The complete location data guide for businesses

The information about the location of elements is of great importance. Knowing ‘where’ gives us a better perspective into several possible actions. Notably, the position of objects and people sets the foundation for expansion, evacuation and resource-sharing as the case may require. Companies are gathering and analyzing the location data of customers to derive insights that help with investment decisions, site suitability, targeted marketing and more. This article explores location data and how organizations can leverage it to drive revenue and expansion. 

What is location data?

Location data or geographic data describes information about the geographic positions of an object or person. Location data retain information about the “where” of an element on the earth. It is characterized by coordinates that are typically expressed in Latitude and longitude format. Additional attributes such as height and behaviour can accompany location data but the position remains the most important detail.

Location data have become an integral part of our daily lives. Most of our devices are GPS enabled, our selfies are geotagged, and our houses have spatial attributes that are represented on the map. With devices that allow tracking of geographic data at go, positional data have become so important to understand how humans behave in the real world.

Businesses are becoming more interested in location information as it is crucial for better marketing, investment and site planning.

How can businesses use location data?

Investment Advisory

Location data can be crucial to advising strategic investments. Businesses can leverage location intelligence to uncover customer behaviour, create clusters of specific patterns and develop trends in that regard. Geographic data can be used by firms to correlate sale performance with locations and derive insights into consumer activity at a location.

For example, an investor can use migration patterns and audience traffic in specific locations to understand if the location is suitable for siting a branch in the company’s proposed expansion. 

By analysing location information and effectively combining it with internal data such as quarterly earnings, annual profits, and staff strength–businesses can make data-backed investment decisions, giving them an edge in the market

Marketing and customer experience

Businesses can use location data to gain insights into where their customers live, their routines and related behavioural data. The insights avail them the power to develop location-specific marketing offers and target their adverts efficiently.

Knowing where your clients are can help businesses unlock best-fit notifications. With geofencing features, organizations can send push notifications about the available offers when they enter a certain area to increase the likelihood of taking action.

Businesses can also use geographic data to give customers the best experience when interacting with their business from various locations. This can include recommending the nearest walk-in store, discount codes for residents of a location and store-based reviews.

Site suitability planning

Location data can help organisations plan where to open or relocate an outlet. It can be further pivotal in deciding the outlets to close and the ones due for expansion. By tracking population estimates, and location-based purchase patterns, businesses can gain valuable insights into the viability of a location for their business. Through estimated time spent in outlets, firms can predict locations with high Return on Investment(ROI) tendencies.

With location information, businesses do not have to take blind decisions when making decisions for their enterprises. Firms can also increase ROI when they incorporate location intelligence into the site planning of their outlets or offices.

Business logistics optimization

Location data can help businesses simplify their logistic operations. Organizations can leverage geographic data to understand route management, breakdown delivery and eliminate delays in their supply chain. Location information can help businesses facilitate faster deliveries by segmenting their suppliers into simple clusters and building warehouses close to these clusters for easy accessibility

Enterprises can analyse geographic data to develop traffic trends and delivery time estimates and use that to make informed decisions on optimizing their logistics.

How can businesses get geographic data?

The primary formula for getting location data is knowing your objective for the data. When the objective is defined, the business is a step closer to getting the appropriate data. If the required location detail intersects largely with what the business has in its client database, proper analytics can be launched to derive the layer of interest. For external data, businesses can leverage location data collection companies such as Milsat.

Businesses have to be conscious of data quality, integration capabilities and available technology when using a data acquisition company. To check the important boxes, data collection companies like Milsat are advised, as against data vendors that might not have the relevant data the business requires.

Quality location data is important as it forms the basis of many actions. Bad data can cause a lot of loss in terms of time and finance. Getting the right hands is crucial to acquiring the right data.

With a range of modern technologies, Milsat is helping businesses acquire location data with special attributes that are crucial to growth. Learn more about how Milsat can help your business collect data. Send a mail to project@milsat.tech or Talk to an expert at +2348181500002.

 

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