Editor’s note: Mike Lamar works with digital marketing firm Three Ships Media in Raleigh.
RALEIGH, N.C. – It’s local. It’s hyper-local. It’s hyper-focused. Call it what you will, but there’s no denying the recent explosion in location based marketing. As digital media provides create a wealth of adverting options, there’s no excuse for not executing this tactic. Given the blurred line of social media, local advertising and mobile ad units (commonly referred to as SoLoMo), these strategies should become part of your core offering now as clients will begin expect them in the future.
Hyper-local (as I like to call it) advertising essentially targets an audience within a narrowly defined distance/radius from a location. By applying some best practices, an advertiser should expect to see huge lifts over traditional digital marketing (see blog post from Kiss Metrics). The most basic and up front metrics to show success are higher CTR [click through rates] (not surprising as the more relevant you can message your brand – the higher audience engagement). And as we all know, higher CTRs typically yield lower CPCs [cost per click], thus providing a more efficient channel to display your message to your audience.
I’m excited to watch the boundaries continue to disappear between what was historically three silo-ed channels. Clearly, the user expects this, and if we want to be savvy marketers, we have to provide what the user wants and expects.
If you have any additional questions or follow-ups, please contact me on Twitter: @mikelamar
(c) Three Ships Media
