Geolocation marketing powers direct mail

Geolocation marketing is fueling new ways to reach an audience. In fact, according to the Location Based Marketing Association, 75 per cent of marketers say location-based marketing campaigns will play a large role in their business.

Geolocation marketing works

Using consent-based mobile-device data, location-based marketing allows marketers to hyper-personalize their communication by reaching the right customer, at the right time, at the right place, with the right channel. It’s an effective way to attract nearby customers to a retailer’s store location, or to sway customers away from competitive locations with the promise of better deals. Location-based marketing can also be used to enhance a customer’s shopping experience by helping them navigate through a store.

Direct mail and geolocation marketing work well together

Mobile and out-of-home channels have been at the forefront of geolocation technologies, offering marketers new and innovative ways to reach and engage with customers. But did you know direct mail can also play an important part in amplifying location-based marketing?

Reach customers at home and tap into neighbourhood insights

Geolocation technologies track customers back to the neighbourhoods in which they live. This provides a myriad of opportunities to reach customers in their home, using the power of physical mail to influence them where many purchase decisions are made. It can also provide valuable insights to inform direct mail strategies:

• How far are customers willing to travel to visit my store?
• What neighbourhoods are they coming from?
• Where am I underpenetrated compared to my competitors?

Target ideal customers by postal code

A retailer can now target postal codes where most of their customers live, even if they are not capturing data at point of sale. And if customer purchase data is captured, geolocation enables a broader understanding of store visitors who may not have completed a purchase. By reaching highly-penetrated postal codes with direct mail, retailers get the added benefit of reaching a customer’s neighbours. As birds of a feather flock together, these are likely to be highly valuable prospects.

Targeting a competitor’s visitors with direct mail is also possible, making it a powerful tool to gain market share by exposing a brand to new potential audiences. Reach can also be increased by expanding a direct mail campaign to an entire retail category, such as electronics stores, pet stores, or furniture retailers. This technique gives brands exposure to customers actively shopping for a set of goods.

Target customers by behaviour and interests

Let’s go even broader by exploring how geolocation marketing can help profile customers based on more general behaviours and interests. Direct mail can be used to target neighbourhoods with a high propensity to play golf, because they’ve visited a golf course, to reach hockey families, because they spend time in local arenas, or to communicate with frequent travelers because they frequently set foot in airports.

Measure campaign effectiveness

What’s even more exciting about geolocation is that it can also be used by retailers to measure a direct mail campaign. Just like it can be used to target, it can be used to measure traffic to a store location. By understanding foot traffic to a store location before and after a direct mail piece is sent, a retailer can understand campaign effectiveness and identify postal codes most likely to respond. While more traditional measurement methods rely on customers remembering to bring in a coupon, geolocation measurement can provide better visibility into campaign effectiveness, capturing total campaign impact beyond those making a purchase.