Location intelligence is key to enriching customer experiences

Providing a good customer experience in a digital age is the top priority for brands today. Brands are already using location intelligence to tackle many of the challenges related to discovering, engaging and activating customers at the right time and place. But the data can be overwhelming and understanding when to use what data is difficult.
This is why map and location insights provider HERE, in partnership with The Drum, has crafted the ‘Using location data to enrich the customer experience’ whitepaper to explore where new opportunities lie. Drawing on insights with industry leaders, the found that location intelligence is critical for successful customer engagement strategies.

As Jason Bettinger, HERE’s head of consumer technologies, Americas, says: “Location intelligence, when combined with the vast amounts of operational and customer data owned by most retailers, delivers greater efficiencies and levels of customer experience that were previously unattainable.”

Here are the key topics covered in the whitepaper:

Overcoming inaccuracy of location dataDespite its growth and usefulness, location data can sometimes be inaccurate, which is why some marketers are hesitant to rely on it to measure an ad’s performance and determine their marketing spend. The whitepaper suggests marketers should check the quality of the data, by examining its source, how often it is updated, the depth of the data, and – particularly important for retailers who want to use geofences – whether it contains information about the shapes of buildings.

Data challenges and opportunities

Location data can present all sorts of new opportunities for brands – but only if a single location platform can tie data together across silos to create an accurate view of audiences and markets.
The whitepaper also makes a case for more education on both the challenges and capabilities of location technology, and lists the opportunities available for brands looking to understand new audience segments, improve campaign targeting and attribution, or to improve the buying experience.

Better customer experiences

Location intelligence can also be used to improve the customer experience, in turn increasing loyalty and deepening the engagement a user has with that particular brand. The whitepaper explores how that leads to seamless buying experiences and customised promotions.

Market and audience insights

Location data makes it possible for marketers to effectively target customers across digital and physical channels and measure the effectiveness of these omnichannel campaigns.

A vision of what’s next

In 2019 and beyond, the ability to understand not just what evokes customer emotions, but also the context for those emotions, is possible through location intelligence. As Karl Spangenberg, executive vice president of MediaLink, explains: “Intelligent location-based marketing is already evolving beyond a rather flat use case of proximity triggering. It could be a mistake to infer that solely because I’m close to a store location means that an advertisement is relevant to me. In fact, if that message isn’t relevant, it could produce a negative reaction – and it’s in our best business interest to produce positive emotions.

“Using location in a way that drives positive emotion represents a new generation of advancement in advertising thought and targeting. Knowing that emotions can drive greater relevance, which produces better contextual advertising, can drive greater results for the advertiser’s dollars.”

Source: The Drum