Where is your personal information stored?

We currently retain personal information in North America.

We may disclose personal information in locations other than your country, province or state of residence, where privacy laws may differ.

If your personal information is used outside your country, province or state of residence, it is subject to the laws of the place where it is located and may be disclosed to governments, courts, law enforcement agencies or regulatory bodies of that place, or disclosed in accordance with the laws of that place. However, our practices regarding your personal information will remain governed by this Policy and by applicable privacy laws.

Retention of personal information

We will retain your personal information (collected through online and offline methods) for as long as it is necessary for the purposes described in this Policy. We will also retain and use your personal information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

Intended audience of Site

Our Site, social media accounts and online activities are intended for persons aged 17 and over. Therefore, we do not request personal information from minors aged 16 years or younger, nor do we knowingly collect such information from minors aged 16 or younger. If you are not 17 or older, you should not visit or use our Site.

How do we protect your personal information?

We take reasonable, appropriate steps to protect personal data from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction, whether in transmission or storage. Remember, however, that no security system is infallible and that transmission over the Internet is not perfectly secure or error-free.

We use a secure server. Only authorized persons have the right to access this information, which they are required to keep strictly confidential.

Your rights with regard to your personal information

Right to access and correct

You may request access to and obtain a copy of the personal information we hold about you.

If any personal information about you is inaccurate, incomplete or ambiguous, or if the collection, disclosure or retention of such personal information is not permitted by law, you may require that it be rectified.

You can also ask us for information about the source of your personal information (if it was not obtained from you), as well as the names of persons who have access to your information and details about how long it is kept.

Right to withdraw your consent

You may request to withdraw your consent to our use or disclosure of your personal information.

In most cases, withdrawing your consent means that we will no longer be able to offer you certain services. Otherwise, we will inform you of the consequences of refusal in our request for consent.

To exercise your rights, please send a request in writing, along with proof of identity, to our Privacy Officer at the contact information provided under How to contact us.

Once your request has been received, we will respond in writing within 30 days.

Cookies and other automated technology

A “cookie” is a small text file that is placed onto an Internet user’s web browser or device and is used to remember and/or obtain information about the user. A “web beacon” is a small object or image that is embedded into a web page, application or email and is used to track activity. Web beacons are also sometimes referred to as pixels and tags. We and/or third parties, including our service providers on our behalf, may use cookies, web beacons and other similar technology to collect information for the purposes described in this Policy, including analytics and monitoring performance and improvement of our Site (traffic, errors, page load time, popular pages, etc.). Before using these technologies to geolocate you or evaluate certain characteristics about you, such as your personal preferences, interests or online behaviour, we will ask for your permission by informing you how to enable such features. We use Google Analytics to understand how our Site, services and products perform and how you use them. To learn more about how Google processes your data, visit https://policies.google.com/privacy. To change your settings relating to cookies and other automated technology, visit our Cookie Manager.
For information and questions about the use of your personal information or this Policy, you may contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@pluscompany.com.
This Policy may be revised from time to time for any reason. In such a case, we will notify you of such changes by indicating the date of the last update. Review the Policy before submitting personal information or using our Site, services or social media pages.
Search