This blog/document is designed to provide a quick help reference for new users to Map Business Online. It could also be useful for those of you who may struggle with technology. You are not alone. Plenty of successful people find themselves overwhelmed by technology today perhaps from lack of training, a stressful environment, or just by being born before 1990.
The below linked videos represent the basic business map processes most users conduct with Map Business Online.
How to plot data in Map Business Online from an Excel Spreadsheet Most Map Business Online users quickly attempt to import an address spreadsheet during their first session using our business mapping software. This video gives you the process from Spreadsheet development to map placement
How to create territories from scratch using Map Business Online – Territory mapping is a major use case for Map Business Online users. This video describes how to create a territory from scratch using your cursor and clicking on the map itself (as opposed to importing data to create territories – see next item)
How to create territories from an imported spreadsheet – This video walks the user through importing a spreadsheet of ZIP codes, counties, or states to create territories. ZIP codes and territory names are all you need for that map layer. If you build territories on counties, you have to include a State layer. Counties aren’t unique, like ZIPs
Printing your maps using Map Business Online – Printing maps is as easy as printing a word doc, but can be a little tricky when you want to print a wall map. Large format PDF files for plotter printing is totally doable in Map Business Online, but it takes experimentation. Try various approaches to get the map extent and the level of detail you require
What is a business map? – Tips on how to adjust your map’s look and feel so that your map audience gets your map point. Become the map master of your organization and rule the world! Or a map of it anyway
Using the Map Business Online downloadable apps – Sometimes accessing a business map through a web browser has issues. Map Business Online downloadable apps lets the user create maps free of cumbersome web browsers. The Windows and Mac apps avoid Flash Player, so your IT department will like this
Bonus video: The Features Most Often Used in Map Business Online This video is a half-hour long. It covers a lot of basic ground. grab a cup of joe and settle in for some serious Map Business Online tips.
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. Discover Map Business Online – tools for making maps by map makers.
Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com
Motivating a sales team is always a challenge. Every sales representative is different. Some are motivated by SPIF programs, others are turned on by longer-term big payoff incentives like an all-expenses-paid Caribbean cruise or a trip to Paris.
Selling incentive programs are great for certain types of salespeople, but they do not always work for the whole team. These programs tend to split the sales team into winners and losers, damping collaboration and fanning discontent.
Perhaps selling contests aren’t the best way to motivate a sales force? In many cases, SPIFs and contests can be a distraction to the company’s real goal – growing sales. A trip to Disneyland is a nice perk but competing for a trip to Disneyland often leaves most of your sales team feeling left out, as legacy accounts, personalities, and plain old luck, puts a winner over the top. About half your team will compete, and eighty percent will have sour grapes.
The most appropriate selling incentive program I know of is a crystal-clear understanding of the organization’s sales expectations and regular updates on the sales team’s progress towards those goals. Nothing incentivizes a sales team more than a clear understanding of what their supposed to be doing and the tools to get the job done.
A clear understanding of company sales goals is the best way to focus a sales team on what they need to do to achieve their quota. And the best way to share that information is with a sales territory map.
Sales Territory Maps Keep the Team Focused
Sales territory maps are map visualizations of a sales team’s coverage area. They visibly display the critical elements of a sales team’s goals and results:
Sales Territories by Area – usually ZIP codes or counties – define the boundaries of a sales rep’s responsibility. That’s accountability, a critical element to sales success
Sales Goals by Territory are displayed as trackable monetary values, labels associated with each territory or map layer
Progress Towards Goal can be displayed right below an overall goal, making progress towards goal an obvious and known quantity for all to see
Territory Maps by Rep or by Company – The ability to view one rep at a time or the entire company at a time is important. At times it makes sense to display all territories and drive the company forward. At other times more discretion may be required, and single territory maps may be more effective
Account Distribution – Some companies prefer to show sales reps just the accounts they own or customer maps, a business map can provide the tools for sharing all accounts or just specific accounts
Sales territory maps are easily and affordably shared either as sale meeting presentations or emailed links for more intimate sharing. Monthly or quarterly sales meetings are a great place to use business mapping tools to share success and failures in the field.
If there’s one thing we can count on in sales, it’s that circumstances are constantly changing. Markets fluctuate, products change, and customer requirements shift. Competitors rise and fall. Use territory maps at sales meetings or online discussions to describe sales account strategies that succeed and recount sales strategies that fail. This is where salespeople learn.
Business Map Planning
Business Map users with geo-aptitude will find Map Business Online a valuable tool for sales planning and market analysis. Let’s face it, in today’s social media wrapped reality we’re all marketing analysts. In addition to territory mapping, business maps enable those with fairly basic technical skills to conduct their own analysis:
Review existing sales and marketing results against an accurate web map
Conduct demographic analysis by ZIP code or city to determine core customer characteristics
Search for and import specific prospect locations as business listings – access business listings from within Map Business Online
Search for new areas of opportunity based on past success
Now, why would your salespeople bother playing with maps? Because it just might help them break through barriers to selling, explore new product opportunities, and learn more about the company’s perfect customer.
Not Everyone is a Map Geek
Be sensitive to the variety of personality types that constitute your sales team. Don’t expect everyone to take to maps naturally. Just as some people aren’t motivated by trips to Aruba, not everyone wants to spend time tweaking maps. You’ll be able to forward all reps interactive web maps for free with Map Business Online. For special cases who struggle with technology, you can send map image files via email. But for those salespeople who show serious interest in mapping, buy them a subscription to Map Business Online.
Go ahead and set up incentive contests if you want. Just make sure while your two or three sales wizards are rocking Cancun there’s still sales activity going on at home.
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. Discover Map Business Online – tools for making maps by map makers.
Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com
Retail stores live and die based on foot traffic. A successful retailer may sell online or even deliver products, but it’s the people who walk in the door that make or break the sales goals at retail.
A retail manager or owner must do all they can to:
Locate the store in the best possible location for walk-in traffic
Sell products or services that cater to the surrounding community
Advertise to the local retail audience with effective messages
Business maps are a cost-effective way to support each of those key retail requirements with regional business intelligence for optimized business decision-making. These process start by importing location data into a geo mapping software program like Map Business Online.
Where to Locate My Store
Locating a retail store in the inner city is a no-brainer because that’s where the people are. But there are always subtle characteristics that differentiate a good enough placement from the optimum store location.
Vehicle and foot traffic patterns
Neighboring retail store types – Red Light districts vs. residential neighborhoods
One-way or two-way streets
Where are all my competing retail stores located?
Other factors specific to the type of business
Beyond the immediate surroundings, retail store placement should take into consideration the surrounding demographic make-up of the neighborhood. Within a two to three-mile radius, how many households exist? What are the general demographic characteristics of the surrounding community? The area’s ethnicity, income, and age characteristics are important considerations, depending, of course, on what you are selling. Creating a demographic map is a key step in the retail location process.
One example might be opening up a Chinese restaurant in China Town; which might make sense. But locating the fourth Chinese restaurant in a plain old downtown business district might be too much of a good thing for the market to bare. A retail business map with restaurant business listings plotted could help identify saturated markets.
A business map can assess the surrounding demographic characteristics within a given radius or within a certain driving time distance along the road network. This market analysis can quickly match a local clientele to products and services offered. By comparing various location center points using the same demographic analysis, optimum alternative locations can be considered.
Driving time polygons display the distances in all directions that a vehicle will travel along the road network, from a central point, in a given amount of time. Retailers typically want to understand driving time polygons of 20 minutes or less. Larger stores may be capable of sustaining customer interest across longer driving times. But in busy downtown shopping districts, driving times of more than fifteen or twenty minutes could be deal killers. People are busy. Traffic happens.
Driving distance polygons shift in shape dramatically when they include access to major highways. A five-mile home to store ride could be relatively quick when a two-exit highway jaunt is all that’s required. These are factors to be considered in a retail market analysis. How close is the store to a highway exit? How does using the highway impact driving times?
Who Will Buy These Wonderful Roses?
Likewise, a demographic assessment goes a long way to determining viability for planned products and service offerings. New product plans should take into account regional and local demographics to ascertain whether or not a viable market exists for the product.
High-income households are a usual suspect in the search for viable markets. But other relevant Census categories may help fine-tune a retail market’s potential. For instance, furniture items planned for stock or blow-out sales could be more strategically placed where certain age brackets are plentiful within a twenty-minute driving time.
Recliners – Which ZIP codes contain the largest population of 60 to 85-year-olds within a 20-minute drive time of my store?
Love seats – Which ZIP codes hold the largest population of 30 to 50-year old females within a 15 minute drive time of my store?
Big Screen TV Stands – Which suburban communities contain the largest populations of NFL fans and Stoners, with incomes higher than $75,000 per year? (OK, those aren’t Census categories. Yet.)
Similar demographic market assessments could be applied to an overstocked product analysis. Chain stores with heavy inventory commitments might want to move product between stores based on customer demographic trends by neighborhood or ZIP code.
Communicating with Demographic Groups
Once a market’s viability has been established, the retailer must reach out to the intended audience. Marketing messages are presented to potential buyers through a variety of channels. Business mapping software can provide critical business intelligence supporting many channels:
Radio advertising covers large line-of-site antenna coverage areas. These market areas are approximated by Census MSA’s or Nielsen DMA coverages, combing area targets with demographic categories and historical response rates for specific classes of customers.
Printed media and newspaper fliers are distributed in conjunction with retailer offers. Periodical readership and ad response rates can be tracked by ZIP code and retail store radius areas, lending relatively exact measurements of specific message and offer success. Test, measure, and mail!
Retail stores are rolling out online offers to passing cell phone traffic to gauge the effectiveness of real-time offers as people shop.
Understanding the demographic DNA of your surrounding community is critical to retail placement, product offerings, and marketing messages. Viewing your business from the perspective of driving time distances helps to develop a realistic assessment of the local market.
Retail business maps are the X-Ray vision glasses retail managers need to succeed.
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. Discover Map Business Online – tools for making maps by map makers.
Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com
You bet Maine is an incubator for geospatial businesses. Map Business Online is incorporated in the state of Maine, just outside of Maine’s largest city, Portland. Our building is located forty miles west of Portland, in Cornish, ME. But Maine has been an incubator for geospatial technology for decades.
Known for lobsters, rocky beaches, and the craziest ex-Governor on the planet, Maine is also an incubator for location-based services, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), GPS devices, and business mapping software. Who knew? It has a significant GIS history with an offshoot community of business intelligence software companies to-boot.
In the very beginning, Maine’s acceptance into the Union as a state was very much map related. The state was added to the United States as part of the Compromise of 1850. The state of Maine offset an additional slave state, preserving the peace for the Union during the decade right before the Civil War. Thanks, Maine!
Future Maine Governor Joshua Chamberlain standing before a map of the Gettysburg battle
Roll it forward a hundred years and one David DeLorme, a Yarmouth Maine native, just back home from a tour of duty in Vietnam, convalescing after suffering a serious wound on patrol, decided to go to northern Maine and get some fishing in. In so doing he found the published fishing maps available were completely inadequate for in-vehicle or on-foot navigation. That was all it took. “I can do better than this,” he thought. And he did.
Gathering all the published maps and government-issued maps he could get a hold of, and working with ground-truth of his own making, David created the first Maine Atlas & Gazetteer, launching DeLorme Mapping. Eventually, DeLorme became one of the premier mapping companies in the world, creating the first digital street map database of the whole USA on one Compact Disc – Street Atlas (quickly knocked-off by Microsoft as Streets & Trips.) DeLorme also developed early personal GPS devices for in-vehicle navigation, and especially off-road travel and recreation. Famously, Delorme’s Yarmouth Maine facility boasted the world’s largest rotating globe named Eartha.
Yours truly (me), cut his GIS teeth at DeLorme from 1998 until 2011, where I headed up the business mapping division for a few years. XMap, DeLorme’s professional map making tool, was used by many energy industry field-services organizations to track assets and create compelling and informative map-based data visualizations. A key XMap innovation was enabling team map editing and GIS support for less than $1000.
In 2016, DeLorme was purchased by Garmin Inc., the GPS device giant. Garmin still maintains the Delorme building in Yarmouth, ME. Eartha’s magnificent blue brilliance continues to light up Route 1 for travelers headed North into Maine through Yarmouth.
The now Garmin lobby containing Eartha, the world’s largest rotating globe
As DeLorme grew, so did other GIS and map-based companies in the state of Maine. Esri, the big Kahuna of GIS worldwide, opened up an office in Portland Maine in the mid-2000s to take advantage of the growing geospatial talent-base. Esri geospatial software development takes place there in support of a variety of markets around the world. Many of those GIS developers working at Esri Portland are ex-comrades of mine from DeLorme.
Further north in Central Maine at Hallowell, www.BlueMarble.com is a geospatial software development company focused on geodata translation. BlueMarble publishes Global Mapper, an affordable GIS offering 3-D map development and support for Lidar collected point clouds. Once again, ex-Delorme geospatial developers can be found at BlueMarble. Notice a pattern? One geospatial company in an area will beget many more.
Vetro Fiber Map is another Maine-based GIS company servicing the entire USA. Vetro Fiber Map grew out of the need for a map-based visualization and planning tool describing complete telecom fiber networks with a focus on expanded high-speed Internet access for all communities. The tool supports fiber installation contractors, town planners, and consumers as the country seeks to expand Internet access to all rural areas, providing improved healthcare support, access to better-paying jobs, and all the information you can Google. Vetro Fiber Map is the shared brainchild of Will Mitchell, an old DeLorme vendor, who sold MapInfo back in the day.
Moving up the coast of Maine to Camden, a traveler will uncover yet another pocket of geospatial software development. Penn Bay Solutions focuses on internal facility or indoor GIS in addition to classic geographic mapping. Penn Bay caters to federal government opportunities and is a long-time Esri Gold partner. These guys are taking the concepts of location-based services indoors. Think hospital mapping and military installation mapping.
Even business maps are fun
There are plenty more businesses in the State of Maine focused on GIS and business intelligence. Here at Map Business Online, we’ve helped Tyler Technologies to manage shared map intelligence across their internal network. Maine is home to an array of aerial imagery and LiDAR collection and processing companies providing GIS services for businesses and government organizations nationwide. And of course, there are a plethora of small GIS consultants around the state catering to municipal and general business geospatial requirements.
Although Map Business Online is not the first company software company to turn imported address datasets into intensity heat maps or customer visualizations we’ve done a great job making those tools affordable and easy-to-use.
At Map Business Online we get calls every day, from all over North America, from business mapping users seeking a replacement for MapPointterritory mapping or Delorme Street Atlas in-vehicle GPS tracking. We do our best to fulfill the geospatial nd mapping analysis needs with our services or send people in the right direction to get their requirements met. But it’s kind of nice to stop and consider how the State of Maine served as an incubator for the geospatial industry in its own unique way.
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. Discover Map Business Online – tools for making maps by map makers.
Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com
When you get two or three inquiries for the same business mapping software functionality in one day, either the same person is requesting help repeatedly, or the functionality is suddenly popular. Either way, I figured the repeating request was worthy of a blog post for Map Business Online users.
“How do I create a radius search from an address and derive the population density for the circle’s area?” The requests for help came in over our chat system and also via our traditional tech support email service. There were slight variations in these tech support requests, but the gist was precisely the same.
The fastest way to achieve the result of the population within a circle area is presented at the bottom of this blog post. But, all the requests for help ask about plotting a point, creating a circle, and then collecting the demographic data, so I wanted to follow that process first.
Placing the Location Point
Placing a point on the map in MapBusinessOnline is achievable in three ways. They are, in order of complexity:
Address Bar – In the application’s upper left-hand corner, you will find the Address Bar. It’s a blank white space with the words “Search Map” shadow texted. The address bar is located above the master toolbar on the left side. Input the address for the center point of the desired Circle or radius search: 19 Norwood Avenue, Rockport, MA (Zip code is optional). Then press the Binocular icon and notice the point plotted on the map with an associated mini-toolbar. You should click Save in Dataset to save the data point either in a New dataset or an existing data set on the map.
Plot a Draw Tool Point – From the master toolbar, seven buttons from the right, drop down to the bottom option, and select the Drop a Point feature in the draw tools dropdown. The button turns Green to show a selection is active. Click on the map to add a location. You will have to add that map point to an existing point layer or create a new one. Follow the Add or New dialogues. Once saved, a pin symbol will appear. Notice, once again, the associated mini-toolbar next to the plotted point.
Import a Spreadsheet of addresses or lat/long locations using the Dataset button located five buttons from the left on the master toolbar under the section labeled Adding to Map. Follow the dialogue import wizard presented on the map to achieve this. All of the imported points will have the associated mini-toolbar when selected.
Select the Radius
In business mapping, we often refer to maps that include a circular map object as a radius map. To select a radius and draw that Circle, look at the mini-toolbar I mentioned three times above. That little toolbar is hanging off of your plotted point. You will notice a Circle button and a jagged Polygon button (a Drive-time button.) Choose the Circle Button. After selecting, choose a radius distance for the Circle and click Add to Map.
Now you have some options to consider about the circular map object you just created. You will find a Circle Properties box on the map that will enable the following:
Adjustments of the radius (You can also select the map object and drag it bigger, smaller, or to a new location)
Boundary or line controls for adjustments to color and thickness
Fill color and transparency options for the overall map object
Map text options to associate a label or text with the map object
Change the order of database layers on top of the fill area – for manageable data selection when you’ve got data on top of or underneath the map object’s color fill.
Try each one of these options to get a sense of how the radius tools work. You will find all the map objects you create in MapBusinessOnline, polygons, and drive time queries work similarly.
Querying the Population
Now you have dropped a point on the map and created a circle with a specified radius. Nice job!
With your circle Map Object placed on the map, select the Circle with your cursor and click the Summary Button – a sideways M on the mini-toolbar. The summary dialogue will appear, presenting data options for the user to apply to the Circle area. You can pull ten demographic selections into this proforma spreadsheet table. MapBusinessOnline’s demographic categories and layers are right there for you to choose from.
The population seems to be the popular Demographic category for this point/radius/query request. But there are many options in the MapBusinessOnline demographic library. Please note the various options listed for population:
Projected demographic categories are on the two top years. Drill down for older years. 2020 and 2019 (our two most recent years) are projections from a third-party specialist
Population options include the overall population, population density by the square mile or kilometer, and then further down are population by age, ethnicity, gender, and whether most people in the area are dog or cat people. (Just kidding on that last one – we all know everyone’s a dog person)
And indeed, there are boatloads of other demographic categories available to add to your query. Just scroll down the list.
A map user in this situation may also select imported data and Calculated Data from the data dropdown options.
A Radius Search
Export or Add to the Map
Once your summary list of data layers is set, click Next and decide what to do with your data. You can export the data or add it to the map as a map note. You can also copy the data and paste it somewhere else.
Use cases for a quick radius search of the population are many, but I’m guessing most users want a quick assessment of an area’s population to determine:
If the area justifies sending a salesperson in to make sales calls
If the site is the right place for a new retail store, bank, or service location
If a retail kiosk makes sense on a street corner
Manually Drop A Radius Search
Perhaps even easier than dropping a point and drawing a circle is selecting a Radius Search tool from our set of search functions located eight buttons from the right.
Select the Radius Search tool – it displays selected when it turns green
Place a Point on the map with your cursor
Select the radius distance desired
Select the Circle’s mini-toolbar Summary Button – that sideways M
Choose the Demographic data layers associated with the population that suits your analysis.
Quite a few options to choose from, but all use parallel pathways and provide quick ways to define a circular area and collect the corresponding population data.
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.
Map Business Online provides a series of location-based tools that can be used for a variety of market analysis tasks:
Expansion Planning – Decision making and planning around new retail locations, new warehouse locations, or new health care centers offering medical services to an underserved community
Competitor Analysis – A thorough study of where your competitors are located and the markets they cater to, throughout their field of operation
New Market Identification – By combining location intelligence containing existing transactional sales data with demographic information associated an existing coverage area, new market profiles can be developed that suggest the most lucrative areas to replicate sales success
Imported Data Proximity Searches – Compare Store addresses to Customer addresses to determine groups of customers with X miles of a store. Append distance measures and demographic data for more insight.
Depending on what your business is up to, these various business analysis tools can be brought to bear and will be useful in moving your business forward. Below are some general steps to take when setting up a map-based business-to-consumer market analysis, exposing the best potential growth areas for the future.
Import Transactional Location Data
The first step in the market analysis process is to consider the location-based business data you’ve got on hand and import it onto a map. Look to your accounting office for this transactional data. It should be sales data associated with an address. Viewed against a map, sales data describes your current theater of operation – it’s where you do business.
Market analysis develops from an understanding of your current theater of operation. Viewing sales data on a map defines your area of operation. Is it national, regional, or local? Is it defined by states, counties, city limits or ZIP codes? Some companies understand their area of operation, others not so much, but a map view is always eye-opening.
An airline’s area of operation will be defined by states or countries. Airlines could be more regional, but the business of flying doesn’t make a lot of sense at a ZIP code level. Whereas, a waste management company makes perfect sense at a geographic analysis level of city limits, ZIP codes, or counties. What is your company’s geographic base unit – ZIP code, county, or state?
Define the Character of Your Area of Operation
Where you do business may be the result of happenstance, or perhaps it was deliberate planning. Regardless of how your business got there, to begin with, it is now your area of operation and it has a character or a demographic make-up. Your business caters to certain types of consumer customers who make decisions based on their interest in your product or service. Demographic data associated with your company’s geographic base-unit will expose:
Income levels high enough to justify a consumable expense on your product
If the population of your area of operation is enough to justify the business offering
If the population interested in the offering is identifiable by ethnicity, gender, or age
One or two consumer spending categories that correlate with sales of your product or service
The magic of using Census generated demographic data is that the myriad of data categories offered can all be arranged and analyzed by ZIP code, county, city or Census tract. This is extremely powerful for market analysis. It means your business’s area of operation can be described by its demographic breakdown. Demographic categories that can be directly associated with your existing sales success are the tell-tale signs of where your success will be replicable in other areas of the nation. “That’s Gold Baby!”
So, think about it. A general magazine stand, to be successful, requires a large population of people walking by. A store dedicated to male fashion magazines requires a lot of men passing by. A kiosk selling jewelry is going to want exposure to a large female audience. Know your business’s top three demographic signatures – and remain open to new ones.
Create a Baseline Business Map
To properly conduct market analysis, expect to build a couple of maps. Use the first map to establish your existing theater and area of operation. Consider it a baseline map – a worksheet to develop your market analysis.
Use the first map to describe your existing business geographically. Import your sales data, review various demographic categories that impact your business, and develop the extent of your area of operation.
Drive time polygons are extremely helpful in developing areas of operation for B2C business maps. Drive time queries generate polygons from a central point. The polygon represents travel in all directions along a road network for a given time. Retail stores, home delivery operations, and service organizations often depend on limited drive times for customer convenience, delivery timing, and minimizing the company’s travel expenses.
Test a few polygons based on ten-minute up to thirty-minute drive times. Take some population measurements at each time increment. Pay attention to the density of your imported customer location points on the map against the drive time polygon boundaries. Select the polygon area that you feel represents your core area of operation. It should include the densest areas of customer locations. Don’t fret about stragglers in outlying areas. Think – “How far will the average customer drive to get to our store?”
If drive time seems difficult to consider due to heavy commuter traffic times, or geographic obstacles like rivers, mountains or parks, consider a simple radius search instead. Sometimes a simple five-mile circle is adequate in defining an area of operation. Don’t over think this. Cover 80% of your customers.
Experiment with Various Views
Be patient as you build your business analysis. Take the time to review a variety of area options, demographic categories, and geographic map layer options. Remember maps are an approximation; there will never be a perfect map of your business. The executive board will look for certain data layers, the sales team will want to see their own key metrics. Keep your map audience in mind. Read more about building compelling business maps in other blog posts. Remember the focus of this map is developing a baseline for further market analysis.
Create a Territory
Once you’ve got a sense of your rough area of operation, select the drive time polygon or radius search you just created and click the Binocular icon on the associated toolbar. Choose a map layer to search – usually ZIP codes – and name that Territory or area of interest. The resulting “territory” will define your realistic area of operation by ZIP code, enabling a thorough market analysis view in the Map Business Online data window. ZIP code selection based on a polygon or radius will inevitably encompass a larger area because ZIP code boundaries will overlap random polygons. Consequently, your final area of interest will include a little bit more of your imported customer locations.
From the Data Window Territory view, Click More Data, in the lower right. Access imported data, and demographic data on the left panel drop down and pull those key demographic layer columns into your map analysis by moving those data columns on the left to the right. You can create summations of demographic layers and formulas out of demographic data layers using Calculated Data Columns and access those in More Data once created.
Feel free to adjust your polygon to better reflect your operating area. Run your business map by a few different people in the business to get their sense of optimum coverage. Once your primary operating area map is established take note of the demographic characteristics that are associated with your most successful areas of transactional business to date. You will use these demographic categories in the next map to establish the best operating areas for expansion. You’re halfway there!
Baseline Market Analysis Map
Build a Market Analysis Map
Now it’s time to create your second business map, designed to expose the most lucrative areas of potential for growth. Starting a new map keeps things clean and the original analysis is saved for later reference. You know, like when the boss slams the table and asks, “Who the hell decided we should use that demographic for our analysis?” #Workingforaliving #BlameBenny
For a broad market analysis choose map layers like ZIP codes and City limits. Take some time and build demographic data into your market analysis map. In both the ZIP code layer and the City Limits layer:
Create calculated data columns that combine age, income or other category layers that best reflect your target demographic
In the Data Window review both the ZIP code map layer and the City Limits map layer. Use More Data to pull key demographic data categories and calculated data columns into each map layer of the analysis. Don’t overdo it. Three or four categories are plenty to analyze.
I like to start with City Limits as the first pass analysis. Find the cities that make the most sense for your business. City Limits is an Additional Map Layer retrieved from the Blue Earth icon Add Map Layers button on the master toolbar.
In the Data Window, select the City Limits layer and use More Data to add demographic layers by House Hold Income, Population, or a more relevant layer to your business. Filter the cities by the key demographic layer, applying a user-defined value that will return a full list of lucrative cities. For instance, filter for cities with a High-Income population of 50,000 or more. Try to filter this list down to the fifteen or twenty candidates.
Tweak your filter quantities in the Data Window to adjust the returned data to your liking. Remember, demographic data varies. People in your business may expect to see Chicago on that list. If it’s not there, understand why it’s not there. Review the data and use your head.
Export that City Limit layer to achieve a point layer and re-import this data using Plot Data. Use this imported data to set up a Market Analysis layer with circles around the center of each city. See video. You can use Map Business Online Market Analysis (option 1) to create up to 200 circles automatically. (Sometime in April/May 2019 drive time polys will be automated too.) Use those inserted circles to create territories from the circle impacted ZIP codes.
Pull up that first Territory in the Data Window and using your business’s critical demographic categories for the Territory Layer (pull from Demographic data or set up in Calculated Data Columns) add those layers to the territory using More Data. Now continues making ZIP Code territories in the centers of those City areas. All territories created will include the demographic data you just set up in territory one.
Once you feel you created enough territories, review the demographic make-up of each area territory. Does the data make sense? Are there other categories you want to include in the analysis? Pull up the Territory Layer in the Data Window so all the territories are listed. Filter that Territory list for the most important demographic category in your analysis (in your opinion.) For example, look for all the Territories carrying a median household income level of more than $100,000.
Now all those territories that fall into that demographic filter will be listed in your Data Window view. These will likely be your top opportunities. You should filter based on other demographic factors too. Do this to make sure you haven’t missed a key city or two. Consider each result:
Do all cities come up with each filter few? Should they?
Are there cities missing that your company has been discussing? Why are they missing? Figure it out. Don’t wait for a meeting to have the results get panned.
Have you missed a key demographic category? If so, go back and fix that.
Try to include an existing area of operation in your analysis for comparison purposes. Create one territory based on the location of your existing facility of facilities. Highlight it on the map.
Generate an Excel Report
Once you’ve finished tweaking your market analysis you will want to generate an Excel report. Export the Data Window view of all the best-proposed territory areas. Map Business Online will export this data as a .CSV file. Convert it to an Excel format to match the format most of your viewers will use.
In your Excel file or in an attachment include some textual content explaining your business logic in generating this report. Encourage alternative ideas and be willing to rebuild the map as necessary.
Highlight your existing territory in Yellow for comparison purposes.
Take time to review the report and remove data that doesn’t add value.
Now present your findings to the powers that be. Good luck!
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. Discover Map Business Online – tools for making maps by map makers.
Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com
Importing a spreadsheet of relevant business addresses is pretty easy to do in MapBusinessOnline. That first map view of your business data, neatly arranged and labeled against a map of the USA or Canada, is pretty thrilling for most first-time users of the tool.
But the next step most users want to achieve is appending those imported point labels with information that is important to their analysis – however simple or complex that analysis might be. Business mapping software users often seek to:
Append their imported points with demographic data provided by MapBusinessOnline
Display relevant business data they’ve also imported underneath map labels
Display a critical data element that may require adjustment by users
Add information to a map layer label such as a ZIP code or a county
Customers want that ability to append data to labels for a whole bunch of good reasons. Some maps are created to share across a business system and several demographic categories may be an important element to decision making. An example would be a call center making determinations on repair or replacement orders.
I had a guy this week who wanted every imported address label to display the number of registered vehicles associated with each geographic unit. Another user had interest in noting the number of interns hired by each Senator across all Congressional districts.
Labeling can pull appending information from imported data, demographic data, and MapBusinessOnline’s Calculated Data columns. Calculated Data Columns is a function in Map and Data available within each Map Layer (county, state, ZIP) that lets the user create a calculation across two or more columns. The formula options include summing, subtraction, and ratios.
I’ve had customers who would like to append summations of demographic data, such as the population older than age 65 years, or a formula combining high household incomes divided by the number of children of elementary school age. This calculated data can be referenced in map layer auto labels (explained below) or used as a basis for color-shading.
Callouts and Auto Labels
In MapBusinessOnline we refer to imported data labels as Callouts, and map layer labels (ZIP codes, counties, states) as Auto Labels. Callouts are labels associated with points on the map. Auto labels are labels associated with map layers like ZIP codes or Counties.
Label management is accessed either by selecting an imported point Callout on the map itself or by selecting the targeted layer in the Map and Data box. When you select a point’s Callout, a menu pops up. Click that menu’s Edit Gear and then click Format Callouts. This opens up a panel that will allow the Map Business Online user to:
Adjust the Callout look and feel
Append imported data columns to the Callout
Append color coding data values to the Callout
The Callout label is associated with imported address or Lat/Long data only. You can change the imported dataset name at the Map and Data box or the Data Window by hovering over the layer name and clicking the Pencil icon.
By selecting the Callout label a mini-menu is generated. Click the Edit Gear on the mini-menu to append data to the Callout. In the resulting dialogue, a user will find a General tab and a Callout tab. Use the General Tab to adjust symbol sizes and colors. Down below in the General tab is the user’s opportunity to edit the data associated with that Callout.
Under the Callout Tab a business map user can adjust the position of the symbols, format the text of the callout, and edit the fields of imported data used by the Callout label. Click Format Callout to access the data options. You’ll have five flexible fields that can be filled with data, these are in addition to the automatically included Name and Address info associated with each Callout.
Auto Labels
On the business map, as mentioned above, the user also has customizable control over map layer labels or Auto Labels. This gives the map creator the ability to pull from imported data or tap into included demographic data and append that information to map layer labels.
Appending auto labels with demographic data means business map layers, like ZIP codes, can be color-shaded to reflect a major demographic theme, such as median income, while the labels for each ZIP code could display up to five additional demographic category values such as:
Male population
Hispanic population
Number of rental units
Consumer expenditures on beauty products
Number of housing units of a given decade
Or the map creator can mix it up by appending some fields with demographic data and other fields with imported data. Whatever floats your map’s proverbial boat.
This label flexibility lets the map creator spoon-feed their map audience the data most relevant to the map’s purpose. Your map data could be critical data for a customer presentation or simply referential to strategy discussions around the conference room table.
Auto Label Formatting
To access Auto Label tools, go to Map and Data. Hover your cursor over the target map layer and click the Edit Gear. Choose the label tab along the right vertical. There are two functions here.
Along the bottom of the dialogue are Auto Label controls for text color, font size, and bold controls. Here you can choose to show auto labels or not.
Please notice the “Start Labeling From” option. Pay close attention to this option. In the associated drop down the user can adjust the map zoom level at which the labels appear. This lets you maximize the presentation of labels at a given zoom level. It allows the map creator to turn on as many ZIP codes as possible at a full USA view. Experiment with the zoom level option to get a feel for when your map layer labels show up.
In the same dialogue, you will also find Format Labels. Click into format labels to append data. Make sure on the top tabs you’re clicked into Auto Label. The Custom Label option works the same way as Auto Labels but controls pop-up labels when the map viewer hovers over a ZIP code or county.
When you click into Format Auto Labels you will find the five flexible fields listed in order. Check the #1 option and use the drop downs to access available data for appending the labels. Tweak the Prefix as required. Just like the Callout function, Auto Label formatting provides up to five fields to append data to. Click Change Labels when finished.
Auto Labels and Callouts pepper a business map with information. Always tweak the settings and consider appending fewer data options. Ask yourself if the data you’ve appended adds significant value or if instead, it detracts from the map view. Business maps are a balance between too much data and not enough data. Find the sweet spot in the middle. Tweak sizes and colors. Ask a colleague for their opinion.
A business map, with a little extra time and tweaking, will serve your map purpose well and emboss your name in the annals of business cartography.
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MapBusinessOnline access has officially transitioned from Web Browser (Adobe Flash Player) access to the Map App download access.
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. You can drag the icon to the taskbar for a quick launch button.
All saved maps will be available through your Map Library Folder, the second button in from the left on the Master Toolbar. (Green File Folder icon.)
Map App access to MapBusinessOnline.com provides enhanced features and a better user experience.
The Map App includes the new Map Viewer app for free non-subscriber map sharing.
Value-Added Resellers – Offer the tool to your customers as a reseller. Make money on training and consulting. Contact us with further interest in reselling MapBusinessOnline.
Chances are, your business map is carefully crafted. You’ve spent time thinking about visualizing your business, adding a variety of layers, and importing the key elements of location data that support your map purpose. Now you want to print or save map views for sharing.
With MapBusinessOnline you’ve got a variety of options. You will find the below options available in MapBusinessOnline:
The Print Button on the master toolbar – Print to your desktop printer or save as a Large Format PDF
The Export Map Image file button – save as either PNG or Jpeg files
Windows Snippet or Mac capture image tools
Interactively share the map view with constituents as public or privately shared maps
I suppose you could conduct a screen capture using your Print Screen button, but so many of us have multiple screens these days, making this happen is a time-consuming option.
MapBusinessOnline printing or image file views are by nature, landscape views. That is, the map layout lies across your screen as a rectangle, long-side down. So, to maximize your printing area output you want your printer settings set to landscape. By approaching all print operations as landscape first, you will save time and paper. Every so often a state view like California or Texas may require a modified portrait view, but that will be an exception. Keep things set to landscape.
Printing to 8-1/2 x 11 sheets of paper to your desktop printer should be pretty easy. Click the print button and choose the top option, “Print current map view – the Printed map will fit to printer paper.” Once the print file is rendered and a map title is selected, MapBusinessOnline hands the file off to your desktop printer. That’s where you control the process on the printer side – be sure to set up the landscape layout option.
Wall Maps from Large Format PDF Files
The lower option within the Print button is to create a large format PDF file for a plotter print. This approach requires some experimentation and patience. We’ve included this because it gives the MapBusinessOnline user the ability to generate wall maps.
I’ve outlined this process in detail in this earlier blog post. We’ve tried to make this large format process as intuitive as possible, but it is complex. Take your time. follow the instructions and experiment with the following settings to get things to your liking:
Print the Map to Multi-Page PDF – Center on Current map View or Print the Map Area by Selected Draw Tool – try both. I prefer center on current map view.
Map zoom level – how far zoomed in you are, makes a big difference. Try it at over zoom and under zoom levels.
Paper sizes – You can go up to 60″ x 60″ or 5 feet by five feet. you see the Custom options. And here you can tweak the sizes to force a portrait or more landscape perspective.
The Legend placement in your PDF map is now user configurable. As you process your map set-up you can select which corner you’d like your Map Legend to be placed in. Or select to not include a Map Legend.
Remember the large format PDF process saves as a PDF. It takes a few minutes for a large wall map file to format. But then you’ll be able to tell if its right for you by viewing the PDF – as opposed to printing a humungous print job. If it ain’t right – delete it and start again.
And for printed maps of Texas or California, the large format print options with the totally customizable paper sizes, may be your best way to go.
Image Files
To the right of the Print Button in Map Business Online is the Export Image File button. Use this option to save your map view as a PNG or Jpeg image file. These files are great for email attachments or presentation graphics. But keep in mind, these image file views do not include Data Window or Map & Data shots. MBO image files only display the map graphics.
If you want an image file to include a Data Window view, use the Snippet tool or the Mac equivalent. Set your map up with your data component as desired and then create a Snippet shot. That’s what I use when I want to show you images of the Map Business Online user interface in my blog.
A Snippet file insertion
Data Window Copy & Paste
You do have the option to copy the Data Window tabular views into an Excel document. Simply pull up the data window and then click the Copy Past button in the lower right; just to the left of More Data. That opens up the copy options. Click copy when ready and paste into Excel.
Sharing Maps
If sharing static map images isn’t the best solution for your business, perhaps sharing an interactive map would do it. MapBusinessOnline allows a vast amount of free sharing options designed to get interactive maps in front of your constituents quickly and efficiently. These shared maps do not necessarily require subscriptions, every Map Business Online user gets to share 100 map share sessions a month at no cost. In addition, these shared maps include routing and the ability to print maps. Read more on map sharing here.
Printing maps is really just another way of sharing your work. Maps are for sharing and communicating concepts and business plans. Enjoy your map work.
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MapBusinessOnline access has officially transitioned from Web Browser (Adobe Flash Player) access to the Map App download access.
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. You can drag the icon to the taskbar for a quick launch button.
All saved maps will be available through your Map Library Folder, the second button in from the left on the Master Toolbar. (Green File Folder icon.)
Map App access to MapBusinessOnline.com provides enhanced features and a better user experience.
The Map App includes the new Map Viewer app for free non-subscriber map sharing.
Value-Added Resellers – Offer the tool to your customers as a reseller. Make money on training and consulting. Contact us with further interest in reselling MapBusinessOnline.
A business map is a geographic visualization of a business’s vital elements for planning or analysis. Business maps generally employ administrative map layers, such as ZIP codes or counties, and may or may not include a base-map background.
The critical business elements of a business map will vary but often include the following:
Customer sales activity by address or lat/long coordinates.
Prospective customer locations.
Brick-and-mortar locations of critical resources.
Demographic data through data append, color-shading or labeling.
Key business elements are relevant to the map owner’s specific business realities. A clothing retailer will build a very different business map from a hospital system’s planner. In this way, business maps are subjective and dependent on their owner’s specific business systems and challenges. Their creation should be approached with care, an awareness of the map’s specific purpose, and a strong sense of the map’s viewing audience.
The Business Map Creative Process
A business map is a visual platform that derives unique perspectives from organizational location data. Maps for business communicate concepts that benefit growth or stave off disaster. Each business map has a specific purpose. Know your map’s purpose.
Business maps encourage the discussion and analysis of business challenges. Your map’s purpose will be along the line of solving problems. Here are a few examples:
To analyze and adjust next year’s growth strategy
To display the sales territory alignment structure of a business
To create the most efficient route for Area 9’s delivery services
To expose bottlenecks across a nationwide delivery network
To clearly define the operating areas of significant competitors
With the map purpose firmly in mind, the map creator begins building a business map. Keeping it simple is the rule. Avoid adding map layers that do not support your map purpose.
Be aware of your map audience. Presenting a map to the management team radically differs from posting a map for the warehouse crew. Know the difference. For instance, don’t include salaries on warehouse maps unless it’s your last day.
Map Layer Choice
Your map may benefit from using administrative district layers like ZIP codes or counties. Think about your business. Are counties or ZIP codes referred to often? Do your salespeople travel within specific ZIP code areas or elsewhere in county areas? They may cover various states.
Turn on only those layers you feel are most critical to representing your business on a map. I like to turn the States layer on for reference only – to make the map viewer feel oriented. I leave state boundaries on with dark colors, and the color fills off. In general, I turn state labels off to avoid clutter because most people know what state they are looking at.
Make your map easy on the eyes of your map audience. Color choices for map layer fill, and all map object-filled areas, should be understated. Pastel colors inform. Bright colors scream. Obnoxious colors and overbearing symbols detract from your map’s purpose. Save the more brilliant color for one; maybe two key highlighted areas – if they are related to the map purpose.
Demographic data is Census collected and processed data optimized for geographic map applications. This data lets the map creator color-code ZIP codes or counties based on population variations, median income increments, household statistics, consumer expenditure records, and many more business-related characteristics of modern life.
Hundreds of categories and variations of demographic data are available for map analysis. Choose your categories carefully. Avoid posting too many demographic themes and overwhelming the map viewer.
Color-shade only the most relevant layers of your map. Color-shading ZIP codes or counties by demography should add meaning to your map analysis. Append demographic data to labels only if they add value to your map.
Use understated colors. Build graduated shades of red, green, or black to make a point with color. Typically, red is associated with deficits, black with surpluses, and green with good stuff. Stick with traditional color associations. Don’t make your map audience have to reinvent common associations to comprehend your map. Always keep it simple.
Not relevant telephone data
Imported Data Layers
Importing customer and prospect sales data by address into a business map is a critical element for a candy machine company making a business planning map. Importing billboard locations for a marketing firm managing billboards is vital to a marketing map. Neither of those businesses would require an imported dataset of hospitals because it is not critical to their business purpose. Import data relevant to your map purpose, leaving out extra layers.
Imported data layers will require symbols on the map. If you have thousands of data locations, consider using small dark dots called a dot density map. Dot density maps show clusters of locations across your operational coverage areas.
Keep symbols small but visible—useless obtrusive colors to avoid clutter and distraction. Make sure map symbol colors stand out from the background colors. If you’ve bothered to import data or to include a map layer such as ZIP codes, we already know it supports your map purpose, so make sure the map audience can see it. Towards completing your business map, take fifteen minutes to tweak color shading and symbol choices.
Alternatively, you can express the numeric value columns of imported data as a heat map layer. Heat map layers on a business map express numeric values as color intensities. Heat maps depict business activity as gradations of hot or cool colors across an adjustable area. A heat map layer is a great way to show how sales patterns or where most deaths from the plague occurred in 1347.
Map Background
Map background options vary widely. Try the options available. What background options best serve your map’s purpose based on your business map goals? Background map options include:
Standard street-level data.
Topographic and land cover maps.
Satellite and aerial imagery data.
Plain color-shaded backdrops.
Nothing at all is sometimes referred to as ‘nudie kazoo.’
Labels & the Map Legend
All text and labels on a business map need to be succinct. No one wants to read a missive on a map. If they see lots of crowded small text, your presentation is over. Restate all data layer labels, map text, and legend lines with as few words as possible. Abbreviate where possible. Just make sure the required identifications are readable, sensible, and relevant.
Use a map title to pull together the entire map’s purpose.
Ensure the legend layers are necessary – there’s no need to have a legend line for a State layer used for reference.
Ensure all text on all labels, legends, and text notes are sized and color-shaded to be readable.
Use background colors on text boxes that enhance readability.
Make sure text box colors do not conflict or blend with the underlying map area colors.
Are you tired of reading about your map’s purpose and keeping maps simple, relevant, and readable? Good.
Tweak It
I know you’ve been working on your map for a while. You’re excited about it and want to go public with it. But take a moment to review the map and adjust things. Here’s a list of adjustments I will make as my map nears completion:
Are all the various labels across my map consistent? Imported data labels are usually oddball filenames not conducive to map communication. Tweak them.
Does the map’s demographic color shading interfere with other aspects? Tweak it.
Are labels the correct size font and bold for this map? Tweak them.
Are the legend layer text layers succinct? Are there layers listed that add no value? Tweak.
Try turning map layers off to see if their absence degrades the map. If not – leave them off.
Try various colors for a plain map background to see what looks the nicest.
Perhaps reading this business mapping blog overwhelms you. If so, take heart. Working with business maps is fun and rewarding. Few big wigs will want to build compelling maps, so it’s an excellent way for you to enhance your value to the organization by creating business maps that add value to decision-mapping processes.
Typical USA White Male Corporate Big Wig
Remember, a business map is used to communicate business concepts visually. Could you keep it simple, focused, and relevant?
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.
On occasion, Map Business Online customers may develop a need to split a territory. A split might be necessary because of an excessive customer density within a small area – like a ZIP code. Too many customers in a focused area sometimes drive a need to divide a ZIP code or county customer list between one or more sales reps or clinicians. Splitting territory units occurs more commonly in urban areas where territories are based on ZIP codes or Census Tracts then in rural areas.
Another reason for splitting territories could be geography. A bridge, a mountain, a highway, or a river could turn a few close-by customers, as the crow flies, into an all-day affair due to driving patterns.
A third reason customers split territories is difficult for us to accept, but it still happens: Because they’ve always done it this way. At some point in the early 20th century, Grandpa Zaputa started building territories based on tree stumps and large boulders. “It’s how we’ve always done it.” Ah, OK. We’ll keep doing it Grandpa’s way.
Because territories in Map Business Online are usually based on a specific map alignment layer (like ZIP codes), the need to split a territory requires some creativity. Typically, business mapping users establish their territories on counties or ZIP codes. But territory alignment layer options include state, county, ZIP-5, ZIP-3, city limits, Census Tracts, and even school districts.
Specific Map Layer-Based Territories are Recommended
We highly recommend sticking with one-layer-based territories because this allows the full benefit of database management and analysis:
Demographic data is easily accessed and comprehensive.
Imported data layers are easily imported into the analysis.
Report generation and export is a one-button operation.
Still, some customers prefer to create territories that are split between map alignment layers; if that is your case, this is how you do it.
In Map Business Online, territories are based on one geography segment – not multiple geography segments. This means there are three alternative approaches to splitting territories we can discuss:
Change the base geographic alignment or map layer.
Create a region out of two or more territories (requires MapBusinessOnline Pro.)
Use draw tools to build the split territory.
Changing the Map Alignment Layer
This approach works for any territory alignment layer with a lower-tier option. For instance, if your territory base alignment layer is states, you can reconfigure that territory down to counties. If your territory is based on counties, you can reconfigure to ZIP codes. ZIP-3 codes would reconfigure to ZIP-5 codes. ZIP-5 codes could reconfigure into Census tracts. And so on. You can always jump from layer to lower layer – from State-based territories to Census Tract territories.
For example, a company aligns its territories with counties. They then decided they needed to split a county-based territory into one entire county and a half of another county. The ZIP code layer is turned on, and the original territory area would be queried for ZIP codes and resaved as a ZIP code territory. Holding down the shift key, the business map user could select as many ZIP codes as necessary in the second county area to complete the now county-split territory based on Zip codes.
If more granularity is required for the selected area, consider using Census Tracts as the geographic base of the new territory instead of ZIP codes. Census Tracts work well for inner-city coverage analysis.
A user could always use a polygon search tool to generate the overall territory boundary map object and then query the ZIP code layer from that polygon.
Remember when the new territory is created to delete the old one.
Create a Region out of Two or More Territories
This solution to the problem of split territories is achieved by creating a Region out of two or more territories. Using the same example as above, the map user would leave the original territory in place. Then they would create a new territory, covering the county section based on ZIP codes using a polygon tool, querying the ZIP codes, and naming the additional territory section. The new territory section would be saved as a territory name and in the territory layer.
Next, any MapBusinessOnline Pro user can use a polygon search tool to select the existing county-based territory and the new ZIP-code-based territory and name it a Region. The Map & Data box will display a region layer and a territory layer. In this territory map, Regions will indicate split territories across counties.
In the Region case, do not delete the old territory because that is used to build the region.
Move Away from Map Layer Based Territories and Create Drawn Map Object Territories
Finally, the map user always has the option of simply creating territories as drawn map objects, a shape on the map unconnected to a map layer. For this approach to territory creation, use the Map Business Online draw tools. The drawn circle, polygon, or free-form object will be labeled, and the color will be filled in. When you choose the path of drawn objects, you lose access to the Data Window’s More Data tool. You can still compile data associated with your drawn territory, but you’ll have to use the summary button.
The summary button is found in the Map Objects mini-toolbar. Click the sideways M on that toolbar and add your required imported data or demographic categories.
We highly recommend that map users stick with map layer territories for their obvious benefits:
A consistent geographic base map layer enables consistent analysis across all territories
By building territories on map layers Map Business Online’s More Data database tool is available for analysis and reporting
Building territories by ZIP codes, Counties, or other map layers access Map Business Online’s robust, comprehensive, and growing library of demographic data
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.
