Part of the allure of geolocation is that with almost perfect data about a customer and where they are physically located, it gives a company that wants to advertise more options in how they can effectively approach their potential customers.

The grail, therefore, for many marketing and sales managers is finding the right combination of factors that will allow their campaign to maximize its results when using geolocation. For most people, this involves locating their target market physically on the map and pushing messages or coupons to those people when they are in the appropriate area.

Here are some marketing strategies that can help increase your sales performance:

Don't always buy IP as the best solution:
Although there are many different ways to determine precisely where your clients are, using their IP address is one of the most popular. One of the reasons for this is that it is considered to be a non-invasive way of gathering data on someone. Another reason is that it doesn't cost too much to implement because there are companies that provide map coverage that can just add your campaign onto their grid and start pushing coupons to customers as soon as they arrive in a certain area. Yet using IP can be misleading because some cell phone providers do not always send out geocentric IP addresses from the local area. They may instead opt to route all IPs through a regional office, making your customer, who is in downtown Los Angeles appear to be somewhere else. A more elegant solution is to use GPS to identify customer's location. When using GPS, you can be certain that your campaign is reaching people in that geographical area and your sales should increase.

Consider raiding territory:
If you are already reaching your potential customers when they come within blocks of your store or restaurant or product, then expanding your audience by being trying to attract people in an area where your competitor's products are sold by using coupons and incentives can be an effective strategy. It helps if your product or service is located within a reasonable distance from the area that you want your message or coupon to appear in. Doing so will make it more likely that your potential clients will respond.

Know your audience:
As the field is actually still pretty new, the data being received from companies that have third party applications that customers use on their smartphones is being aggregated, but not necessarily reported on in a way that makes it clear what your market's behaviors will be. Some of this data needs to be researched in advance so that you can set your targets appropriately. The closer you can come to defining what potential behaviors will be, the better you can plan the design of your program and affect sales.

Finance your marketing campaigns:
If you have a great product or service and you are a solid company in terms of revenue, consider looking at firms likeAFN, a funds provider that will work with you to establish a line of credit or even advance you funds based upon receivables. For many small businesses that are trying to increase their reputation, image, and bottom line through a sales campaign, why postpone it until you can afford it?

Defy convention sometimes:
When marketing to potential customers using geolocation, you aren't really bound by any set of rules. If they are in a certain area and look at your advertisement or coupon and that feedback comes back to you, consider sending a similar discount or coupon for a different product right away so that they have two options to consider when thinking about your firm. Another strategy is to wait until the client leaves the target area after viewing a advertisement and then follow up with a increased discount when they are in another location in order to grow sales.

Geolocation is an incredible opportunity to work into your sales or marketing campaigns in order to grow sales. Finding the right partners and making the right decisions in advance will go a long way to allowing you to put on the campaign that you envision.