Where in the World Are Your Subscribers? Tips for Effective Geotargeting

As email marketers we are constantly striving to make our outbound campaigns even more personalized than before.  To do this some of us have taken up the art of geotargeting so that we can now provide our subscribers with content that is relevant to their location.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — in order to have a successful email marketing campaign, you must know your audience. This includes: What type of content your subscribers are interested in. How, when and where they are viewing your messages. And of course how they are interacting with  your email.  If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then you are missing out on the opportunity not only to build a better stronger relationship with  your consumers, but more importantly the ability to effectively promote your products and/or services.

The opportunity to attract your target audience may be much closer than you think. Knowing the location of your customers is essential to send email marketing campaigns more effectively, assertive and accurate. Therefore, one of the most compelling data to create your digital strategy is the geolocation.

Geolocation is a tool used by email marketers to identify where a subscriber is located and therefore deliver personalized content or offers tailored to that user’s area. The user’s IP address will allow us, as marketers, to customize campaigns and content for certain regions, modify delivery times and even track sales from a particular region or location.

Here are some simple tips to use geolocation more effectively in your marketing campaigns:

Test Your Target Markets

This should be a straightforward, almost automatic practice, but it seems we as marketers tend to get a little too comfy in our britches and skip steps.

Every single email marketing campaign should start the same way — with  you identifying a target market and making some educated guesses regarding  your subscribers. These theories can easily be proved or disproved by putting your A/B testing to work.  

Take Advantage of Geo-specific Events

Use upcoming events, such as location specific weather events or even holidays in particular areas as a trigger to develop localized marketing campaigns.  Is it spring break, and the kids are out of school heading to the beach? For someone with an e-book on “How to learn to surf in 7 days or less,” this might mean promoting to the coastal towns and targeting a certain age group.

Geo-specific events are particularly impactful for boosting open and click-through rates. Leverage timely events such as these to keep your brand top of mind and part of the ongoing conversation.

Combine Geolocation with Other Marketing Tools

Consider integrating your customer’s geolocation with your billing system, ERP, or CRM platforms. These systems will then be able to provide you with additional information for each of your customers, giving you a clearer picture of who your customers really are.

Remember to always A/B test everything!