If you want to target a specific audience, it is useful to find out where they are. If your starting point is a particular area, it is useful to know its make-up. In whatever way you wish to set up an advertising campaign, location analytics can be a valuable ally.

If in addition you are able to display demographic and psychographic data on one single map, it will be an easy task to spot patterns that might otherwise be buried among the numbers; it will also be straightforward to experiment with changing variables or putting different emphases on different factors.

By getting a more intuitive insight into the data, you can find a workable compromise between two extremes of direct marketing: blanket mail-outs with their low response rates and customised mailing lists with their high associated costs. Location analytics lets you find the postcodes and streets that are home to people with the best possible fusion of your so-called ideal customer characteristics, thus allowing for a maximum return from your campaign.

Informed location-based marketing isn’t just about finding new customers though; it is equally useful in nurturing existing customers and cementing customer loyalty. Continuing to effectively target customers with location-based advertising means that you can keep your brand in the minds of your most likely customers, e.g. with special offers, while targeting areas with less likely prospects with lower-impact, less frequent advertising.