You’ve heard of the old bait-and-switch sales tactic.
You know the old super shiny offer that gets you into the store, only for the store to then say “oops, we’re all out!”
Now, I’d never accuse digital marketers today of intentionally practicing marketing fraud, but lately it has occurred to me that there’s been a digital version of the old bait-and-switch that’s becoming the default operating procedure for much online marketing.
It works like this:
You’re on a website and a digital ad catches your eye – it contextualizes whatever it's selling to your location. It knows you’re in Addison, TX, and it tells you that last year, crime rates were up in Addison. So you click, because, finally an ad is targeted toward you and your local interests and needs.
Then, the ad leads you to a landing page that asks for all of your personal information... INCLUDING WHERE YOU ARE.
Wait, what? Didn’t that ad literally just tell you where you were?
Isn’t that why you clicked?
Why doesn’t the landing page know that? Why isn’t the landing page as smart as the ad that’s driving to it?
Why were you digitally bait-and-switched?
This is the landing page experience for most customers. And it’s disappointing.
Our landing page solutions can give your audience a hyperlocal experience throughout the process. Imagine that person in Addison now landing on a geotargeted page for a home security system that compared Addison to Dallas and Carrollton. This landing page breaks down crime by neighborhood, and by category and includes news stories from Dallas County.
No bait. No switch.
You delivered what you promised – a truly localized conversation about something the customer is interested in. And that you want to sell them.
And that’s important because the real problem with the old bait-and-switch was that it was bad for the customer.
But this more recent and increasingly standard approach to geotargeting? It’s bad for you.