Creating Content to Use with Geo-Location
Today, 2.6 billion people have smartphones, and it's estimated that this number will rise to a staggering 6.1 billion by 2020, just four short years from today. With mobile offering direct access to reach consumers, it's not surprising that it has become the most transformative technology for marketers, ever.
More brands are moving towards creating hyper-personalized content for mobile by using geo-locating technology such as beacons and Bluetooth. For marketers, tapping into a mobile user's location and device has resulted in a greater interest and increased traffic – showing that more and more customers actually enjoy receiving targeted content. The struggle for marketers now is to figure out how to craft highly personalized content that caters specifically to the desired customer without being too intrusive.
The reality is that the average consumer still enjoys the in-store brick-and-mortar retail experience. Shopping still excites and fulfills a therapeutic need, whether it's comparing the scents of candles or trying on a pair of jeans. Now that we're a few years into the "e-commerce experience," we have a good sense of what is missing from online shopping, as well as the emotional needs that are fulfilled by going into a store. If customers are still craving the physical environment of a shop, why not enhance it by giving them tools that can upgrade that experience?
Customers are choosing to communicate more with brands that are utilizing the data from their own feedback and turning it into personalized offerings. But to actually add value, the data collected must be used to deliver an engaging, individual customer experience during which the consumer still feels in control of the notifications they receive.
So, how can you use personalized experiences to influence customers, but still empower the customer to feel in control? If you are pushing messages to the customer's smart phone and collecting data, did you clearly communicate how they choose to opt-in and what the benefit is? More importantly, did you give them the choice to set their content preferences? It's important that you establish trust with your customers and avoid catching them off guard, which could make them feel like their privacy has been violated. Gaining a sense of what information they feel comfortable sharing with your brand is much clearer and seems more personal and upfront.
Moving beyond beacon and location technology, hands-free payment methods available through Apple Wallet and Google Pay have become increasingly popular platforms for marketing offers to the customer during checkout. The incorporation of coupons and map-driven offerings into these services will become a means for enticing consumers in the future. It's a retail experience unlike anything our parents ever imagined – the ability to walk into your favorite shop and see what is on sale, what's new and exciting, and then be able to buy it without even taking out your wallet.
As you get ready to create your content, remember it's not about demonstrating to the customer how much you know about them; it's about using that insight to offer value that's relevant to them and what they're trying to do.
This is the future of retail, and this technology is becoming a vital tool for marketers. By exploiting the full capabilities of geo-locating technology, brands will never need to wonder how to target the consumer at the perfect moment that will lead to the point of purchase. They will have access to all the insight required to know the answers.
