Personalization has been a big trend in email marketing for the last years, and its role will only grow. The concept itself is rather wide and requires much data in order to work at full: to create more personalized offers, companies collect and process customer’s personal info, professional data, language preferences, web tracking, campaign opens and clicks, etc.
Geolocation is also an important piece of data that contributes to the fullness of a customer profile. Moreover, with more companies getting international, its role has become that important that location-based marketing has been assigned as a separate marketing category.
What Is Geomarketing
Geomarketing is a subtype of digital marketing that uses geolocation data to deliver more relevant and location-targeted campaigns. It can be further divided into Geotargeting and Geofencing, and there are some differences between the two:
Why Your Business Needs Geomarketing
Depending on the business goals and general marketing strategy, geomarketing can have a different impact on your overall marketing performance. However, regardless of the usage, it can benefit your business in many ways, for example:
- help deliver more targeted content;
- invite online customers for in-store shopping;
- promote your brand within a certain location;
- improve local search ranking;
- promote local events;
- encourage loyalty of local communities.
How to Use Geomarketing Effectively in Email Campaigns
Like any type of marketing, geomarketing has particular aspects you need to consider to succeed with your email campaigns.
1. Know who you target.
To build a long-term email marketing strategy, first find out what geographical areas your audience comes from. You can segment subscribers directly in the ESP you use, or use Google Analytics (Audience → Geo → Location).
2. Optimize your content for local SEO.
Optimized content (website blog, local landing pages, Google My Business, social media hashtags) would let you use geomarketing tools (Facebook geotargeting, AdWords geotargeting, Google Maps and Reviews, etc.) more effectively. They, in their turn, would give you more data to analyze and use when creating further campaigns.
3. Schedule campaigns properly.
There are numerous research by international think tanks and local companies on sending time options that work best for this or that region. Study the data applicable to your needs, and time your campaigns correspondingly.
4. React to local events.
Black Friday, Halloween, Christmas, New Year, Valentine’s Day, Women’s Day, Easter are the regular holidays most companies dedicate campaigns to. However, there are many location-specific events that can also drive sales: sports events, festivals, music concerts, fairs, etc.
For example, college football is a very popular sports in the U.S. Championship games, especially finals, are big events that often get wide media coverage and public attention, and many brands use the occasion to reach out. In 2020, the final between LSU Tigers and Clemson Tigers was held on January 13, in New Orleans, and many companies sent promo campaigns to their US-based subscribers to promote the event-related products. The biggest response was probably generated by Louisiana and South Carolina, the home states of the teams, but other states also did their part, as the game was a nation-wide event.
5. Comply with local privacy laws.
Your business needs to be compliant with the email regulations of every country you have subscribers from: GDPR (EU), CAN-SPAM (US), CASL (Canada), Spam Act of 2003 (Australia), Consumer Rights Protection Law 2013 (China), Unsolicited Electronic Communications Policy (UAE), etc.
Note that alongside GDPR, many European countries have their own data protection acts that regulate commercial campaigns. Although most of the articles intersect, you’d better make sure your customer policy complies with all the requirements.
In the USA, different states may have different policies. For example, the recent California Consumer Privacy Act that went in effect on January 1, 2020, covers only California residents, but you still need to follow its regulations if you have at least one subscriber from California.
6. Use flexible email templates.
Adapting content for geo-targeted emails may require some editing within a template: translate the copy text and CTA (for multilingual campaigns), insert corresponding product recommendations (for AI-supported systems), choose proper images, etc. The more flexible template design you have, the easier and faster you will adapt it.
7. Include relevant images.
Localizing the images for the target audience is also an important element of geomarketing. For example, if you promote an event hosted at the particular store, make sure you include the right store image in the email. In the campaign inviting for a webinar in Liverpool, the image of Big Ben or London Bridge would look a bit irrelevant. If you run several workshops in different locations, speaker photos in each invitation should display the people who’re announced to participate in the particular workshop.
Personalized geo-targeted email campaigns will help grow your audience and keep up the relevant communication with people from different regions. The bigger your market presence, the more segmented your contact list, and the more optimized campaigns you need to come up with.
Author Bio
Author Name: Iuliia Nesterenko
Author Bio: Iuliia Nesterenko is a contributing writer at eSputnik. Her focus is on exploring current digital marketing trends and describing new strategies for email marketers.
Author Twitter: https://twitter.com/Iuliia_N_
