Geo marketing still in its infancy

While geo marketing is not a new phenomenon, an analysis of the discipline shows that it is clearly still in the early stages of its development. While there are some established geo marketing successes such as Google local business results, geo marketing is capable of much more substantial growth on mobile and social platforms.

Desktop web searches can show the location of various local businesses if the user searches by a keyword and a location name, however mobiles are more effective for geo marketing as their location can be detected using in built GPS. Many companies offer promotions for customers who check in at their store, or use QR codes displayed to engage with products. However there is some debate as to how effective these methods. Furthermore, the effectiveness of geo marketing is difficult to measure in terms of conversion rate. Many people using geo marketing fundamentally don’t know how to use it, but understand what it’s potential could be.

Social networks are expected to help push the growth of geo marketing as market leader Facebook makes location a more important part of its new design, and social networks such as Foursquare which are entirely dependent on location become more popular.

Amazon has also taken advantage of the mobile marketing phenomenon by offering discounts to its customers who use their application to compare prices in stores. This has been criticised by some as it leads to customers treating high street stores like showrooms, before buying the product for cheaper from Amazon whilst providing valuable product information. However online stores like Amazon and Ebay also recognise the value of geo marketing, with the former having set up a pop store simply to showcase the online store over Christmas.

As the power and popularity of social networks grow in tandem with advances in mobile technology and adoption of smartphones, there will be many more avenues for geo marketing. So far the growth of geo marketing has been slower than expected, but it is accepted that no one has quite worked out the best way to utilise it yet.