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Location-based marketing can help retailers revolutionise consumer engagement, experts say.

With the industry set to blow-out to $32.4 billion by 2021, location based marketing is an increasingly popular way to engage core consumers.

This form of marketing, which is all about geo-locating consumers and delivering targeted messages based on location, has the potential to substantially boost in-store and online traffic, according to experts in the field.

Premanjali Gupta, Head of Marketing, Blis Asia Pacific, says that location-based marketing is the cornerstone of modern marketing.

“Location-based data is the missing part of the puzzle for many marketers who want to focus on successfully understanding their consumers’ real-word habits,” he says.

According to Nick Ballard, Managing Director at Blis ANZ, a global intelligence company, location-powered marketing is the next frontier of marketing.

“Leveraging real-time location data and using it as a proxy for behaviour is a powerful way to learn more about customers. By understanding where they go and when, marketers can create relevant, useful messaging that resonates with a brand’s audience.”

But despite the growth in location-based marketing Mr Ballard says there is a sizeable knowledge gap among senior marketing leaders.

A recent study from Blis found that there are significant knowledge gaps among senior marketing leaders, who cited a lack of scale, lack of transparency and established standards as the biggest  hindrances to lotion-based marketing.

According to Mr Ballard, it is critical that these knowledge gaps be filled so that retailers can make the most of the opportunity – and ensure that they don’t get left behind.

“We must in some ways go back to the drawing board and educate Australia’s marketing leaders about the established metrics involved in location-based marketing, and the importance of setting new KPIs and using powerful digital tools like Blis to effectively quantify ROI,” Mr Ballard said.