By: Erika Stevens

On Wednesday night I attended a Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association event "Leveraging Location for Marketing Success" with Asif Khan the founder of the Location Based Marketing Association. Because of my intense love-hate relationship with all things check-in, I was excited to hear Asif‘s insights on the location-based marketing industry.  Asif packed a lot into the hour long presentation (check out the LBMA website for podcasts, case studies, research and all things location) and between tweeting, retweeting, texting and taking notes there are two points that I keep going back to:

• Asif started his presentation by first asking who had checked in on Foursquare of course, but then went on to say in relation to location-based marketing "we are in the first half of the first period of the game ." With big brands and companies utilizing location-based services there is more familiarity with Foursquare, Facebook Places, Gowalla, SCVNGR and what it means to check-in, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is actively engaging. According to Edison research, while 30% of Americans 12+ are familiar with location-based services and sites only 4% of Americans 12+ are using them.
• The second thing is the consumers that are engaging with location-based services are doing so for "the deal." "The deal" is not enough for consumers to continue using location-based services or shopping at the business; likewise customers that come in for "the deal" are not necessarily your loyal customers. While location- based services are bringing customers in to your business there is a lack of focus on retention and loyalty. Whether it is socialization, gamification or targeted communications and offers to customers based on their purchases these services will need to find a way to go beyond the deal to remain relevant.

I’ve blogged before about the ways that the new social and location tools can enhance traditional loyalty programs. The conversation on Wednesday conformed for me that the marriage between the old and new technologies can enhance the way businesses market to their customers. Knowing who your customers are, understanding their needs and communicating with them effectively is what loyalty programs aim to do. With the growing number of new mediums to communicate businesses have more options to communicate with customers it is becoming increasingly important to remember the basics of what customer loyalty means for your business. In order to have success with location-based marketing, loyalty marketing or any of your marketing efforts, Asif is correct when he says whatever you offer has to be valuable and relevant for your customer.