If you are a business, is it time for you to start paying attention to location based marketing applications like Foursquare and Gowalla?
Maybe.

As adoption velocity of social applications appears to be increasing at an increasing rate, chances are that you will be hearing more about companies using applications like Foursquare in innovative ways to answer the basic marketing questions:

• What makes people come to my store and buy something?
• What makes them buy more when they are in my store?
• What makes them come back and buy again once they have left?

And when developing a strategy around these basic marketing questions, it may make a lot of sense to start utilizing location based marketing services to your advantage.

What Makes People Come To Your Store And Buy?

Unless your store is in the middle-of-nowhere, your physical storefront has other (usually related) businesses in the immediate vicinity. If you have your location based marketing strategy set up, when someone “checks in” at a nearby store, you will be able to announce your special to them.  Even though they are not checking in at your store. As long as they are in the immediate vicinity, you are allowed to announce your special. Heck, you may even end up stealing customers from your competitor across the street!

What Makes People Buy More Once  They Are In Your Store?

Once a customer is in your store, how do you increase the average order size? By using an attractive offer for customers who are in your store, you can increase your average order size. Buy one, get one half off? Buy two, get one free? These simple offers are age-old marketing offers that have been proven to increase the average order size.

What Makes People Come Back To Your Store?

Game theory is alive and well in location based marketing. You may be surprised what people are willing to do just to become the mayor of somewhere they like – even without a “mayor special”. Add a “mayor special” and watch what happens… your most loyal patrons will end up showing up more frequently just so they can reclaim bragging rights – oh, and maybe as a result of your mayor special.

Is it time for business to pay attention to location based marketing? Probably. Currently it doesn’t cost anything to set up a special on Foursquare – so what do you have to lose?  And if you are still skeptical about setting up a special for your store and not ready to make the leap by yourself – at least one company is willing to help you (for free)… They are searching for businesses who are interested in working with them for a case study and called it “The Foursquare ROI Challenge“.

Justin is a nationally published mortgage expert and is constantly looking for someone to listen to him talk about mortgages. If you are addicted to your Real Estate blog and can’t find a loan officer who can put together mortgage information that is intelligent, informative and engaging you are not alone. He claims many other Real Estate sites are reporting the same problem. The solution? Talk with Justin. It’s free.
Twitter: @jmchood
Website: justinmchood.com