What does it mean to think globally and act locally? To build a space where a global community can be transposed to the street level?
Imagine, if you will, one of your most loyal clients walking around with a Mayorship badge to your virtual location. Add to that a special reward – a gift certificate, a coupon, a free dessert with dinner – which becomes the cherry on top of bragging rights.
Client bragging rights are important – they translate to word-of-mouth advertising for your business.
Now imagine the conversions and ROI’s resulting directly from these Foursquare check-ins. It’s a good enough pitch to venture out into the location-based app world, but in case you’re still toying with the idea, consider the facts.
Foursquare now has 10 million users, with global adoption growing every day. It’s a wide umbrella, we know. But with 10 million users, the pie is big enough for everybody to share in and find a niche market.
Needless to say (but we’ll say it anyway!), we’re big proponents of Foursquare here at The REFUGE Group. And we definitely think your business would benefit from offering your clients an incentive to check-in at your location.
If you’re going to include a GeoTagging application with your marketing campaign, or if one already exists, watch out for these potential pitfalls: –
1. Create an easy to use special – remember, when dealing with technology, usability sometimes trumps design. People don’t to think too hard, and if a check-in isn’t intuitive, then you’re going to lose customers.
2. Exercise “Rewards” Caution – Keep those overheads and profit margins in mind. Offer exclusive rewards instead of a reward with every check-in.
3. Train your staff, especially the gatekeepers. The last thing you want is for the front line representatives of your company to be ill informed or completely in the dark about a social media initiative that you’ve launched. Or turn away customers.
4. Use the Foursquare dashboard to access data – it’s a built-in resource of rich information broken down by age, gender, check-in times and platforms.
Let us know if you’ve had any success, failures, or any share-worthy experiences with your GeoTagging campaigns and rewards. We’d love to hear from you!
