“Online business mapping software looks kind of interesting, but I’m not sure if it would benefit my business.”
Clearly, those of you thinking these ‘interested only’ thoughts haven’t solved all your business problems using traditional methods. Traditional methods involve the usual seat-of-our-pants approaches most businesses I’m familiar with use including, Excel spreadsheets, endless speculation & mansplaining, and SWAG.
Spreadsheets are a Godsend, without a doubt. But spreadsheets only tell part of the story. Spreadsheets may let you know if your business is in the black or in the red. They may indicate that things are trending better or trending worse. But spreadsheets can’t show spatial patterns or demographic trends by area, absorbed at a glance. For example, spreadsheets can’t show the relationship between crime patterns and an address, or a pandemic spread by county over time.
Maps transform spreadsheets into map visualizations of customers, sales histories, and progress towards company goals. Maps turn a compilation of data records into visualizations that drive actions. Business maps display business over an area and over a duration.
A great example is sales territory mapping. I’m sure some companies track sales territories by spreadsheet. “Adam has these ZIP codes in his territory,” Said Ethel. But that list of ZIP codes doesn’t help Adam decide which account to visit this week. A business map could inform Adam which accounts to see based on a color-coded symbol indicating overdue visits. It can even suggest additional stops for prospects or legacy accounts that can fill in for cancelations. Maps drive actions.
A Territory Map Using MapBusinessOnline
Maps Solving Problems
A spreadsheet is just a list of customers. Even a CRM is still only a database, albeit a fancy one. Business mapping software converts that customer address list into an awareness of where all your best customers exist. A map creator can augment that awareness to include other important facts or characteristics about your customers like:
- Median income levels in their ZIP code
- Population levels by age, gender, or household in their immediate area
- Business resources within 25 miles of their home address
- Crime records
- Donation histories
- COVID-19 recovery statistics
- The number of cats owned over a lifetime (well, that data should be out there)
Solving business problems takes time. Sometimes that time can stretch into years. Geographic and demographic map perspectives, provided by business mapping tools, present a new view of old problems. Moreover, new perspectives tend to generate new ideas.
Not all business problems are sales-related. Sure, business mapping can show where sales are happening and NOT happening, but what other solutions do business maps provide?
Because maps represent spatial reality, they can provide unique perspectives on operational activity. Maps have a habit of pointing out the obvious, such as the most efficient driving directions from point A to point B, but via points, C, D, and E. These efficient routes are called optimized routes. Optimized routes can help solve traveling sales problems like workload balancing and customer retention issues. Driving efficient routes saves time and money.
Law enforcement pros use business maps to clarify events. For example, crime maps provide a geographic view of repeat offenses where the offender is still at large. In addition, a crime map tends to narrow down the likely perpetrator list because it connects criminal acts with home or work locations. So often, crime maps indicate clusters of crimes within an area, and some other clue points to a suspect’s home location within driving or walking distance of the cluster.
Crime Map Using MapBusinessOnline
Getting the Word Out
Every business must work diligently at getting its marketing messages across to their existing and potential customers. Today, marketing messages must travel across multiple mediums. Online mediums and ‘old school’ mediums compete to attract eyeballs and bend ears towards a finely tuned marketing message.
Business maps help organize marketing campaigns. They provide a platform for recording the placement of marketing messages and tracking each campaign’s effectiveness . MapBusinessOnline has customers using business mapping to monitor the following types of marketing campaigns:
- Advertising flyers inserted in local and regional newspapers. Ads are placed based on demographic characteristics of urban area ZIP codes. Campaign results tracked by matching coupon redemption to purchases by ZIP code
- Retail stores design sales promotions focused on specific populations sorted by ethnicity, age group, or income level. Stores sort mailed marketing pieces various ways that can then be monitored to reflect which offers were most successful by demographic category or area
- Billboards are old school as hell, but they work. Business maps track billboard placements and monitor campaign deadlines for ad change-outs. Effectiveness is tracked by billboard calls-to-action, but that may be a little sketchy. Keep those hands on the wheel!
Map-based Market Analysis
Sometimes the business problems we undergo require analysis:
- Strategic problems – How will we expand our core market to assure business viability over the next ten years?
- Logistical problems – Where should we locate our next transportation hub to support our new customers west of the Mississippi?
- Financial problems – Profit margins for core products in the Northeast have been significantly lowered due to competition. Do we consolidate and downsize or find more profitable areas and expand?
For example, MapBusinessOnline market analysis suggests the most lucrative growth areas identifying core customer demographics by region. With existing demographic drivers identified, vital demographic characteristics can be revealed in untapped regions of the nation, solving one part of the ‘where to grow’ strategic puzzle.
For example, MapBusinessOnline market analysis suggests the most lucrative areas of growth through the identification of core customer demographics by region. Once existing demographic drivers are identified, key demographic characteristics can be revealed in untapped areas of the nation, solving one part of the ‘where to grow’ strategic puzzle.
A free trial of MapBusinessOnline is available – no credit card required. You can access the help documentation, blog articles and get Chat, e-mail, and Phone support, to build your first business map. Once onboard, you are well on your way to using map-based business analysis to help solve your business problems.
Sign up for MapBusinessOnline today and get geographicized, or locationated, or spatially woke. Or just sign up and start mapping.
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Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com for their business mapping software and advanced sales territory mapping solution. The best replacement for Microsoft MapPoint happens to be the most affordable.
To access MapBusinessOnline, please register and then download the Map App from the website – https://www.mapbusinessonline.com/App-Download.aspx.
After installing the Map App, the MapBusinessOnline launch button will be in the Windows’ Start Menu or Mac Application folder. Find the MapBusinessOnline folder in the Start Menu scrollbar. Click the folder’s dropdown arrow and choose the MapBusinessOnline option.
The Map App includes the Map Viewer app for free non-subscriber map sharing.
Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or g2crowd
Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com
