The Foursquare ROI Challenge is in full swing and we are now talking to various businesses about their Foursquare plans and how they can use location-based marketing to “steal” customers.

One of the more common questions that we get from businesses is:

How do I know which Foursquare special to run?

And right off the bat, we respond with:

It depends.

When thinking about marketing services to people, there are three basic questions we try to answer before developing any strategy:

1. What makes people buy.
2. What makes people buy more.
3. What makes people come back and buy again.

What Makes People Buy

There is a wide number of reasons people buy, but experience tells me that one stimulus that can trigger a buying event is location. Location — as in the item you want to buy is in direct proximity to your physical location. It can be as simple as the shelves that are set up next to the cash register at the grocery store or it can be as complex as cross selling items to fans at a sporting event. Without people in a location, buying is still possible — but geographic location significantly increases the chances of buying.

If your primary intent is to use Foursquare as a tool to get more people (even steal them away from your competition) to buy from you the first time, use one of the Foursquare specials called a Frequency-based Special and set it to one.

(“Foursquare users get 20% off any entree with your first check-in!”)

What Makes People Buy More

Once someone has made a decision to buy something, what makes them want to buy “more somethings”? And how many somethings can you sell on average to each customer?

Once people check in at your store, you can run specials that encourage people to buy more.  Check-in specials are unlocked when someone checks in a certain number of times.

(“Foursquare says you’ve been here 3 times? That means you have earned a buy-2-get-1-free set of earmuffs!”)

What Makes People Come Back And Buy Again

Customer loyalty is important to any business and Foursquare has a special for that too — in the form of a “Mayor Special.” Mayor Specials are unlocked only by the Mayor of your store. Who’s the Mayor? It’s your single most loyal customer! (the user who has checked in the most in the last 60 days)

(“Foursquare has deemed you the Mayor? Enjoy a free dessert with your order!”)

What makes people buy? What makes them buy more? What makes them come back and buy?

The three most basic questions a business can ask.

And Foursquare specials can help you answer them.

Foursquare Specials: Which One Is Right For Your Business? is a post by SEO expert Justin McHood. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

If you are a business owner with a brick-and-mortar location, location-based marketing is a quick and easy way to pick up customers.

From your competition.

Call it customer stealing, if you will.

And it isn’t difficult to pull off.

Let’s pretend for a moment that I worked for a local car dealer and I was in charge of getting more customers in the door. Still pretending, let’s say that I have 10 stores all across Utah and each store is in a different location with different businesses around it.

At least a few of my stores are located in “auto malls” where many of my competitors have stores in the immediate vicinity. Because of the cluster of auto dealers, the area is full of consumers who are looking to buy a car — right now. It’s easy to see that this is a target-rich-environment for marketers.

And with location-based marketing, you can now offer those customers in the area a compelling reason to come to your store — right now.

Enter Foursquare.

When a consumer who is in the area “checks in” on Foursquare at one of your competitors stores, you simply offer them $2,500 in cash (or whatever you want your offer to be) to be used toward the purchase of a new or used vehicle if they come and check in at your store — within the next 10 minutes.

And then you watch people walk into your competition, check-in and immediately leave and come to your store. It really isn’t all that hard to tell what will happen over time, assuming that the offer is compelling enough to attract interest: The store that offers the best specials to buyers in the immediate area will be the busiest.

So if you happen to be an auto dealer in Utah and you notice that customers are walking out of your store and into the one across the street …

It might be time to start thinking about using Foursquare specials.

Customer Stealing: Use Location Based Marketing To Your Advantage is a post by SEO expert Justin McHood. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

So the headline-grabbing, first-mover, element of surprise is gone.

Starbucks has went ahead and made a PR splash with their recent announcement offering Mayors a discount at locations nationwide.

Is it time for small businesses across America to pay attention to location-based marketing applications?

Maybe. Probably. What do you have to lose?

But it is still very early in the product adoption curve for location based marketing applications like Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt.  TechCrunch recently reported that Foursquare hit 1 million users — which means 99% of the population have yet to adopt “checking in” when they go somewhere.

But wait.

Did you catch the last part of the TechCrunch article? The part where it mentions:

It took Foursquare just over a year to get to a million users. By comparison, it took Twitter about 2 years to get one million users. Of course now, two years after that, Twitter has over 100 million users. Foursquare, undoubtedly, would love to see that type of growth — assuming they don’t sell first.

That means that even though there is somewhere less than 1% of the general population currently using location based check-in services, it is possible that many more people will be using it soon.

And using these services means that a conversation is being had – right in your very business – by customers using these services.

And since product adoption velocity seems to be increasing – if you are a small business, you may not have as long as you think to “wait and see how it goes”.

Are you a small business thinking about offering a Foursquare special at your business?

It’s Free.

And if you do it right, you might be surprised to hear not only what your customers are “shouting” in your business, but also what kinds of Foursquare specials they prefer.

Currently, potential Foursquare specials include:

• Mayor Specials: unlocked only by the Mayor of your venue. Who’s the Mayor? It’s your single most loyal customer! (the user who has checked in the most in the last 60 days)
  (“Foursquare has deemed you the Mayor? Enjoy a free order of french fries!”)
• Check-in Specials: unlocked when a user checks in to your venue a certain number of times.
  (“Foursquare says you’ve been here 10 times? That’s a free drink for you!”)
• Frequency-based Specials: are unlocked every X check-ins.
  (“Foursquare users get 20% off any entree every 5th check-in!”)
• Wildcard Specials: always unlocked, but your staff has to verify some extra conditions before awarding the Special.
  (“Show us your foursquare Swarm badge and get a free drink!”)

Is it time for small businesses to pay more attention to location-based marketing applications?

Only if they like building loyalty and listening to the conversations about their industry and business.

Do Small Businesses Need To Pay Attention To Foursquare? is a post by SEO expert Justin McHood. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.