In the modern day world of E-commerce, companies are beginning to recognize how useful mobile marketing campaigns can be for a generating additional revenue and exposure. One method for reaching your customer base is by using location-based rewards programs through Yelp, Foursquare, Facebook and other applications. According to Intuit,” The number of people checking in is relatively small compared to those engaging in other mobile activities, but it’s growing along with the number of businesses using the services to market to new and existing customers.”

A few marketing tactics used along with check-in campaigns include cross-channel promotion, customer rewards and participation in customer discussion.   Using social media services such as Facebook and Twitter to cross-channel promote location-based services helps raise your existing customer’s brand awareness. Additionally, rewarding customers with discounts and special offers when they check-in with your business are easy ways to increase repeat buying habits. Check-in services also allow for open communications with your patrons through discussion boards. This helps a business to gauge a customer’s shopping experience, emotions and willingness to promote your products.

Furthermore, market research shows that smartphone users actively pursuing location-based recommendations, directions and other information have increased engagement from 55% in May 2011 to 74% in February 2012. So this begs the question, why aren’t more businesses offering check-in related services? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below!