Close encounters of the mobile kind: geo-targeted customer engagement strategy

We hear a lot about the need to utilise mobile marketing when creating a customer engagement strategy. And we speak a lot about it too (i.e. check out our previous post on the power of mobile marketing; or the one about the key trends in the travel tech sector). But here’s the thing. Campaigns that focus solely on the mobile experience without considering real-life factors, such as where you are or what you are doing, are never going to bring outstanding results. How many times have you seen an online ad for something you want, but then forgot the brand name when you’re actually out shopping for the item on a High Street?

Mobile-only experience is great for reaching out to a large chunk of the market. But it’s the communication at the Point of Purchase that matters most and triggers the real action. And yet, it seems that brands have lost themselves in pursuit of the digital transformation, while forgetting to cater to customers' needs and responding equally quick in the brick and mortar setting. In fact, recent CMO Council’s research shows that brands are now failing to respond to offline consumer needs:

Did digital transformation go one step too far and brands became too focused on the online experience while forgetting that it’s the real-world triggers that impact our decisions most? Making a purchase decision is not just about seeing ads and offers online. It’s about conversation with a brand at the Point of Purchase, an engagement with insightful content that helps you to make the decision. It’s about receiving prompts exactly when you need it and be able to act up on it while it’s still fresh in your mind. For example, think how much more likely would you be to stop by a local restaurant if you received a 10% off voucher when walking past it during the lunch time, as compared to receiving this offer by email few days earlier.

Don’t get us wrong. We are strong digital protagonists. Innovators who believe digital can make a real difference. But it needs to be done better. It needs to be contextual and relevant to the offline micro-moments that customers are experiencing at any given time. After all, ‘life isn’t lived in years, or days, or even hours. It’s lived in moments’ (more about Google’s micro-moments theory in our next post). And creating marketing outreach that is relevant to where the customers are and what they are doing at a given moment is what will reveal the true power of digital.

As Rebecca Peel (Elmwood) stated in the recent The Drum’s article:

It’s all about bridging the online and offline divide. Using mobile to enhance real-world experiences, whether it’s travel (e.g. receiving location-based insight helping you to explore area as a local), shopping (e.g. getting a discount code just when you’re about to enter the store), or entertainment (e.g. seeing behind-the-scenes videos just before the football match or receiving updates on any delays, so you know whether there is enough time to grab a drink before the band comes out on the stage).

How can brands bridge online and offline to create a more effective customer engagement?

For starters, utilising the power of mobile is not just about creating an app or engaging in programmatic ads. There are so many technologies that help mobile to merge that online and offline world to create a truly enhanced experience and a more effective customer engagement strategy. Yes, geolocation is one of them. But there are other ones that are worth mentioning too. AI with its intelligent chat boxes that help you solve customer problems on the spot, without necessarily involving staff; smart IoT-enabled hotel rooms transforming a phone into a remote control for customer’s life when on holiday; or AR with its ability to change how consumers are experiencing products and services.

Interested in learning more? Stay tuned, our next post will discuss how to nail customer engagement strategy using geolocation and why we think location-based push notifications are better than standard messages, emails and pop-up ads.

In the meantime, click on the button below to request our free demo and start nailing your mobile customer engagement strategy from today: