- May 23, 2017
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Hitting Your Geo Target: A Four-Point Checklist
As with archery, geo-targeting is more complex than one might first assume. After all, anyone can pick up a bow and arrow, but the likelihood of hitting the gold (center of the target) is quite low without an investment of time and perseverance. Also similar to archery, the probability of hitting your audience with tailored messaging through geo-targeting improves with planning, preparation, the right tools, and keeping the bigger picture in mind. Search Engine Land even estimates that geo-targeting doubles the performance of marketing efforts.
Social Media Beast has put together a four-point checklist for refining your aim.
Evaluate Your Readiness
Aspiring archers research, read and talk to experts in the field to determine if this is the right sport for them. Likewise, you will want to evaluate your business readiness for geo-targeting, pushing messages to users in a pre-defined area who meet your audience criteria. While an e-commerce business may be well-served by targeting the entire U.S. with these messages, SMBs often find that focusing within their “backyard” will lead to greater affinity between the message and audience.
Use the Right Tools
Even the most casual archer will ensure that they have the proper equipment for practice, from the bow and arrow, to the arm guard, quiver and finger tab. Integrated marketers will want to be similarly equipped with the proper information and data to make knowledgeable targeting decisions.
Data analytics for each targeted geography will demonstrate that some areas respond better to specific campaigns or promotions than others. Looking at actions taken by your audience will help you make informed choices about continuing, modifying or ceasing targeting activities in a given geographical region.
Optimize the Experience
Competitive archers spend their lives practicing and working on their form in order to optimize their performance. In the same way, integrated marketers will continually refine the data to determine the most and least desirable geographic areas to target. As a result, bids can be raised for expanding outreach in the more desirable areas, and lowered in less effective areas, enabling more relevant and cost-effective targeting.
Take Your Skills to the Next Level
While geo-targeting is a highly effective arrow to have in your quiver, it will not work in isolation. Olympic-level archers don’t just nock their bows, close their eyes and hope for the best—like you, they take note of what worked and what didn’t, constantly re-evaluating their techniques, their training, their gear, and their practice so that they next time they face the target, they will hit the gold on the first try.
