Boosting Your Brand’s Local Visibility with Location-Based Marketing

You know those moments when your phone buzzes and it’s a nearby Mojo café offering a cheeky discount on your favourite flat white? That’s location-based marketing in action. It’s a strategy that uses real-time data to serve ads or content based on where your potential customer is. It might feel like magic, but it’s really just clever tech doing what it does best — connecting people to what’s nearby.

So how does it work? Location-based marketing uses data from mobile devices, GPS, and Wi-Fi to pinpoint where someone is. It also uses Bluetooth beacons—small devices that send signals to nearby phones, like those in some Auckland shopping centres—to deliver targeted marketing messages. These messages come in many forms, including that of an in-app push notification, a Google ad that shows up just when someone’s nearby, or a timely SMS with a coupon. With effective web development services, you can customise your website. Show localised content to visitors based on where they are. In short, location-based marketing is all about getting the right message to the right person at the right place and time.

Why Local Targeting Packs a Punch

If you’re running a business in New Zealand or Australia, you’re probably already juggling a lot of responsibilities. With so many things on your plate, why should location-based marketing make it onto your radar?

First, because it’s targeted. Far from casting a wide net and hoping for the best, location-based marketing lets you reach people nearby who are more likely to act on your offers. Think about it: would you rather advertise your lunch special to the entire country or to hungry people within 500 metres of your café?

Second, it’s personal. Customers are more inclined to engage with messages that feel relevant to them at the moment. And when people feel like you ‘get’ them, they tend to trust your brand and start building a relationship with your business.

Moreover, location-based marketing can give you a leg up on the competition. Let’s say your business is able to reach out to nearby consumers and provide them with offers. The next time they need something that you offer, there’s a good chance that those buyers will head to your shop. This gives you an advantage over the establishment next door that didn’t leverage location-based marketing.

The Operational Impact of Going Local

While location-based marketing is primarily used to improve business visibility, its application doesn’t just stop there. It’s also possible for this strategy to have a lasting impact on how you run your business.

For starters, it helps you make smarter decisions. With insights into when and where people are engaging with your content, you can adjust your opening hours, stock levels, and even staffing to better match demand. For example, if you notice more foot traffic after school lets out, you might stock up on snacks or add extra staff to handle the after-school rush. Let’s say foot traffic spikes around 3PM on Thursdays near your store. This detail alone can help you know when to schedule more staff and have extra inventory ready.

It can also make your promotions more efficient. Instead of offering a blanket 10% off for everyone, you could offer 15% off during off-peak hours to people nearby. That way, you’re filling in slow periods without losing margin during busy times. This helps you:

Boost sales when you actually need them
Keep your margins healthier
Avoid crowding during peak hours

And if you have multiple locations, you can tailor your marketing to each site. Maybe one store gets a lot of foot traffic in the morning, while another is busier at lunch. Location-based data helps you fine-tune your approach so each location performs at its best.

You might even find opportunities to collaborate with other local businesses. For instance, if your customers often visit a nearby gym like Les Mills, you could run a campaign offering post-workout discounts.

Getting It Right with the Right Help

As powerful as location-based marketing is, it’s not something you want to fumble your way through. Implementing this strategy means you need to consider privacy regulations, manage platforms, and optimise campaigns. Done right, it can feel like you’re reading your customers’ minds. Done wrong, it risks crossing the line into spam or invading customer trust.

A lot of tools promise easy results, but to truly get the most out of this approach, you need more than just tech. You need a strategy that fits your brand and your market, especially in a diverse and mobile-heavy region like ANZ.

Need Help? That's Where the Author Team Comes In

Author can help you get more people through the door, increase local awareness, or run more cost-effective campaigns. For starters, our digital marketing agency offers web development services that can fully support your location-based digital marketing strategy.

If you’re curious about how location-based marketing could fit into your strategy, get in touch with us. You can reach us by leaving a message on our Contact Page. Our team has extensive experience working closely with ANZ-based businesses, and we can help you stay visible and relevant to your target market without blowing your budget or your bandwidth.

A note

Henry Blackwell

Henry Blackwell is a marketing professional. He has spent the last 10 years working in-house and within agencies, growing profitable businesses through brand and customer-centric digital marketing in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe.

“My approach to marketing is a combination of heart and head. My heart brings an empathetic and intuitive approach to deeply understanding the qualitative requirements of marketing that many simply do not care to do. My head brings an analytical mindset that leverages data-driven insights to deliver profitable performance for the businesses I work with.

This skill set allows me to deliver systematic customer acquisition, conversion, and retention.”

– Director