Geo-targeting is a strategy you can use as an e-commerce entrepreneur to advertise to users based on their location. Before we dive into the different ways you can leverage a user’s geolocation to your advantage, let us look at a tiny case study by Optimizely.
Mitt Romney’s digital campaign was a well planned one. His team utilised the power of AB Testing to optimise their campaign. They gauged whether their site visitors signed up more with a message specific to their state or a generic one. By simply adding the name of the state to their generic message they observed that people signed up 19% more often!
Effective personalisation with the help of geo-targeting can help you boost your sales With this small proof of concept, let us now look at the different strategies you can employ to take your online business up a notch. 1. Showing region specific content Let’s say you sell apparel for all types of weathers. If you are selling in a country with regions that experience different weathers at the same time, it doesn’t make sense to show all offerings to irrelevant segments. For instance, if you are selling in India, the north experiences winter but the south never really does. Does it make sense to show winter wear to customers in south? For products with strong regional or national sentiments, you can show different products to
different regions. For instance, baseball is one of the most popular sports in the US in terms of spectators. If you are an online sports goods retailer, showing users’ home state team jerseys will drive more conversions. 2. Adjust shipping fee based on user location High shipping costs are one of the top reasons customers abandon their carts as shown by Baymard Institute:
You can use geolocation data to offer free shipping to local customers or adjust the shipping fee based on how far your shipment needs to travel instead of offering a standard high shipping rate to incorporate all segments. 3. Adjust pricing and language based on user location If you are selling internationally, bear in mind that not all your customers will have the same ability to pay for your products. Devise a pricing model that suits their spending capabilities as well as your business model. Based on their location, redirect them to the site with different pricing , currency and language. 4. Use local events to design your campaigns or organise events yourself If there’s a region where your buyers are very concentrated, find out annual events relevant to your product offerings that occur there and design your campaign to target that event. As an example, if you sell pop culture products, Comic Con would be an ideal event for your target audience. Use your customer mailing list to market your products around that time and catch their eye with Comic Con themes and tempting offers.
If possible, organise your own event to attract more visitors to your store and have exciting give aways of your offerings. You can find our post on organising events to drive more sales here. 5. Tie up with local stores to attract visitors to your site In areas where your customers are clustered, tie up with local stores or coffee shops that can promote your site. You can promote their business on your site by asking users to buy from them and enter the coupon code they get from the shop in return for a small discount or a give away from your end on special occasions. This not only gets your name out there, but also promotes local business and makes you a part of the community.
End Notes By targeting your customers by their location and using knowledge of their culture, climate and habits, you can drive up the sales of your business. Once you try out these ideas, do let us know if any of these benefited you in any way.