In this last section, we shall look at hyperlocal marketing or the SoLoMo concept, the third major concept impacting digital marketing. Hyperlocal marketing, by definition, involves targeting a highly specified local region based upon its cultural nuances and the key concerns of its population. With advancements in technology, it has become easier for marketers to keep defining narrower customer segments based on micro-regions and develop strategies and tactics to target them.
The concept of hyperlocal preceded the coinage of SoLoMo (Social, Local and Mobile). In terms of digital marketing, the hyperlocal concept began with Google providing the ability to marketers to target specific online audiences with advertising based on ‘Geo-Tags’ where specific geographic segmentation could be chosen. With mobile coming of age, the next level of hyperlocal segmentation came in where mobile GPS technology could be used to locate individuals within a certain area, and push messages and coupons in real time to individuals based on proximity.
Although marketers could target local customer segments through mobile, they were still not able to penetrate them until the concept of social platforms became popular. With the emergence and wider acceptance of social platforms like Facebook, FourSquare, Twitter, etc., consumers for the first time could exchange information among a known and trusted set of people to find quality restaurants, best branded items, most trusted hotels, etc. The addition of the social angle, thus, completed the trio of SoLoMo, which now provides the ability to mix the three elements of geography (location), personalization (mobile), and connections (social) to target any individual in a trusted manner, use specific marketing messages, and act upon them in real time. Apart from these three elements, the recent introductions of emerging tools like iBeacons, in-store, Wi-Fi, and mobile apps has also added incredibly to the usage and implementation of SoLoMo as a concept.
To realize the power of SoLoMo, we have to understand the technology behind it. The key difference between hyperlocal and SoLoMo technology is that hyperlocal targeting was IP based, wherein an advertisement, for instance on Google search engine, would target users based on their IP address. But this approach was not useful as IP addresses could not be trusted for accuracy and could not target a client in real time. Instead, mobile’s geofencing technology is far more advanced as it uses geo-location technology to target customers.
A geofencing technology is a virtual parameter for a particular area, which picks up a signal from a mobile device in any particular location and targets promotions and ads in real time. With consumers hooked on to mobile apps, this technology supports customer privacy concerns too, as it can be developed with permissions built-in to ask consumers if they want to opt in for offers from certain brands and retailers, thereby making the technology pull-based rather than a push-based intrusive model. Companies like Groupon, Yelp, and Starbucks have successfully implemented geofencing technologies in the form of apps.
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