Foursquare, a social website and mobile application, is making noise in the business world with its new take on advertising. Offering business a new way of advertising to its over 35 million users, Foursquare ads might be a unique opportunity to attract your tech savvy clientele. Below I’ll further explain what Foursquare advertising is exactly and how it might be useful to your small business:
What?
People use Foursquare to find local businesses, check in once they arrive and let people know about their experience once they leave. The advertising platform functions as an intermediary between the customers and local businesses by showcasing pop-up ads in the app based on the location of the active user. Essentially, a Foursquare user who’s walking down the street within proximity to your business would receive an advertisement that notifies them of whatever promotion you’re offering at that time.
Why?
With over 1.4 million small businesses actively using Foursquare, this could be an opportunity that your business can’t afford to pass up. There’s also a convenience to targeting people who search for or have recently been to a similar business on the app. Thus, rather than blindly posting your promotion, Foursquare ads will only show up to people who are designated as potential customers to your business. It’s also easy to gauge the success of a campaign with analytics that show exactly how many people are engaging with your business.
For who?
Foursquare advertising campaigns aren’t for all businesses. They work best for businesses that have a fixed location where customers visit to make a purchase. Common examples of small businesses that use Foursquare include coffee shops, restaurants, and boutique shops. It’s worth noting that the application is not as popular as other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Foursquare advertising chiefly benefits businesses with tech-savvy customers.
How much?
The best part of enacting a Foursquare campaign is that it doesn’t cost anything to get started. You pay each time a Foursquare user clicks on your advertisement or each time someone enters your store and uses the promotion. This means that in the worst case, you initiate a campaign that doesn’t attract any customers, and you don’t lose anything other than the time you invested to set it up.
Sign Up?
Get started advertising on Foursquare by filling out a form on their website. If you have never been on Foursquare before, that’s okay too. Chances are that if your customers are on Foursquare, they’ve already added your business to the directory so that all you have to do is go online and claim your location. For further information on how businesses can take advantage of Foursquare, visit their website.
Does your small business use Foursquare and if so, how?
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