Location based marketing is booming among the search engines and mobile device makers. Companies like FAST Search and Transfer and Google are working with wireless phone companies. Wireless Internet devices can track exactly where the user is located due to the GPS technology. Location based marketing helps the customer find more relevant information. Location based marketing is becoming more important for everyone performing ecommerce via the Internet.
For example a person at the Mumbai airport wants to find the nearest hotel and tries to find the same through the internet. When he searches for “hotel Mumbai” Google shows 500 results, but when he clicks on the "location-based" feature triggering a GPS satellite only 37 results come up. A GPS satellite can find your exact location and give you the results relevantly.
The benefits of location-based marketing can be enumerated as follows:
1. More customers are attracted.
2. Increased impulse buying.
3. Development of one-to-one relationship marketing.
4. No hard copy waste or excess printing inventory.
Location based marketing is a part of search engine optimization and so is important whether in-house or outsourced. It helps to bring in more traffic. The coming world of wireless devices will not only need the web site to be properly indexed and found within the general Internet's top search engines but will also enable to be found by physical, geographic, location as well. The cost of marketing may also increase, as additional expense for subscription to a "streaming" service will be required.
