[How to] Reach Your Ideal Audience with Geotargeting

Geotargeting allows marketers to target consumers like never before, creating profiles of likely buyers, harnessing the power of local SEO and improving their website conversions along the way. By knowing where their customers are coming from, marketers and business owners can present them with customized offers, shipping specials and a host of customized services.

If your company has not incorporated geotargeting and geolocation into its marketing strategy, you could be missing out on countless sales and leaving profits on the table. Getting started with geotargeting is not as difficult or time-consuming as you might think, and the tips listed below can help you get started.

Make Predictions About Your Target Audience

You can tell a lot about a potential customer simply by knowing where they live. From demographics and race to income level and educational level, those essential details are in the data and waiting to be discovered.

While there are always bound to be exceptions, you can make some broad, and generally accurate, assumptions based on where your customers are coming from. You can use that information to target customers from wealthier ZIP codes with products designed to appeal to their specific tastes, and that can boost the bottom line substantially.

Use Search Results to Fine-Tune Location Information

Have you ever done a Google search for “Orlando vacations” and found yourself suddenly inundated with offers for Florida hotels and discount plane tickets? That is not a mistake, and it is exactly the kind of information your company should be taking advantage of.

Smart companies have been targeting their ads based on the search history of their website visitors for years now, and you can do the same. This strategy is especially valuable for customers whose search results do not match their current location, like those Chicago area residents dreaming of a sunny Florida vacation.

Predict Future Behavior Based on Past Visits

Knowing which websites your visitors have looked at in the past can be just as valuable as knowing their search history. That list of past website visitors can tell you everything from where a target customer likes to shop, where they prefer to dine, how often they eat out and even how they make the trip.

All of this information can be extremely valuable to online marketers and business owners, and it is definitely something to build into your targeting efforts. You may notice, for instance, that lots of customers in your target area are visiting competing coffee shops. You can give those customers a reason to visit your location instead by sending them a coupon for a free cup of coffee or a complimentary pastry with purchase.

Build Location-Specific Landing Pages

You want your target customers to reach you, but once they end up at your site they need a friendly place to land. Building a great landing page is one of the surest ways to boost profits and conversions, but a generic landing page can leave location-specific customers high and dry.

Instead of using a single landing page for every customer, build a series of location-specific landing pages targeted at customers in various geographical areas. This change alone can boost your conversion rate and drive more customers through your doors.

Targeting your customers where they live, work and play has never been more important. Mobile search and on-the-go shopping are here to stay, and geotargeting can keep you one step ahead of the competition. If you are not currently taking advantage of geotargeting and geolocation, now is the perfect time to start.