Pin-Point Your Customers (and Your Competition) Using Geomarketing

Maps aren’t just for finding your way from point A to point B anymore.

With increasing competition in the global marketplace to attract and retain customers, geomarketing is an excellent tool to incorporate into your marketing and business plans, especially if you are in the retail industry.

Geomarketing is a way to analyze markets utilizing GIS (geographic information system) software to find out information such as demographics, income levels and who your competition is in areas you would like to target.

How do you know how much time, effort and most importantly, money to spend on advertising? Geomarketing can help you make smart, cost-effective decisions in terms of where to spend your advertising and marketing dollars. By zoning in on areas that provide potential business opportunities, you can decide where, for example, to send direct-mail pieces, email blasts, what newspapers, magazines, etc. to advertise in, where you might want to buy billboard space, what radio and/or televisions stations to run commercials, etc.

Geomarketing also lends a hand in helping craft language in your marketing materials as well as the types of promotions you may want to offer. For example, if you are interested in attracting military families to buy your product, particularly if a base is located in close proximity to your store, offer military discounts. With gas costs rising, perhaps you are concerned people won’t drive to your location, especially if the customers you want to attract have a closer purchasing option (i.e., another store that offers similar products). Offer a gas card as an incentive to come to your store.

Finally, geomarketing helps you figure out why you might be under-performing in certain areas you currently have a presence. Geomarketing allows you to see if populations are shifting, a competitor has moved in, or if the purchasing power of your customers has diminished.

Let’s get mapping!

Source material: “Geomarketing in Practice: Achieving market optimization through spatial analysis” (by GfK GeoMarketing)