Location has a large impact on consumer purchasing habits. Using geolocation information to develop location-specific content for consumers can have a similar impact on subscriber interaction with email. Not only does location information provide you with valuable information about potential customers, it also opens the door to a variety of value-added content you can offer them.
Providing useful information and local recommendations is a great way to customize a message and make it relevant to recipients. For example, a hotel chain reminding a customer about an upcoming reservation could provide information about unique attractions, popular restaurants, and other useful facilities nearby, all based on location information garnered from their reservation. Retailers could provide information about live inventory stocks at nearby stores to drive recipients to make in-store purchases before that new pair of shoes they like is gone.
Email marketers could go one step further and use geofencing to target loyal users who are near a newly-opened store. Many retailers have the added benefit of pairing location information with related customer interaction-data garnered from rewards programs, such as frequency of in-store check-ins, most visited store location, and most common timeframe of their visit, to further improve the effectiveness of location-boosted marketing content.
Companies could also use geolocation information to include targeted information about the weather in their messaging. Commiserating with consumers about the heat wave that hit much of the US could be a good way to ingratiate your brand with customers. Brands can also use this information to provide weather-specific offerings, such as targeting those known to be experiencing a stretch of nice weather with sales or discounts on shorts and sundresses. Food delivery services like Seamless use this information to target customers during times they might be most likely to order, like during rainstorms or extreme heat. Customizing your email messaging using subscriber-specific location and weather information is yet another way to improve the likelihood that users engage with your email marketing campaigns.
As with all email marketing, using location information adds another layer of data privacy to consider. Companies that use location information to their advantage will still need to ensure that customer data is being collected and stored responsibly. Notably, Apple gives consumers more control over how apps and services collect their location data, as well as greater clarity over how companies are using this data.
If brands are responsible with how they collect and store location data – and use that information effectively to improve customer experience – geographic information is sure to remain an important tool in any email marketer’s arsenal.
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