The big data analytics space is growing at an alarming rate. We’re all increasingly connected through our mobile devices. This growth has provided huge amounts of data around audiences and how they behave. What kind of competitive advantage can we expect to see from this location data going forward?
Location data is rising in importance. But there are challenges that companies face as location data becomes commonplace. Businesses will need to understand the best application for this data. We’ll look at this as well as how location intelligence will be put to use across many verticals.
How will location data change the way that businesses approach marketing?
Attribution
Location data will become invaluable to marketers as they look to close the online to offline attribution loop. Traditionally this has been a problem for marketers. It’s difficult to attribute real-world visits and purchases to online marketing.
Location intelligence will help to illuminate what happens in the offline worldwith unprecedented accuracy. Big data will provide insights well beyond the capabilities of loyalty scenes.
As programming becomes more prevalent, location intelligence will be used to ensure that budgets are optimised. With the improvements in attribution, marketers will be able to accurately understand where ad fraud occurs.
Personalization
Big data breeds personalization. Many a case has been made for the importance of big data in personalization. Location intelligence will help marketers to automate personalization. This, in turn, will deliver accurate, personalized content to the right user in the right place.
Big data insights from location data
Location data will provide a competitive advantage, and not just in marketing and advertising. More industries are realising the benefits of real-time mobile location data.
Location data is being collected and stored by over 90% of companies with over 500 employees. The applications of this data are wide-reaching. Understanding consumer behaviour accurately, and in real-time will signal the adoption of location intelligence outside of the marketing and advertising industries. Location data will allow cities to become smarter. It will allow transportation to become more efficient.
Accuracy and reliability of big data
The accuracy problem
The problem has previously been the accuracy of the data. For companies to use big data to inform business decisions, the data has to be reliable beyond doubt. Location intelligence and precise sensor-driven data now provide this certainty.
Accuracy and precision will become of paramount importance as technology gets better. It’s important that businesses that benefit from location data and location intelligence can safely say that they are working from accurate sources.
First-party location data
Challenges in sourcing accurate first-party data were found with scalability. With a lack of first-party data, unreliable third-party data was used. Often out of date and imprecise, the insights were not reliable. Especially for businesses serious about using location intelligence for commercial success.
Today Tamoco adopts a network approach to location intelligence. This means that through our mobile SDK we can understand mobile device location directly. Thanks to our network approach, we can understand these signals across multiple sensors types.
This improves accuracy and will allow businesses to act based on a more precise understanding of audience behaviour.
Real-time data
Location intelligent decisions must be informed by real-time data. Location data must be instantaneous. Data that is out of date is simply not useful for businesses. This means that data must be communicated in real-time to optimise and achieve the desired goals.
This is another reason why first-party data is important. It allows for location intelligence to occur quickly.
The location of things
The IoT will soon be in everything. For example, by 2020 IoT technology will be in 95% of new product designs for electronics. Now that’s great but it’s only the beginning.
This huge growth will produce large amounts of data. However, it’s may be difficult to interpret data sets without location. Location adds context and a better understanding of what is happening in a specific location. This allows us to better understand the offline world.
The location of things – the IoT is actually only useful if you know where the thing is. Tamoco’s sensory agnostic approach allows us to gain location intelligence across a wide range of sensors. These range from beacons, Wi-Fi and Geofences to connected IoT devices. This approach allows us to understand location across many different sensors. This creates a deeper understanding of the offline world. Businesses using location data will have to take a similar approach to understand the connected world we live in.
Discover location data
James is the head of marketing at Tamoco
