Over the last few years, the buzz over mobile hasn’t slowed down in the slightest. Virtually every major brand and website has at the very least made their site mobile-friendly, and thousands of businesses are attempting to shoehorn their way into the American consumer’s smartphone screen as well. Businesses have realized that the quickest way to a man’s back pocket is… his front pocket. Here’s the first in a series of mobile marketing posts, each one covering a different topic or buzzword related to mobile.
Hyperlocal refers to online services related to a single geographically-defined community. It’s inwardly-focused, self-perpetuating, specific to a time and location, and information-driven. An example of a hyperlocal site here in Edmonds, WA is MyEdmondsNews, which is a news site that pulls current information about Edmonds from around the web. Other examples might be Bing Places, Craigslist, or local subreddits, because they rely on input from local residents to supply the information and content that those same people come to the site for.
Businesses can take advantage of the move towards hyperlocal communities online by providing them with location-specific information and advertisements. This is done almost exclusively on mobile phones, and requires users to opt-in in order to participate. Apps that host these ads ask the user to “enable location services,” then serve geotargeted ads. Hyperlocal ads work best when either a business or its customers are in a single physical location. A good offline example is a garage sale: the only locations you would advertise your garage sale are either 1) near your garage, or 2) near your most/best potential customers. Hyperlocal is one of the rare internet trends that depends equally on both consumers and businesses for new ideas.
At bizmktg.com, mobile is just one part of the comprehensive marketing plan we offer. Call or e-mail the marketing machines to learn more: (800) 808-0249 or info@bizmktg.com.
Read the full Marketing Land article here.
