https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/digital-marketing-measurement-drive-growth.html
Mobile technology enables customers to discover, learn, and buy any time they want to. Marketers are capitalizing on this by delivering digital marketing strategies to meet consumers in these moments of need. But with mobile taking center-stage for many brands, a new set of challenges has arisen around how to quantify digital’s value and capture growth opportunities.
Location is a particularly powerful contextual signal. How do you think brands can capitalize on the ‘near me’ phenomenon?
I am a proponent of the micro-moments concept, especially the idea of ‘near me’ or I-want-to-go moments when people have local intent. The consumer conducting a ‘near me’ search is highly qualified and valuable. He’s already done research and is out and about hoping to find the thing he wants. But he may be thinking, “I’m not going to go the two extra miles down that highway through those four crazy lights and around the mall traffic unless the store actually has the thing I want. I guess I could call, but I’m not sure I want to wait to talk to someone and get the answer. I just want to quickly know if they have it in stock.”
When a customer is close and interested, it’s critical to know how to use mobile marketing to drive engagement and visits, and hopefully conversions. Being smart in addressing ‘near me’ searches can do this. Many marketers still miss this opportunity to act on location signals because they are fearful that technology and measurement are too complicated. But that’s simply not the case.
Adam Lavelle, Merkle