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Home » The Famous Blog » How to Use Geolocation Marketing to Green the Planet

How to Use Geolocation Marketing to Green the Planet

March 14, 2011 - Last Modified: March 14, 2011 by Lorna Li

Geolocation Marketing

Geolocation, like so many other services of the 21st century, came in with such a rush that many of the less aware businesses still don’t know it exists.

For that very reason, using these location-based services provides an excellent way for small green business to get an edge on more established traditional competitors.

This article will give a brief rundown of how these services work, how you can take advantage of them, and why it’s so crucial to get on-board now.

How Geolocation Works

While there are several different geolocation services, each of which has its own specific approach, the overall scheme is fairly similar. A user downloads an application to a smartphone (preferably one enabled with GPS) that lets them call up nearby businesses.

All businesses within quick walking distance are showcased, but users can also narrow them down by type. Once the user has arrived at the business, they can interact with it on the application — by “checking in,” rating the establishment, and more.

geolocation business

Every action that someone takes on one of these apps will be broadcast to their friends (sometimes through the app itself, other times through popular social sites such as Facebook).

Users receive “medals” or other recognition for checking into more locations, giving them an incentive to explore. Additionally, repeatedly stopping into the same locale can make that user a “mayor” of the location, so there’s a built-in reward for customer loyalty as well.

How Green Businesses Can Use Geolocation

The first thing you need to do is be certain you appear in full detail on all the major geolocation apps. Most of them will pick up physical locations already, but you’ll want to double-check and add a basic blurb about what your company does, preferred contact information, a picture, and anything else you want to be readily visible.
Here’s a basic checklist of popular geolocation services:

  • Foursquare
  • Peekmaps
  • Google Latitude
  • Google Hotpot
  • Facebook Places
  • Whrrl
  • Loopt
  • SCVNGR

Once you’re set up, take it the extra mile by offering your geolocation users an incentive to stop in, earn badges, and become mayor of your establishment. By offering a simple discount (10% should be enough) for users who found you through geolocation, and a freebie for anyone who achieves “mayor” status, you will be able to fully exploit the built-in features of these powerful apps.

Further, several of these applications offer reporting that can give you a stronger understanding of your customer base. Foursquare provides the best example, as it will tell you who your most recent customers are, how often people check in, the basic demographics of your visitors, and more.

How to Use Geolocation Marketing for Fundraising

While nonprofits have yet to join the geomarketing rush, a few innovative nonprofits are using Foursquare for fundraising.

foursquare

Last year environmental nonprofit Earthjustice partnered with Foursquare on a mobile fundraising campaign. Earthjustice placed ads all over San Francisco encouraging viewers to “Use Your Cell to Drill the Oil Industry”. For every check at an Earthjustice Ad location, a donor would donate $10 to help stop unsafe oil drilling.

Why You Should Get Involved Now

Right now, there are over three million 4Square users, and millions of other users across the competing platforms. More importantly, each of these users checks into more than 30 businesses each month on average.

Furthermore, geolocation technologies are advancing significantly, with the innovations in the NFC (near-field technologies) industry making integration between phone apps and brick-and-mortar stores smoother and more versatile than ever before.

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Filed Under: Marketing

About Lorna Li

Follow @lornali

Lorna Li is Editor in Chief of Green Marketing TV and Entrepreneurs For a Change, where she enjoys writing about green business and green marketing.

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{ 16 Responses }

  1. Lorna Li says:
    @ Alex Yes, it's easy. Geolocation marketing is a channel that is hardly even tapped. As a small business, you want to make sure you have a presence on the major geolocation sites, which include Yelp, Gowalla, and Foursquare.
  2. Alex says:
    So let me get this straight, is it possible right now to download an application to your smart phone and have to posibility to check in to some nearby hotel or book a table on some fancy restaurant? Because if this is true, I can imagine this can escalate really quickly especially with the program that practically makes your phone, a wallet and ID card. Nice find Lorna, now all we have to do is to determine which service is best for your business or which one is the most popular.
  3. Shiva says:
    Hi Lorna, I think geolocation allows and unprecedented advantage to many businesses who use geolocation services over those who don't because by using geolocation they can get many new customers. I think many businesses still do not use geolocation services and those who use can tap in these untapped customers who use geolocation services to find stuffs. Also it is really nice to know that Non profit organization too have started using geolocation services. Technology has really advanced a lot Regards, Shiva
    • Lorna Li says:
      @ Shiva Nonprofit organizations are barely using geolocation. There's a lot of potential here - I look forward to seeing more engagement from the social change community.
  4. Dimitry says:
    It's sound very promised. For a small business owners it's a good opportunity to be in touch with a customers. We have to try.
  5. ariff says:
    I love how Earthjustice promoted their campaign to spread awareness among people in San Francisco. Nonprofit moves like this that involves participation by the public is the best there is because now only we're promoting our campaign to them, we are also making people do something about it. This is the concept that I'd like to see in other non-profit activities. With the integration of social media and the internet, the campaign will be much more effective. I'd like to invite you to read my latest post which also involves public participation for non-profit causes. Would love to hear your thoughts on that.
    • Lorna Li says:
      @ ariff I really enjoyed your post on 50K pageviews & your Twitter strategy of including the Malaysian PM's Twitter handle. Is that the post you were talking about, or is it another?
  6. Jan Husdal says:
    Hello Lorna and thanks for the heads up. In my particular field of blogging, logistics and supply chain management, there is a growing trend towards sustainability, and this idea of going local is just perfect. Amazingly, foursquare has locations listed for my small hometown in Norway, although some of them seem auto-generated, e.g. my local police station...not sure why anyone would want to "check in" there, but you never know...it may be useful to know where it is in any case. It's amazing what technology can do, and sometimes I wonder how we ever managed without handhelds...I guess those were the days when people still had the time to browse the Yellow Pages and make a few phone calls before venturing out
    • Lorna Li says:
      @ jan Haha! Can you imagine? So and so checked in at the police station...again It's amazing too that,while many businesses are listed, so many locations have not even been claimed. For a brick and mortar business, geolocation marketing is low hanging fruit.
  7. Steve says:
    It certainly is a powerful way to market locally. perhaps none better. I think it will be what the yellow pages were 30-40 years ago... the standard source for finding local businesses. People who do not get on board now are doomed to fall behind.
    • Lorna Li says:
      @ steve Definitely, before it becomes super competitive.
  8. tonyknuckles says:
    I used 4sguare quite a bit when it initially came out and found it very useful. In process of updating my handheld device to get it going again
  9. Mani Viswanathan says:
    Nice way of marketing. We need to support whatever that saves the globe :)
  10. Karan Labra says:
    Haven't really given foursquare a try... Looks pretty useful!
  11. Fisayo Sanyaolu says:
    Thanks for sharing this great information. I've gained
  12. Delena Silverfox says:
    I've seen tons of my friends using Foursquare and mentioning it on Facebook lately. I had no idea what it was, but it looks like a really good app! Delena

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