Romantic restaurant? Fireplace-warmed log cabin? The top of the Empire State Building? Where something happens matters—whether you’re looking to pop the question or trying to better understand customer behavior. Fortunately, location data has never been more accurate or easier to access.
Love (and location data) knows no bounds
Today there are more apps delivering information on customer whereabouts than ever before, and the information they rely upon is increasingly accurate. The location signals from apps on smartphones, smartwatches and other devices get more precise with each generation, and GroundTruth’s Blueprint mapping technology, which uses those signals to delineate the physical boundaries of a store, now covers almost all of the country’s businesses and points of interest. Proximity and parcel data have become yesterday’s tools—brands don’t have to approximate foot traffic when they can track it with precision.
About 95 percent of American adults own a cell phone and many users check their device upward of 150 times a day; that results in roughly 30 billion mobile moments a year, according to a study by Forrester. Each of those data points indicates where a person is, allowing for a detailed picture of where people go before they shop, how long they stay in a particular place and where they head when they are finished.
Love is blind…but location data is eye opening
Location data provides companies a fuller view of their customers, allowing them to see behaviors such as cross-shopping. Previously, marketers could draw information from an audience’s click stream. Today, location data provides intelligence on the foot stream, offering a single, 360-degree view of customer behavior.
A fuller understanding of the audience permits more personalized (and, therefore, more fruitful) customer connections. With location data, you can determine who visits your stores or shares your brand’s values, then reach them at the optimal time. Pinpointed customer interaction means that more of your budget goes directly to driving visits. That means fewer wasted marketing dollars.
Special tools ensure that companies effectively leverage the money they spend on campaigns. With GroundTruth’s Cost Per Visit, for example, marketers pay only for verified store visits, so they can determine the impact of every dollar.
Happily ever after
This is just the beginning. Like newlyweds starting their lives together, this technology will see evolution and growth in the years ahead. As rich as location data is, its application is still in its nascent stage. Today, those with access to place information can see where people are and deliver them targeted messages thanks to self-serve platforms like GroundTruth Ads Manager. In the future, as the supply of data expands, so will its uses.
Seeing what a consumer does helps inform decisions, but anticipating what they will do next opens a whole new world of possibilities. By using predictive analytics, companies can use location data to see the future. Location data lets marketers get to know their customers’ patterns and habits, and then reach them at precisely the right moment. If you know that Tess Trueheart and Joe Lovemore go to the movies every Friday night, you can deliver them an ad with a coupon for the restaurant next to the movie theater right before they leave their home.
The more we know about a consumer, where they go, for how long and what and where they buy, the easier it is to speak to their particular needs and desires. Through location data marketers can gain invaluable insights into current and target customers.
