How To Supercharge Your Business With Location Analytics

Information technology has dramatically evolved over the last 2 decades. Don’t believe us? Here are some statistics:

• There are now 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created every day
• 90% of the world’s data was created in the last two years
• Information technology is currently a $4.8 billion industry (with no signs of slowing)
• 57 percent of companies believe that integrating key digital technologies is critical to their business

We weren’t kidding: in 2020, enormous amounts of data will be created and consumed each day, and there are no signs of this trend slowing.

If you’re clued in to the back-end of a business, you know that data is analyzed wherever it is consumed. As a business, analytic systems allow you to gain real information by observing patterns, trends, relationships, interactions, interests, and much more. 

You can then group these observations into demographics like age, occupation, race, and gender. But there’s one area of data analytics that most businesses are missing: location intelligence. 

Geographic location can offer a lot of useful information on your customer base to help you strategize in some very impressive ways. With location data, you can learn how to best facilitate growth, expansion, and optimal service locations for your business. 

If you’re already using location data to improve your business insights, you’re not alone. Representatives from Wendy’s, Chick-fil-A, and Starbucks coffee have revealed how they use geographic information systems (GIS) to gain valuable context in their location data. 

If you think you’re too small to join in on the fun, think again: you don’t have to be a key player in your industry to utilize location analytics. No matter how small you are, location intelligence is a valuable tool that you can use to your advantage.

In this article, we’ll explore how data mapping be used to help strengthen your business’s approach to data analytics.

How to Use Location Intelligence to Your Advantage

Analytic-based companies like Maptive suggest that mapping location data is becoming increasingly important to achieve business goals. 

Data collection and analysis is about gaining comprehensive, detailed information to help guide and direct informed decision making. You can use location information to plan and strategize for the same purposes.

Mapping technology and spatial analytics can offer your business many key advantages:

• Data aggregation using cluster maps, temporal organization, point listings, and color-coding
• Data collection and information enrichment (lifestyle data, demographic information, social media statistics, environmental conditions)
• Map filtering, proximity assessments, customized area specifications (travel time, conflicting territories), and geoprocessing.

Targeted Marketing And Customer Segmentation

For the success of any business, it really comes down to delivering what customers want and need. But before you decide how to market to those wants and needs, you must first understand them. 

By using location analytics, a business can have access to an unprecedented amount of knowledge about their customers. Customers can be very diverse and unique and do not all fall into similar categories; so by understanding trends and preferences grouped geographically, you are given valuable insight into detailed customer segmentation. 

Creating hyper-targeted marketing campaigns built around geospatial data can strengthen your existing customer bases or help you learn where to expand your business.

Identifying Brand Preferences

Many businesses use mapping software to organize where their brand is most popular, or to learn purchasing habits that are favored in certain geographical locations. You can use this information to learn about geographic preferences for specific products and brands. 

Location Decisions

Location can mean a lot to your business. Where you choose to place manufacturing sites, head offices, or retail spaces can all be aided by location data. Where you are can have a large influence on how you perform. By utilizing data analytics you can plan for who lives where and ultimately make wiser decisions on where to expand retail spaces and target growth potential. 

More Than Just Customer Information

Geospatial data can offer more than just customer information. You could use sensors through a large variety of devices and applications. 

For example, productivity and performance data could be incredibly useful to your specific business. Transportation systems do this best, as they require a high level of planning in order to regulate congestion, energy costs, safety, and timeliness. Mapping technology has tremendous potential to enhance profitability when used to evaluate and manage performance and productivity. 

Geospatial data collection and location analytics have many valuable applications, and the means of gathering and interpreting this data is growing greater every year. New technologies are being developed, and the understanding of these technologies is moving into the mainstream. By paying attention on location intelligence in 2020, your ROI could be tremendous. 

from Feedster https://www.feedster.com/business-news-daily/how-to-supercharge-your-business-with-location-analytics/