A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding. – Marshall McLuhan.
Insights are the mined data that helps in concluding at ease. Businesses are using various types of insights to make data-driven decisions. The geographical insights derived from geospatial data are no different that allows businesses to launch marketing campaigns accurately. It‘s referred to as location intelligence.
Businesses have started extracting business intelligence from location data. But still, the location intelligence segment is underutilized. Location intelligence is helping businesses to quickly analyze situations, resolve complexities, and unfold opportunities hidden in plain sight. It makes perfect sense to warmly-cuddle location intelligence.
Let’s first understand location intelligence in a nutshell.
Broadly, location intelligence is one of the business intelligence’s types that’s based on the customers‘ physical location. At first, the business collects the customers‘ location data from mobile devices with permission. The location data includes- mobile advertising ID, device information, Timestamp, and just visited commercial locations. The data is securely stored, managed, and analyzed to gain insights that further helps in optimizing actions, making data-backed decisions and enriching customer experience.
The industries making the most out of the location intelligence
The data-driven decisions are bringing a paradigm shift for various industry verticals. Many industries identified location intelligence as an answer to the challenges they are facing in the evolving world. Here, a couple of industries enlisted that vastly benefitted from location intelligence.
Retail industry
Post-covid, the situation of brick-and-mortar retailers has gone even worst. After lockdown, the retailers have no reliable data about the customers and market. That’s where location intelligence helps them reopen the store and begin the operations efficiently. It helps them know what’s on the customers‘ minds, the stock to maintain, staff scaling if required during weekends, and how to leapfrog the competition.
Restaurants
The restaurant industry is no exception that has experienced a difference in the customers‘ dining behavior after the pandemic. With location intelligence, the restaurateurs know about the customers‘ interests, evolved dining habits, marketing tactics that engage the customers, and activities that convert the potential customers.
Insurance
Before providing insurance coverage to the property owners, the companies need to do risk evaluation, which is a daunting task. That’s where location intelligence comes to the rescue. A unique identifier is attached with a property that needs to insure. It eliminates the guessing game and enables data-driven decision-making. The underwriter extracts the information with the help of the attached identifier and evaluates property risk levels before providing insurance coverage of a particular amount.
Automotive industry
The automotive companies mainly leverage the location intelligence to reach out to the audience that has visited an automotive retail shop, expressed their interest in the car during an event, or wants to buy a car from the competitor. Also, another business advantage of location intelligence is to improve the car buying experience.
Banking industry
In the digital age, with reducing footfall to the banks, the banks are revolutionizing the branch networks and re-assessing the location importance. The location intelligence leverage allows the banks to collect, analyze, and act upon the customers‘ data such as where they are working or shopping. Banks can offer discounts on the platforms by combining the data regarding physical and digital channels which customers use.
5 business advantages of integrating location intelligence in business DNA
Ad targeting
The amalgamation of location and customers data can do wonders, especially on social platforms. The social channels allow the businesses to advertise a group of people having specific characteristics based on insights gained from location intelligence. For instance, a restaurant specialized in diet food could buy the advertising audience from the social channel and then send highly-targeted advertisements to the customers interested in healthy food or visiting gyms.
Increase in CTR
Location intelligence speaks a ton about the customers that helps in creating customers‘ persona. When buyer persona is integrated with CRM, the sales and marketing and customer support can better deal with the customers. Stellar communication enriches the customer experience and enhances business results.
Location intelligence helps in creating advertisement content that stays relevant to the customers‘ preferences. For instance, the people who love to shop from Waitrose never get intrigued by the ads showcasing discounts; instead, they look for exclusivity. The personalized ads increase the CTR for marketing campaigns, and thus, the ROI gets uplifted.
Bridging the gap between online and offline
The customers prefer a consistent omnichannel experience regardless of the business type. That’s where location intelligence helps in connecting the dots between online and offline behavior. See how?
Location intelligence that counts on real-world actions can seamlessly connect the impact of changes made in mobile ads with the foot traffic coming to commercial outlets. The connection helps them know which ad campaign works and which does not.
Keep an eye on the competition
The laser focus on the customers is a good approach that helps businesses to earn customers, keep them engaged, and win loyalty. However, the sole focus on customers won’t work because it’s essential to keep track of what’s going on in the market and what competitors are doing.
Location intelligence makes it possible by comparing the competitors’ visits with their store’s visit, which unearths important facts. It includes campaigns that are attracting the customers, where the customers are moving after visiting your store, time at which footfall is maximum and pretty more. Optimizing the ad campaigns while considering the facts helps in increasing sales and ROI.
Exploit business opportunities
Starting new stores in different areas makes it essential to study and know the market potential, competition analysis, customer research, and other factors.
With location intelligence, it’s easy. The businesses can identify the areas of interest and then research to quantify the sales potential. Later, intelligent mapping allows businesses to step up with changes and maintain a competitive edge across various industry verticals.
