Location-based marketing gains steam in social networking

Location-based marketing is heating up and social networking sites are leading the charge. Foursquare is one of the first social networking sites to offer “check-in” services, which allow users to inform their friends of the locations they visit throughout the day. Facebook recently adopted a similar service and both networking sites have found a significant amount of success with these services in the advertising space. This success has garnered the attention of Rich Gorman, an online marketing specialist and veritable celebrity in the advertising industry.

Facebook and Foursquare rivalry could be good for location-based marketing

Gorman notes that Foursquare has made significant advancements to its check-in service that offers users with local search options. This assists in discovering locations that would have otherwise gone unnoticed by consumers, thus directing business to small stores that typically see little traffic. Facebook itself has been working to expand its services in order to compete with Foursquare, hoping to make an impact in  the location-based marketing space.

Mobile technology provides advertisers with direct line to consumers

Location-based marketing is becoming exceedingly important as consumers become more mobile. The advent of mobile devices has taken consumers away from stationary computing and out into the world, presenting a promising opportunity for marketers to engage consumers in a more dynamic way. Mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets, allow marketers to be in constant contact with consumers and location-based services are providing marketers with valuable geographic information that could be used to target very specific demographics.

Mobile marketing expected to heat up in 2013

Gorman notes that there seems to be a growing rivalry between Facebook and Foursquare. Gorman suggests that Foursquare has a significant head start over its potential competitor, but Facebook has a great deal of clout that will enable it to match the capabilities of Foursquare. Location-based marketing may gain more momentum in 2013, especially as the rivalry between Foursquare and Facebook takes off.

Target has been greatly expanding its mcommerce offerings and is now focusing on specific demographics.

After a highly successful Christmas shopping season, Target is now taking its mobile marketing in more specific directions as it places its focus on the Hispanic community for its 2013 advertising and promotions.

It will be using certain cutting edge advertising techniques to reach these smartphone using consumers.

Even before the holiday shopping season has come to a close, with after Christmas sales still heavily sought, the retail giant has confirmed its intentions to work with LatinWorks in order to expand its U.S. Hispanic account, following an extensive review process that was performed over a three month period.

This mobile marketing effort is a strategic effort to improve appeal to the Hispanic community.

According to the Target senior group manager of public relations, Katie Boylan, “LatinWorks has been selected and will be our primary strategic partner for Hispanic marketing.” The retailer has been working to reach out to the Hispanic community for some time, and has been improving its position in that marketplace. However, it is hoping that by partnering with LatinWorks, it will be able to truly excel.

According to the latest data from the mobile industry, the Hispanic and Black populations are some of the communities in which smartphone penetration is at its greatest. This makes the Hispanic community one of the most important places for any mobile marketing campaign to place its focus.

A report from Portada that was released in June showed that the smartphone penetration in the United States had been approaching 50 percent at that time. It expressed that “it’s no surprise that the adoption of mobile shopping tools has been rapid.”

The Hispanic community has been a part of this adoption trend to a much greater extent than Caucasians in the country. In fact, 16 percent of Hispanic shoppers use their smartphones or tablets for making a purchase, when compared to only 10 percent of Caucasian consumers. Target has seen this as a very important mobile marketing opportunity, and it is one that they do not intend to miss.