How To Make The Most Of Mobile Local Search

Brands have a lot to gain by embracing geolocation based mobile strategies — and you don't have to be a big box retailer to benefit from doing so.
Companies are still trying to figure out how to best approach mobile local search by connecting online consumers to nearby businesses and boosting traffic to the physical store.
Geolocation is nothing new, but as mobile wallet and payment options hit the mainstream, business will try to gain recognition in local searches more than ever before.
"The companies that might target mobile-local searchers are not necessarily companies that are doing a great job being found on traditional web," says Cindy Krum, CEO and founder of marketing and SEO firm Mobile Moxie. "Since mobile-local search is much more about driving foot traffic into a physical location, it is often the smaller, more independent locations that have a lot to gain by being found in mobile-local search."
Krum spoke with Mashable about the geo-search space for mobile, detailing what we might expect from the trend in the future and how companies can cash in.

SEE ALSO: Facebook Embraces Local Search Via 'Nearby' Updates for Mobile

Q&A With Cindy Krum, CEO, Mobile Moxie

How has mobile geo-search evolved in the past few years?
Mobile search, as a whole has grown, and so has location-based searching. Location has always been a very important part of mobile search, but as technology improves, the location layer of the search becomes much more of an assumption. That said, geo-search still has significant hurdles that are more related to hardware than anything — GPS and assisted GPS still run down the battery, and can be very difficult to use, if you are deep within a city, surrounded by buildings that block the signal.
What are the biggest trends you are seeing in the space?
Some of the things marketers tried in the early days of geo-mobile marketing did not work out, such as bluecasting mobile messages. The replacement people are talking about is called geo-fencing, which is similar but avoids some of the technical difficulties and the need for recipients to have their bluetooth turned on.
The problems with using geo-fencing for marketing are unfortunately similar — it generally requires an app to already be installed on the phone and for the location services to be turned on, which many people avoid to save battery life. There is also a good chance that marketers will initially take this kind of communication too far, with un-compelling, un-targeted, bland marketing messages that are more of an annoyance than a benefit.
How are brands using this to reach their audience?
Big brands with smart marketing teams are using Google's tools to ensure that all their locations are listed with the correct addresses and phone numbers, and sometimes even a picture of the location. At the next level are the brands that are using Facebook to target fans by their geography with news about specific locations, such as grand openings or special events. Brands can set up forms that allow people to sign up for email or text message reminders about the events, and then the brand is building out their communication lists for future marketing initiatives.
Why is this of interest to consumers?
Consumers care about geo-search because it generally answers an immediate need, rather than an ongoing, passive research process. When people are using their phone to find a physical location, it's because they are on their way there. Generally, people are planning on spending money whenever they get to their location, whether it's a store, restaurant, theater or somewhere else.

Reaching people with geo-search data is great if you want to find potential customers when they are ready to buy

Reaching people with geo-search data is great if you want to find potential customers when they are ready to buy.
What is the health of the mobile geo-search space? Is it growing quickly?
Geo-mobile interaction seems steady in some ways, and flukey in others. The fact that people care about the things around them keeps the need for local search steady, but how they approach it seems much more given to trend.
There have been a lot of location-based mobile fads that have been hit hard and then faded out, such as Groupon, Amazon Local or Gowalla. These things were not directly "search," but they did help people find things they were looking for, and drive foot traffic to specific locations. Even services such as Urbanspoon and Yelp seem to have gone out of fashion, mostly because they didn't add that much value to what someone could have gotten directly from Google.
Facebook made a local play that didn't work out well for them, but expect them to do something else with local soon. Since they are one of the most popular mobile apps and sites around the world, they are well-positioned to make it work.
What might we see from companies using mobile geo-search in the future?
As mobile wallets and mobile payments start to become more mainstream, we will see a resurgence in marketers trying ardently to gain geo-mobile recognition in search. These things just seem to go hand-in-hand, and they make the marketing dollars and attribution much easier to pinpoint.
Are there certain companies that might experiment with this more than others?
The companies that would target mobile-local searchers are not necessarily companies that are doing a great job being found on traditional web. Since mobile-local search is much more about driving foot traffic into a physical location, it is often the smaller, more independent locations that have a lot to gain by being found in mobile-local search.
Since the conversions happen in the store, rather than online, marketers will have to get more adept at tracking this kind of behavior with mobile coupons or other systems that encourage customers to communicate that they found the location because of a geo-search.