Remember targeted direct mail? Remember how cool it was to identify the most prosperous ZIP codes in your market and send your store’s advertising flyers to only those addresses?

It was brilliant, economical, and effective. But that was then. Now targeted direct mail seems so – 20th century.

Digital marketing is the way to go these days, right? Facebook and Google Ads are the platforms of choice for merchants chasing tech-savvy, mobile-connected consumers with ever-shorter attention spans.

Instagram also is important in building a brand and marketing, but Instagram’s location-related characteristics are somewhat different. As with Twitter, a merchant’s Instagram posts primarily are seen by those persons who have opted to “follow” a store’s posts. By using hashtags (such as #OutdoorRoom), a merchant can reach out to individuals with that particular interest. Casting a wider and more general net, however, is more challenging.

That’s why, for the purposes of this story, we’ll stick to Facebook and Google Ads. These marketing avenues are great for specialty merchants (and Outdoor Room manufacturers) who need to spend their digital advertising dollars wisely.

The bar for entry into this marketing whirlwind is pretty low. A storeowner with a cell phone camera and the ability to string 20 words together can be posting product photos and teasers on a store’s Facebook page in short order. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of followers might see any given post. Some might even click the “like” button.

The real measure of effectiveness, though, is when a person responds to a store’s digital presence by coming in and making a purchase.

But what about the multitudes who don’t follow your store online? How can you get your message onto their screens? Is there a way to do it selectively?

The answer is geotargeting advertising, usually simply known as geotargeting.

Jeremy Hodges, who with his wife, Elsa, owns Hauser’s Patio in San Diego, is sold on the power and value of geotargeting.

Jeremy and Elsa Hodges, owners of Hauser’s Patio.

“We use it to extend our marketing budget,” he says. “We can make sure that we’re not advertising to someone who’s basically outside of our physical reach. Those would just be wasted dollars.”

Hodges was participating in an ICFA Roundtable prior to Casual Market Chicago a year or so ago when the topic turned to advertising. Hodges shared his zeal for geotargeting, which was an unfamiliar term to almost everyone else. Hodges’ enthusiasm and depth of knowledge were immediately apparent, and convincing testimony that geotargeting was a topic that could benefit any retailer with a digital presence, regardless of the size of one’s marketing budget.

Geotargeting is a generic term. Facebook, Google Ads, and even the Bing search engine (does anyone use Bing?) each offer their own geotargeting tools and techniques.

Using geotargeting, Hodges can specify where ads for Hauser’s Patio will appear. That’s the geo-part, as in a geographic region.

Hodges wants people to come to his store to shop; he’s not currently interested in generating online sales. So it makes sense that his ads go to people in San Diego County or the city of San Diego, his primary market area. Sending a Hauser’s ad to the mobile device of a person in Los Angeles or Houston doesn’t do the store any good, and it’s a waste of marketing funds.

By carefully choosing the words for a Google Ad, Hodges says, he can target ads even more precisely. For instance, he might tailor an ad to appear when someone searches for “outdoor furniture” in “Del Mar.” The seaside town in San Diego County is about 20 miles from Hauser’s Patio. It’s a bit of a drive, but the Del Mar lifestyle makes residents there excellent prospects.

Google and Facebook allow an advertiser to choose from a wide range of filtering options in order to zero in on prospective customers. Both platforms walk the novice advertiser through the process in a non-threatening manner.

Google, for instance, first asks the advertiser if her marketing goal is more phone calls, more website sales, or more visits to a physical location.

By making a series of choices, Hodges says, “You can filter out all the people you don’t want to get your message.”

A specialty retailer can apply knowledge of her customers and market to make informed filtering choices.

Hodges determined that some of his best prospects are people who live in greater San Diego and who like to travel and vacation in distant destinations, such as Hawaii or Europe.

The logic, he explains, is that people who can afford to travel likely have a higher degree of disposable income. That, in turn, makes them more likely to be solid prospects for premium casual furniture.

“You can be fairly granular,” Hodges says, meaning that with informed decisions one can drill down into mountains of data with a laser focus.

Consider Remarketing Strategies

Another way to target your digital advertising is through remarketing. This invented term refers to showing your ad to someone whose prior Internet activity indicates that he or she might be a good target for your advertising message.

We’ve all been remarketing targets, thanks to the digital crumbs we leave and collect as we wander through cyberspace. Here’s how it works. Let’s say you like to fish and are researching how to tie flies. You search for information on Google and Bing, visit some websites, and find what you need.

A day or so later, while on Facebook, you’re presented with ads for fly fishing guides in Montana. Coincidence? No.

Your visits to fly fishing websites left cookies, or tiny bits of digital data, in your web browser. Cookies are like footprints; they tell where you’ve been. Facebook reviewed your cookies and determined you might be a good prospect for a Montana fishing vacation. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Specialty retailers can devise remarketing ad campaigns that work in similar fashion.

Based on your retail experience (and maybe a hunch), you might tell Facebook that you would like to present your ad to women over 40 who have an interest in landscape architects, outdoor sculpture, and infinity pools. People who fit that profile, you project, may be casual furniture prospects.

Geotargeting allows you to build a campaign based on those characteristics and then test the results.

Sue Polanski is a web marketing consultant and president of Tech Triad, a web development firm in North Carolina. Geotargeting’s benefits are two-fold, she says. First, geotargeting allows you to target online advertising with pinpoint accuracy.

“The second piece is very important,” Polinksy says. Google Analytics provides information on how effective the ads were, including “how many clicks you got, where they came from, and which site sent them to click the link.”

The free version of Google Analytics will more than suffice for most businesses.

Knowing where incoming clicks come from helps a retailer spend ad dollars wisely, Polinsky says.

Let’s say you tell Google to display your ad when someone in your market area searches for stores that sell picnic tables. The ad also is displayed when a person searches for “outdoor room” or “interior designer.” If the majority of ad click-throughs come from searches for the latter two terms, you might consider dropping ads to picnic table shoppers. They might be fewer in number, and sales of merchandise during the campaign might not show a jump in picnic tables. That’s valuable data.

A properly devised digital ad strategy, paired with thoughtful use of Google Analytics, can give a retailer more data than anyone dreamed possible when advertising options were limited to radio, television, direct mail, and print.

There are many other nuances to geotargeting. People who allow applications on their phones to track their movements allow Google and Facebook to collect additional data that is invaluable to marketers. This is used along with information that Facebook users share with their friends, such as where you had dinner and which airline took you to your vacation destination.

The advertising platforms “know your general income, based on your lifestyle,” Polinsky says. “They know your interests, and they factor that in. It’s very effective. And when used ethically and responsibly, it’s an excellent tool to sell stuff.”

Hodges agrees and is sold on “the power of geotargeting” to maximize the impact of Hauser’s advertising budget. Geotargeted digital advertising, he says, “is almost a guaranteed return” because “you can filter out all the people you don’t want to get your message.”

Learning More About Geotargeting

Maybe you plan to be hands-on with your company’s geotargeting efforts. Or maybe you just need some background to deal more effectively with the digital marketing firm you’ve engaged. Either way, having more information will be helpful as you make your geotargeting plans.