3 Ways Retailers Use Maps for Seasonal Marketing

Digital maps have become a large part of our daily lives. They help us orient ourselves within the world, visualize locations around us, and find our way around — but that's not all.

Digital maps are also a valuable marketing tool. They can be used to drive increased foot traffic and revenue at your property, all while enhancing customer experiences.

So whether you're looking for new ways to attract customers, or want to create profitable seasonal marketing campaigns, this is the guide for you.

Maximize Visibility of Retail Locations and Services

One of the easiest ways to attract customers this holiday shopping season is by showcasing your best retail locations and services. All you need is a digital map. Customers can visualize everything at your mall or retail property including stores, restaurants, and entertainment options, from any platform you choose — on a website, mobile application, directories, or all three!

Digital maps are interactive, meaning shoppers can select and browse locations and pan, zoom, and rotate the display for maximum discovery. Even more, customers can search for locations, browse categories, view top locations, and get step-by-step directions from their real-time position.

Behind the scenes, you can curate location details that capture the attention of holiday shoppers. When customers select a store, they can view additional information such as products and brands carried at the store, deals and promotions, operating hours, contact information, and more. For instance, Canal Walk customized location details to include descriptions, categories, links to websites, phone numbers, and more.

A good practice is to make certain locations stand out by displaying top locations under the search bar for customers to choose from. During the holiday season, this could include highlighting anchor retailers, stores offering promotions, gift wrapping stations, guest services, valet parking, or holiday events.

Highlight Ongoing Deals and Promotions

If there's one thing shoppers love most, it's a good deal on products and services. To attract new customers, delight existing ones, and encourage purchases, you can easily showcase deals and promotions on the map. You can use location details as explained earlier, or take it one step further, and highlight specific locations along a user's path and display pop-up messaging with ongoing deals as they approach. Take a look at how this proximity marketing feature works:

You can also place digital directories in key areas of your mall or retail location and display ads, events, and promotions on the screen during idle use or customer interactions. Mappedin's directory ads feature is a great alternative to more expensive advertising solutions on the market and is both valuable to advertisers and user-friendly for visitors searching for directions.

You can then use the digital mapping solution to gather insights and analytics on how visitors interact with your property. Mappedin's Analytics Dashboard displays detailed reports on what shoppers are searching for, what areas of the venue are seeing the most traffic, what device they're using, and more. These insights help you better understand your customers, which in turn helps you identify ways to improve marketing strategies, drive foot traffic, and increase revenue.

Create Personalized Shopping Experiences

Personalization is important, so much so that nearly 75% of consumers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, and 88% say the experience a company provides is as important as its product or service. As such, retailers are always looking for new and creative ways to build personalized shopping experiences.

One way to do this is with digital mapping and indoor positioning technology. While providing wayfinding and navigation to shoppers, you're able to collect accurate data on the end-to-end customer journey. This can be used to serve up highly relevant content, promotions, and events based on a customer's visit history, searches, and frequently-visited locations.

If you notice that shoppers are constantly searching for food and beverages, you could send them mobile push notifications of nearby vendors to capture their attention. Similarly, when guests are passing by locations, you can send them personalized offers to prompt them into making a purchase. You could also curate welcome messages, notify visitors of ongoing deals and promotions, and explore other marketing tactics.

All in all, if you're looking to keep customers engaged this holiday season or any time of the year, consider using digital maps. There are so many ways to market to your audience, drive sales, and create amazing experiences for your shoppers. Learn more about our solutions for malls and retailers on our website, or contact us today.