Those that are new to Gimbal and beacon/geofencing technologies often ask for the best or most impactful use-cases. The truth is, there are many powerful location-triggered experiences, but the best ones have one common thread – improving the customer experience in the physical world. The ultimate goal is to combine the benefits of digital insights and engagement capabilities as consumers interact with their physical environments.
When utilizing location-based marketing solutions to improve customer experiences in stadiums, venues and brick-and-mortar retail environments, the goal should not be to send notifications to a user’s device, but instead to proactively provide the content they are likely interested in to make their experience at your physical site more intuitive and convenient. This concept describes the holy grail of customer experiences, and is the mindset someone should have when trying to leverage Gimbal’s platform successfully.
Picture this: you walk into a bar prior to attending your favorite football team’s final playoff game and you use your TouchTunes™ app to play your favorite song on their electronic jukebox. Simultaneously, the bartender gets a notification that you’ve arrived and prepares your favorite order and your digital payment is seamlessly triggered. As you leave the bar, your Uber™ app automatically requests a ride and your driver quickly arrives to take you to the stadium. As you near the location, your digital ticket appears on your mobile device, keeping you from fumbling in your bag looking for a ticket. You enter the stadium then receive a 10% off your next purchase at the fan store near your seats. You purchase your home team’s memorabilia and once again pay on the fly via digital payment. The list of possible experiences goes on and on, but the takeaway is that location-triggered experiences and engagements can be used in a wide variety of use cases and are only limited by your imagination.
While the tools to view live events and experiences remotely have improved (e.g., your 50” plasma TV), it is hard to rival a real-world experience that is enhanced with digital technologies. How do you pull fans/customers from their comfortable couches and into the physical world? The answer is a location-aware mobile experience that provides a unique journey to a fan traveling through your physical environment.
A better customer experience triggered by location can equate to many positive impacts for your business. In one example, location-specific offers were shown to have fast results (since they happen when and where it matters), with a recent MediaPost article stating that on mobile, “the majority (65%) of customers redeem an offer within five minutes of seeing it.”
In addition to shortening coupon redemption times and increasing conversion rates, location-based marketing solutions can also help you learn more about your customers and gain insights (analytics) which measure the success and impact of your real-world campaigns. This can help you achieve measurable business objectives like increasing frequency of visits, higher basket sizes, larger order size, and more engaged mobile app users. All of which marketers can use to reward loyal customers, and ultimately drive revenue.
Location-based marketing and the technologies that make it possible should be viewed as tools to enhance the user experience as your customers move through the physical world and your locations, similar to how marketers and businesses have tried to optimize web-based, digital experiences. Doing so correctly not only creates a new high conversion channel to engage customers, but also allows you to optimize and increase the lifetime value of your customers. Things every business can be excited about!