In case you hadn’t heard, location data as a service is a thing.

When I bought my first house, my dad gave me three words of advice: Location. Location. Location. This maxim was once limited to real estate but now has branched out into nearly all consumer-related industries. The ubiquitous use of smartphones and consequently their apps have turn brands into sharks — all participating in a feeding frenzy of data. However, the value and use of location data is still not being applied in the right ways to elevate the experience of customers while providing companies with a strong competitive edge.

Location data won’t be confusing if you know what you want to do with it first.

The problem for most companies is that they are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data out there and location data is simply adding to the pile. Furthermore, most brands lack the tools for collecting location data, let alone analyzing it properly. It’s a big miss given location data’s immense value.

This is one of the primary reasons why marketers are starting to see organization around location data as a service. In full disclosure, my company LighthousePE now offers this service. But, make no mistake – not all location data is the same. LighthousePE allows for the client to access a tremendous amount of anonymized data. Note: if the data is not anonymous, it’s possible you could be violating privacy policies from the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Location data used correctly will inform and refine your customer’s experiences and marketing efforts.

The real opportunity for organizations is leveraging location data to measure the behaviors, interests and intent of their audiences. That said, the advantages of location-based behavioral data include providing insight that is often lost in the sea of data which brands are trying to navigate.

Allow me to translate.
The ability to effectively use location data rests on its application to alter existing behaviors and facilitate new ones. A great starting point is to use location data to shift the experiences of your customers and personalize them based on a combination of past behaviors and future intent. One of the ways in which this could manifest itself is in the analysis of customers you are losing to competitors. Knowing that, a brand can offer an experience that is more tailored to its customers’ needs and gain back some of those visits.

Location data can also provide insights into the interests of a particular audience. That kind of information can be used to inform and alter your organic social media campaigns in order to enhance performance. Or, perhaps you can use it to refine an audiences’ preferences in order to better target them and create more accurate media budgets.

Location-based data offers dozens of helpful tips, including the ability to superimpose customers’ historical locations atop previous store visits and purchase conversions. It can also illuminate visits to specific locations vis-à-vis explicit and implied behavioral interests. Location data can provide a brand with a much clearer picture of a company’s share of wallet. It can also identify previously unknown competitors and show you where your customers are spending their time.

The information gleaned from location data sources will provide you with insights not possible before.

The consumer journey can be difficult to interpret and navigate. Location data is one of the best resources you can use to uncover new findings that will propel many of your marketing and customer experience initiatives. However, in order to get the most out of this service, it is important for you to understand how the data was collected and sourced. Plus, it’s critical you have access to a resource you can tap into in order to translate the data into meaningful recommendations. Finally, remember to put in place a performance measurement system so you can fully realize the value and potential of location data as a service.