It’s almost time to say goodbye to the strangest year most of us have ever experienced. As December comes to a close and we all look forward to toasting the beginning of 2021, what should marketers do to prepare for next year?

There’s no denying that old analytics may as well be thrown out the window along with DIY haircuts and flower beards. Consumer buying behaviors have changed dramatically in 2020 as lockdowns swept across the world and many people lost their reliable income when companies had to scale back. Because of this, there was no way to predict what the new economy would look like. 

Location intelligence may be the crystal ball that marketers everywhere are looking for. With the ability to not only predict future trends but also narrow down the best time to reach your target audience, location intelligence can help marketers everywhere take the guesswork out of marketing. Keep reading to see how location intelligence can help you take 2021 by storm. 

Whether you’re a retailer, restaurant, or automotive brand, you likely have a target audience. In the past, marketers relied on data, analytics, and good old-fashioned guesswork to determine what time was best to send out targeted ads, often shooting in the dark in the hopes that high conversions were on the horizon.

Location intelligence helps marketers understand their consumers:

• Where are they shopping the most?
• What times of day are they most likely to come into the store?
• What special offers would they respond best to?

In times like these, knowing the answers to all of the above questions for 2021 planning completely changes the playing field. Let’s say you’re a boutique restaurant in the downtown area of a large city. You specialize in health food and superfood smoothies, and because of this, your target audience is very specific: health-conscious millennials who frequent gyms and sporting stores. With location intelligence, you can plan your deals and ads to only reach this audience at specific times of the day, and even adjust your marketing strategy by month and season for the highest conversions.

Piggy-backing off of our last point, predicting consumer trends is imperative in marketing — especially next year. Location intelligence gives marketers valuable insight into what their customers are interested in, but it also gives marketers the ability to predict future consumer trends. 

Hear us out, it’s not as crazy as it sounds! Because you have all of the data you need to reach your customers with the right messaging at the right time, you also have an analytics crystal ball in your arsenal. Location intelligence gives marketers near real-time insights into their customers’ shopping and dining patterns, and when those change, even slightly but dramatically enough to make an impact on the data, then there’s a new trend on the horizon.

The beauty of this is that marketers can then ride the wave of that trend before anyone else catches wind of it, sending out targeted ads ahead of time, and getting a valuable leg up on the competition. Imagine being the company that got ahead of the quarantine bread-baking trend, or the at-home workout trend? (If you found weights anywhere in May, you were lucky.)

This one is crucial, especially for those in the sports and entertainment industries. During the lockdown, a lot of fans were asking themselves if they would be able to watch their favorite teams in person any time soon. While stadiums made the necessary adjustments (the dome, anyone?) to keep both players and fans safe, staying connected with their fans is the most important part of any marketing strategy. 

Without live entertainment for so long, entertainment and sports marketers are likely wondering what the best strategy is to restore fan confidence. With location intelligence, marketers can plan for a whole new marketing strategy by using data-driven intelligence to give fans what they want in a way that resonates with them, no matter the season.

Instead of having to guess at what might work in 2021, and what consumer behavior is going to look like, marketers can use location intelligence as the compass guiding them in the right direction. Navigate your 2021 marketing strategy with location intelligence. Contact us to speak with a location intelligence expert today!