With in-person shopping making a full comeback this summer, Location Based Messaging (LBM) has the potential to increase customer engagement for brick-and-mortar retailers and businesses.
For those brands with mobile apps already harnessing users' location to provide relevant and contextual notifications, marketers have now the opportunity to restart or resume their location based campaigns as shoppers feel more comfortable venturing outside their homes.
With this in mind, let's refresh what makes a great location based messaging campaign.
Keep it simple
Location based messages should be short and concise. Use 100 or less characters to make your point. More importantly, make sure it encourages users to tap for more. For example, including redeemable discount coupon is a great way to ensure your customers understand what's in it for them.Target POI's & Competitors
The objective here is to increase foot traffic by targeting high density population areas or persuade customers to come to your business rather than your competitors. If a customer is nearby a competing clothing retailer, for example, you can offer them a 10% OFF in a specific product at your store. Reminding them that it, too, is just steps away.Use Segmentation
Most likely your app already has a considerable amount of user-level categorization. Between user preferences, shopping behavior or CRM attributes, your mobile audience is already broke into different groups that will help you leverage different kinds of messages. Make sure you put all those targeting options to work by creating hyper-relevant and personalized location based messages.Prevent Too Many Notifications
Make sure you target users that dwell around your stores. There's nothing more irritating than receiving messages when you are simply passing by a shop and there is no intent to stop by. With Notificare you can easily take in consideration the time users spend inside a geofence and only then trigger a notification.
It is also equally important to exclude customers as soon as they receive your campaign, this will make sure you prevent duplicated notifications for certain edge case users (residents or employees) crossing your fences boundaries multiple times a day.In-Store Notifications
If you already have low-energy bluetooth devices (aka beacons) in your stores, targeting different aisles in a shop can be a great way of enhancing your customers shopping experience or promoting specific products. Just like geo-fences, micro-location notifications enjoy the same great functionality and can be as effective. For example, use beacons to trigger a product sheet notification as users dwell nearby a shelf or promote your loyalty program as soon as they get ready to pay at the cashier.
Ready to make a comeback?
A lot has changed since businesses have experienced a steady flow of in-person shoppers, but with change also comes opportunity. Reviving your app's geofencing capabilities and your best location based marketing campaigns to date, might just be your business' secret weapon in 2021.
As always, we are available via our Support Channel for any questions you might have. If you are interested in seeing this in action, please do not hesitate to request a demo here.