Image by Markles55 via Flickr

Image by Markles55 via Flickr

Location Based Marketing Is Helping Drive Repeat Customers

Repeat customers. Everyone wants them yet few want to take the steps necessary to get them. The location based marketing continues to pick up momentum, and it’s primarily due to the 10 million+ users within Foursquare who are driving the influence. (Young, active males who influence their peers)

It starts with earning a few badges, then you get hooked on the points, add a few more badges – then it hits you: You realize that people are leaving helpful tips, to-do’s and recommendations. Then, you become Mayor of a location where you can actually get a discount or a reward. Even worse, you lose your Mayorship. Now you MUST get it back.

You just became a repeat customer. And that business loves you.

Check out how other businesses are using location based marketing to drive repeat customers in this NY Times article.

How are you using it? (Stay tuned for more details about how this entire movement will shift from active to passive and even incorporate mobile pay wallets!)

Excellent infographic from KISS Metrics showing global Google analytics metrics and usage trends. Compare your website metrics to these statistics – how does your site measure up? Click to view full size.

Attract new customers, create loyalty and track foot traffic

Foursquare and other Location-Based Services are increasingly helping dealerships attract new customers, create loyalty, and track ever-elusive showroom foot traffic. Fun and free, these tools are growing rapidly in popularity among individuals and businesses: Overall awareness of location-based services has reached 56% of US-based cell phone users, and 39% of them currently use at least one location-based application (eMarketer study Feb. 2011).

What’s Foursquare All About?

Individuals use apps such as Foursquare to find friends, check out tips from other users and receive rewards from the different places they visit. Rewards range from vendor deals and discounts to unlocking badges, becoming the “Mayor” of a venue and earning points:

• Badges: Users unlock badges for checking into specific locations or doing specific activities. Is this virtual “reward” corny? Yes. Is it effective? Very. Foursquare users cherish their accomplishments and flaunt them proudly.
• Mayorships: The person who checks-in to a location the most over a 60-day period becomes its “mayor”.
• Points: Every check-in earns you more points–another game element which helps foster the competitive nature of the application.

How to Get Your Dealership On Foursquare

Foursquare currently has ten million registered users checking-in to venues at a rate of one per second, activity that presents several unique opportunities for dealerships to connect with, engage and retain customers. Four simple steps make this possible:

1. Register. If not signed up already, do so here: http://Join.4sq.com/emiltsch
2. Claim your venue: Once logged in to Foursquare, search for your dealership by name and select “claim your venue.” Add your dealer’s name, keywords, address, URL, categories and tags. Be sure to add a complete description. TIP: Individuals have profiles; businesses have venues. Don’t make an individual profile for your dealership.
3. Create your specials: Make a special for your venue. These can be Mayor specials, for a visitor’s 1st check-in or after multiple check-ins–a free oil change on your 1st check-in, for example.
4. Monitor your venue: Foursquare provides a nice set of free analytics tools to track your visitor’s check-ins: day and time, demographics, frequency, etc.

You can even measure Social Reach by the percentage of users sharing check-in activity on Facebook and Twitter. TIP: Hang window clings & print fliers of your specials to share with employees and your visitors to help spread the word. Foursquare provides these resources on their website.

Capturing the Benefits

When Foursquare users check-in to venues, notifications of nearby specials are displayed within the app. Individuals can also add tips and to-do’s left by other users to their profiles, which means activity involving your dealership can extend to an online audience far beyond your core users. These benefits will only continue to expand as smartphone adoption continues to grow and more consumers will experiment with geo-location applications.

So, where are your customers checking-in?

Original post appeared on the Dealer.com Newsletter

Brewski Me is now available in iTunes and a much deserved congratulations is in order for it’s developers and founders: Adam Weeks & Brian Knowles from AppsVersusRobots LLC.

They used a simple formula that’s become popular around specific activities and interests. Their tag line says it all: Don’t drink alone. Drink with friends.

Simple works well here:

• Share the beer you’re drinking with your friends
• Discover new beers
• Share your location where you’re drinking
• Discover new places

The launch and sign-up screens are simple to use and make no mistake of letting you know this is about one thing: you and your beer. Very nice touch adding the Glossary page upon registering with the app. A simple, hierarchical  list of the Brewski Me lexicon so you can hit the ground running with the app’s functionality.

Once you’re logged in, you’ll be familiar with the activity stream we’re all comfortable with seeing in other LBS & activity based apps. You’ll see your last drink and your friend’s activities. Additional on screen notifications show when users unlocked awards and who left a review. (Star ratings and/or written reviews)

Once the beer is selected, you can share where you’re enjoying that tall cool one and whether it’s a can, bottle or draft. Brewski Me uses Gowalla’s location API to ping your location, but doesn’t integrate with other location based applications such as Foursquare. Add more info to the “Drink Notes” tab and choose additional networks to share this activity. (Twitter & Facebook) Another nice touch is the quick click privacy selection. Smart within an app sharing this type of activity.

I’m not aware of any exclusive relationships or marketing initiatives with brands, breweries or bars – yet. Plenty of opportunities for each segment to extend their brand, generate buzz within their fan base and create some really unique promotional activity.

Overall, Brewski Me is well thought out, runs smoothly and has a beautifully designed interface with easy to use controls.

Cheers!

Download Brewski Me

Brewski Me was designed by: Rocksauce Studios