How to Create a Competitor Map

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Geoffrey Ives

Recently we’ve had several customers ask how to build a competitor map. A competitor map is relatively easy to construct, as crucial as this business mapping exercise is. Before we make one, let’s explore why a competitor map is essential.

Your company is creating a strategy for growth. At least, it better be doing that. You must know all you can about the competition to do this effectively. Learning more about where the competition operates informs your decision-making processes.

Businesses tend to know who their competitors are. They try to keep tabs on competing companies, what competitors sell, how much they charge, and how a competitor advertises. A competitor map takes this fundamental analysis a step further.

By placing a competitor’s headquarters address on a map, you have defined the central operational location of that business. Whether your competitor sells products and services nationwide or just around town, their facility locations speak volumes about how and where they do business. A competitor location adds to your overall situational awareness:

  • A competitor map shows you where their target markets are.
  • A competitor map can hint at delivery times, shipping, and transportation costs.
  • A competitor map shows your competitor’s proximity to your best customers.
  • A competitor map, appended with demographic data, can describe competitor markets and labor pools.
  • Compared to a competitor’s locations on a map, your business locations on a map expose areas of opportunity and saturation.

Use business mapping software to create a competitor map. Include your business locations and customer address list, and add some demographic data to complete your analysis. Consider including sales territories only if that adds value to your decision-making process.

Apply MapBusinessOnline market analysis tools to your competitive analysis. Calculate customer potential, and analyze driving distances between store locations. Append demographic data and sales data to competitor datasets using MapBusinessOnline Pro.

Read More About MapBusinessOnline Pro

Lastly, any competitor map should include an import list of competitor locations. Such a map is now quickly done in MapBusinessOnline by accessing the Business Listings data (for a fee), which can provide competitor locations, sales and employee estimates, and branch locations.

How Do I Create a Competitor Map?

  1. Gather an address spreadsheet of your crucial competitor locations. Include branch locations as well as headquarters. Arrange location data into separate columns with headers for Name, Address, City, State, and ZIP code.
  2. On the MapBusinessOnline master toolbar, click the Datasets button under the Adding to Map section. Browse to your target data and select it. Verify location columns are accurately placed and adjust as necessary.
  3. Choose Company Name or a similar assignment for the name column. Assign columns of your choice to the five label flex field options that display with points on the map. Process the imported location points to the map.
  4. Color code imported points by clicking the Symbols button under the Color-Coding section.
  5. Repeat the above import process for additional address-based datasets – Your company’s critical locations, customer address datasets, and prospective customer address datasets.
  6. Color-code or symbolize various datasets for quick identification on the map. Append additional information to plotted point labels – like your imported business data.
  7. Add background demographic layers by administrative district (typically ZIP code.)
  8. Use the Business Listings Yellow Pages icon button on the master toolbar to access Business Listings by polygon or radius, NAICS or SIC code industry category, business name, city, state, or ZIP code.
  9. Share your competitor map with planning associates as required to secure feedback and ideas. Sharing options include interactive map sharing through MapBusinessOnline MapShare, static image files via email, or sharing maps through the MapBusinessOnline Map App. You can always share your business mapping via web share services like Join. Me or Microsoft Teams.

A Competitor Map Generated in MapBusinessOnline

Competitor maps help you understand your place in the market. They improve your situational awareness. Map views that include imported data layers extract patterns and expose trends in your business. Every business has its particular critical elements. Add them to the map if those elements have location components like address or lat/long coordinates.

Remember to share your competitor map with trusted associates. They may see things you don’t.

Now you are competing. Doesn’t that feel better?

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Discover 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 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 at geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson at jhenderson@spatialteq.com.

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How to Build a Dot Density Map

Posted on March 29, 2017 by Geoffrey Ives

A dot density map is a classic business data visualization exercise. Business data visualization is probably the most common and straightforward way to apply business mapping software to your business.

Many companies ask how to import and view customer data in a way that helps them understand more about their business. The dot density map is one of the easiest and most helpful maps for visualizing business data.


 Let’s take a for instance. A MapBusinessOnline user has an Excel Spreadsheet with thousands of customer names and addresses from which she would like to discern where most of their business takes place.


 Many companies have only a few hundred customers to locate. But it’s not unusual to run across customer datasets of five to fifty thousand customers, or even more for large enterprises. Without a business map, marketing managers are forced to filter their Excel spreadsheets to compile segmented customer lists for action. Spreadsheet lists do not display patterns the way maps do.


A business map ingests your customer lists and then distributes them across the coverage area of your business based on address. Map layers are turned on to enhance your customer list against a variety of background layers:

§  An accurate street map view lets you view significant roads, rivers, and mountain chains impacting customer access.

§  Satellite and aerial background views can add building views and landscape details like tree canopy.

§  A ZIP code layer allows your map analysis to compile customers by ZIP code or create territories.

§  Counties and states provide similar but larger area designations for coverages and territories.

§  ZIP, county, Census Tract & State layer enables the inclusion of demographic data, at times critical to understanding your market and developing an optimum customer type.

Regardless of which background map layers you choose to work with, a Density Map view offers an accurate visualization of where your company is doing business.

The Dot Density Map Solution

Import your address database of customers and apply a small dark symbol to all the customer locations. Tweak the size and color to your liking and sit back and view your dot density map.


 How to Create a Dot Density Map

1.       Gather an address database or Excel spreadsheet of your customer locations. Arrange separate columns with headers for location data: Name, Address, City, State, and ZIP code.

2.       In the Map Business Online master toolbar, click the Plot Data on Map button. Browse to your data and click next. Verify location columns accurately match the map applications address buckets and adjust as necessary. Click Next.

3.       Choose Company Name or a similar assignment for the name column. Assign columns of your choice to the five label flex field options. Process the imported location points to the map by clicking Plot.

4.       After importing, Map Business Online opens the Data Window with your imported data selected. In the Symbol Selector Drop Down located on the left of the Data Window toolbar, choose a small black dot for your location point on the map. Increase its size to 80% – more or less to your liking

5.       Sit back and view your customer data on a USA, Canada, or UK base map and think about the results.

Viewing a dot density map exposes areas of concentration – data dots build up in some spots and don’t exist in others. Typically, these areas of concentration are populated, urban areas. But that really depends on your data. In your particular case, data may be concentrated in rural areas – dairy farms, deer fields, and snowmobile repair businesses may tend toward rural placement.

View your data with an open mind and an eye for patterns. Business maps are trying to tell you something.

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Discover 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 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 at geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson at jhenderson@spatialteq.com.

 

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Understanding Business Data Visualization | MapBusinessOnline

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Geoffrey Ives

Using Drive Time Visualizations

Understanding Business Data Visualization — and Getting It Working for You

Business data visualization is a term that’s thrown around a lot, particularly with the advent of cloud-based mapping software. Unsurprisingly, there tends to be a lot of confusion surrounding what data visualization is and what it can do.

In this post, we’ll define business data and how it’s visualized and provide real-world examples of this powerful tool in action. You can also get in touch with MapBusinessOnline directly to learn more about our easy-to-use visualization software and request a free trial.

What Is Business Data?

Business data is a broad term covering all quantifiable information related to running a business. This can include everything from sales data to traffic patterns in your neighborhood — in short, any facts or statistics that help explain who your customers are and how they are using your services.

What Is Business Data Visualization?

Business data visualization is a tool for making sense of the information gathered in the course of doing business. Charts, graphs and infographics are basic examples of business data visualization. However, the term also refers to more advanced mapping software, which allows users to plot data in a geographic context and gain useful insights about their customers, resources, and community.

Learn More About Map Visualizations

Business Data in Action

Every business collects data. Most businesses collect data that includes location components like an address or a ZIP code. Typically, these business datasets are customer address databases, order records, field assets or prospective customer lists. Because these datasets have location information, they can be easily visualized against a business map.

Why Is It Useful to Visualize Business Data?

Business data visualizations communicate information and expand awareness of our business environment. Instead of simply reading a customer name and address on a list, the business manager visualizes her customer in space and time. Business visualizations place symbolized points at every data location on an accurate map of the business area. Supplemental business data can be added to the visualization – demographic data, imported sales history, energy costs, traffic data, resource availability, and even business listings. Almost any pertinent type of business data can be added to a data visualization to enhance the overall visualization and improve awareness.

Ultimately, business data visualization is important because it gives business owners a new way of looking at information. As many know, it’s easy to get overwhelmed when looking at plain facts and figures. Visualization takes raw information and makes it more accessible, giving you a way of spotting trends and gaining other insights you may not have been able to see by reviewing a spreadsheet. Once transformed into a map visualization, it’s easy to leverage location intelligence into more effective strategic planning.

Competitive Visualizations

Given the benefits of data visualizations, it’s easy to see why they are becoming standard tools for sales and marketing departments across all industries. The advent of cloud software services has provided an affordable, easy-to-access platform for business mapping software services. Business people from the ground floor to the C-Suite, at all levels of technical expertise, access data visualizations to learn more about their businesses.

If your business is not using data visualizations, you might want to suggest that they consider it. It is extremely likely your competitors are. In fact, a competitor map is one of the most popular data visualizations applied. It only makes sense to augment views of your own business coverage areas to include data points related to your competition. You can bet Walmart, Costco and Target do it.

Powerful Visualizations

Because I’ve been in the business for years, I have many examples of powerful data visualizations. A favorite example occurred within a city police department in New England city. A rash of car windshield smashing broke out across the city. Someone or some group was smashing windshields with a hammer or bat, night after night. The perpetrator was careful to avoid cameras. No witnesses could be found. Finally, at a police team meeting, somebody suggested they view the incidents against a map of the city. This was easily done and they shared a visualization of all the crime scene locations.

Next someone suggested they import a list of all the windshield repair businesses in the area.  This was quickly done and (pause for effect), light dawned on Marblehead. (Marblehead was not the city.)

The map clearly displayed one repair business was located smack dab in the center of all those crime spots. A little more investigation and both the perpetrator and his scarred baseball bat were found at the suspect business. Case solved. Business shut down.

A Dot Density Map Visualization

Retail businesses depend on customer traffic. One of the ways they begin to understand their customer base is by asking for customer address data. Customer data is then imported into a retail demographic map and reviewed. One of the elements easily visualized on a business map is, in general, how far away customers live from a store location. By reviewing the density of dots on the business map and applying a drive time polygon query, the retail business can determine how far customers are willing to drive to buy products at their store. This has implications for marketing campaigns. For instance, a manager would limit the addresses that receive expensive direct mail pieces to close-by ZIP codes, perhaps sending post cards to potential customer living outside the drive time comfort zone.

New store locations will also take drive time comfort into consideration. Additional demographic layers describing income levels, population by age groups, and other Census based information will help determine an optimal store placement.

Expanded Visualizations

Visualizations of imported business data are often color-coded and symbolized to represent varying aspects of the data overlaid on the map. By classifying data visualizations, critical elements of the data can be understood at a glance.

A map view might display a daily list of patient address locations – classification of those addresses by patient diagnosis as six or eight different colors, each one representing a primary medical condition. Symbols or shapes can be assigned to mean something else – still using our patient example, a circle might indicate a new referral, a square represents a hospice patience, and a triangle represents an admitted patient on monitor only.

Labels associated with imported data can be utilized to communicate information. Data visualizations may represent more complex business concepts then color-shading and symbolizing can communicate. But by supplementing data points with appended labels, key reference elements can be included in the map visualization.

For example, field assets monitored by an industrial manufacturing technical team are displayed on a map as color-shaded points. The color reflects the inspection status – Green for inspected in the last 90 days, and Red for requires inspection in the next 30 days. Additional labeling can add more pertinent information like:

  • Previous inspection rating
  • Last inspection technician
  • Serial number
  • Date of last inspection

Data visualizations are valuable for any industries in some form. MapBusinessOnline provides an affordable geographic-based, data visualization solution that is easily shared with a variety of non-subscribing users and constituents.

Now, your job is to find the next critical data set that needs to be shared in a map visualization format. Chances are you’ll be solving a problem that’s been festering for years. High-fives all around.

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MapBusinessOnline access has officially transitioned from Web Browser (Adobe Flash Player) access to the Map App download access.

  • Please 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. 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.

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.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or g2crowd

Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com

 

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Dow Jones Chooses Map Business Online for Delivery Operations Team Business Mapping

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Geoffrey Ives

CORNISH, ME (March 22, 2017) — SpatialTEQ Inc., publisher of North America’s leading business mapping software, today announced that Dow Jones has chosen www.MapBusinessOnline.com as their preferred business mapping software supporting their delivery operations. Dow Jones manages a large portfolio of newspapers and magazines including the Wall Street Journal.

Map Business Online is a cloud hosted business mapping software used by large enterprises and small businesses to support sales, marketing, and operational planning.

Dow Jones required an affordable, easy-to-use business mapping solution to replace Microsoft MapPoint. Map Business Online provides fast and easy imports of location-based customer and routing data sets, optimized route planning, and business territory map creation. Compelling map visualizations are critical to internal communications within the Dow Jones Company. “We pride ourselves at offering cutting edge applications to our millions of readers and subscribers worldwide. We love that Map Business Online helps us stay ahead of the technology curve by continuing to update their product and features,” said Andy McCallihan, Senior Circulation Operations and Systems Manager at Dow Jones.

While Map Business Online is a web-based service, Dow Jones enjoys using the Map Business Online Desktop version which avoids web browser software, offering a more map focused user interface. Dow Jones and other large enterprise businesses use Map Business Online for its security focused, cloud based software advantages like data encryption, automatic software updates, and the most up-to-date base map options.

Routing with Time Windows

In addition to operational planning, Dow Jones uses the software for territory mapping. As a former Microsoft MapPoint account (MapPoint was canceled in December 2014), Dow Jones was relieved to discover Map Business Online, “After searching and trying other mapping programs… and finding that we just couldn’t get all the features that we required. We’ve tried the rest, now we are using the best.”

About Map Business Online                                                                          

From the creators of BusinessMAP, www.MapBusinessOnline.com has been providing sales & marketing professionals with affordable and intuitive web-based business mapping software, for Mac and PC users, since 2010. Design, edit, and share maps that reflect your business. Create and manage sales territories that drive accountability into your sales force. Replace discontinued Microsoft MapPoint with MapBusinessOnline. Access optimized multi-stop routes to drive down travel costs. No other map software solves so much for such a limited investment.

Contact: Geoffrey Ives     geoffives@spatialteq.com  (800) 425-9035, (207) 939-6866

About Dow Jones
Dow Jones is a global provider of news and business information, delivering content to consumers and organizations around the world across multiple formats, including print, digital, mobile and live events. Dow Jones has produced unrivaled quality content for more than 130 years and today has one of the world’s largest newsgathering operations globally. It produces leading publications and products including the flagship Wall Street Journal, America’s largest newspaper by paid circulation; Factiva, Barron’s, MarketWatch, Financial News, DJX, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, Dow Jones Newswires, and Dow Jones VentureSource. Dow Jones is a division of News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV).

 

 

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How to Create a Heat map

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Geoffrey Ives

A heat map is a map centric representation of numeric data, that displays the relative intensity of the selected data in color shadings.

Heat maps are used to show increasing or decreasing intensity in location data. Sales activity can be depicted through heat mapping. Sales managers can easily share information about where sales are occurring and growing by showing the data as a heat map.  Crime statistics are sometimes displayed as a heat map. Law enforcement maps often show statistical crime data in the form of a heat map. Heat maps tend to transform relatively boring numeric data into colorful maps inspiring map viewers to act.

I think heat maps communicate quickly because they look like weather maps depicting violent thunderstorms. Heat maps tend to wake up an audience.

Some map users call color coded ZIP code maps heat maps. In Map Business Online, while we do color shade ZIP codes based on data intensity, we do not call those heat maps. Those are simply color coded ZIP codes maps. When we color shade imported location data points to show data intensity we call it a heat map.  Heat maps are based on numeric data columns in imported user data.

How to Create a Heat Map

  1. Make sure your data records have at least two columns. One columns for location and a second column with numeric data describing your subject
  2. Import your location or address based dataset into Map Business Online
  3. Click the Heat Map Button on the Master Toolbar
  4. Select your target data set and make sure the correct numeric data column is selected
  5. Choose an appropriate color scheme and an intensity setting from the options provided
  6. Process your heat map

Map Business Online heat maps can be quickly and easily adjusted.  Simply scroll back through the above noted process and adjust color schemes or intensity to optimize your map view and maximize the effectiveness of your heat map.

Heat Maps Tell a Story

A heat map uses color intensity to describe relative differences between data at specific locations on the map. A series of heat maps describing the same locations with data collected over time will tell a story of how the subject matter intensity changes over the passage of time.

Use heat maps to describe your most important business activity. Just remember, the data must be numeric so business examples that translate well for heat map visualizations include:

  • Sales activity by account
  • The number of customers over a general area – customer quantity will aggregate into the heat map display by density
  • The number of service calls by address
  • The record of deliveries made to an address
  • The number crimes occurring by lat/long location to show hot spots for specific types of crime – a heat map for arson, a heat map for robbery, etc.

Retail Heat Map

Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com

Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035

MapPoint users – please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or at the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

Map-Based Market Intelligence from Map Business Online.

Posted in Business Mapping Software blog post, How to instruction, Sales and marketing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Market Analysis Tool in Combination with Other Functions

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Geoffrey Ives

Map Business Online includes a Market Analysis button.  Market Analysis is only available to annual subscribers – which includes team subscribers. That’s because Market Analysis is for serious business mapping software users. Use the Map Business Online Market Analysis tool to solve problems, which may or may not be actual considered classic market analysis.

This is the button: There are five options in Market Analysis. They are:

·         Search Data around a plotted list of multiple locations and draw circles around up to 200 points

·         Find the Nearest store – lets you compare two data sets and find distances between points

·         Calculate Number of “Customers” within a specific distance of a “Store”

·         Summarize demographic data for multiple locations

·         Add names from a map layer to a dataset you’ve created

In the Market Analysis tool, we define a Store to be any facility that the user wants to use as a central point for searching data. In your case a “store” could be a hospital, a police station, a home address or even an actual store location.  Likewise, Customers could be patients, crime locations, delivery points or a customer map list.

Market Analysis is a set of tools that become much more powerful when used in conjunction with other tools available in Map Business Online. Your problem may require more than just business map visualizations. Here’s a partial list of general Map Business Online functions that can be used in conjunction with other tools to solve problems:

·         Conduct a search or filter operation to generate a subset marketing list of your data. Now use that same subset list in Market Analysis as an imported layer for analysis

·         Combine demographic layers using Calculated Data Columns. You can combine like demographic layers of age groups or income groups and even apply multiply and divide functions to create ratios like Number of Seniors/General Population. Then you can analyze a set of zip codes and apply your demographic calculation. Export these results out of Map Business Online and reimport for further calculations or for use in Market Analysis

·         Generate routes in the Map Business Online routing tool and export route stop lists for use in further analysis. Exported optimized route stops in GPX format will contain Latitude Longitude coordinates. These can be useful in other applications.

Customers often call us with advanced business mapping requirements. It’s one of the things I love about selling business mapping software, customers are so creative. Market Analysis maybe part of the solution to your mapping challenges.  Think of market analysis as a way to:

·         Draw radius search circles around multiple (up to 200) location points at one time. Each circle will be searchable and will include the usual color, border and transparency options. Think – search a 20 mile radius around 150 store locations. Append the results to existing datasets. Resulting data will be exportable

·         Append distance data between multiple points to existing datasets. Think – What is the crow flies distance between all points in dataset one and all points in data set two. Resulting data will be exportable

·         Gather up to three demographic layers for all points in a dataset in one pass. Think – I have a list of ZIP codes, what is the population, avg HH income, and avg HH’s in each ZIP code? Great for assigning critical demographic data to multiple points

·         Add ZIP code, state or country labels to your imported data layers. Think – I have a list of customer addresses but I need the county label included too. Run the query, export the list.

By combining functions within Map Business Online the tool becomes more powerful than MapPoint ever was. We touched on Market Analysis, Calculated Data Columns and exporting Route files, but there are many more tools you can bring to bare in Map Business Online:

Data Window data filtering – Use modifiers to create data queries. See previous blog

Data Window copy & paste – Adjust the tabular data window view to create new exportable data sets

Apply basic Spatial Searches using polygon, radius or drive time search tools

I could go on but social media rules tell me it’s time to close because you will be following some other click bait by now.  My point – combine tools in Map Business Online to solve your problems.

Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com

Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035

MapPoint users – please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or at the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

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Filter Your Map View

Posted on February 22, 2017 by Geoffrey Ives

Maps can get complicated. Good map makers should always seek to avoid map clutter.  Even so, your business map analysis may require several layers of imported business data along with demographic layers and territories.  Things can get busy.

Map Business Online includes a check box in the upper left-hand corner of the Data Window that lets the map viewer focus on a specific aspect of your map. Use the Filter Data on The Map Check Box to focus your map view on a specific territory or data set segment.

View Radius Search Results

If, for instance, you’ve imported a dataset of one thousand field asset records and you want to see only the hundred or so records located within a 25-mile radius of an address you can do that.

  1. Key in the Address Location you have in mind, into the Address Bar (upper left)
  2. On the mini-toolbar associated with your plotted address click the Radius Search button
  3. Choose a 25-mile radius and build your circle
  4. Choose the dataset you’d like to search (Map Business Online searches one dataset at a time)
  5. Save your search results – the Data Window will open with the datasheet view of your results
  6. In the Upper Left corner of the Data Window check on the Filter Data on the Map function

Always remember to uncheck the Filter box when done viewing.

Isolate a Single Territory

One of Map Business Online’s more popular features is sales territory mapping. Territory maps come in all shapes and sizes.  Some have just a few state-based territories. That’s easy to view. Others may support territory schemes that use hundreds of ZIP codes for each territory.  Occasionally there’s a desire to view only one territory. No problem.

 

  1. Select the Territory layer in the Data Window
  2. In the Search Data window type or paste in the Territory title exactly as it is written. Then click the Binocular icon to the right of the search box
  3. Now you see just that isolated territory in the Data Window. Above the Territory Name check the Filter data on Map button

A shared map of this map view will show exactly this result. Any shared data however is available to the map viewer on a nationwide scope, unlimited by the filter.

These filtered views come in handy for an in-depth discussion on territory results, for discussing account management changes, or for understanding service challenges associated with specific field assets.

Filtered Map View

Data Windowing Filtering

In our first example, we segmented your business data geographically – by radius search. There are many ways to do this in Map Business Online – with a polygon search, a drive time search, or a free form search. But you can also search your data using Filtering Tools in the Data Window view.  There are several approaches to data filtering:

  • Search the left-hand column of your data – You’ll use the blank white space in the middle of the Data Window toolbar. Enter your search item and click the Binoculars. Results will display.
  • Search using the Filter or Funnel button. This opens a dialogue that requires thought on your part but will let you filter by virtually any column in your data, or in Map Business Online’s included demographic data. You’ve got modifiers to apply too like > (greater than), < (less than), or = (equal to). You can query to see if the data contains a set of letters. You can run multiple queries at once. Results will display.

Once you get those filter results to display in the Data Window you can check the Filter Data on the Map box and view only that data.  You can also copy the data for pasting outside the application – see the Copy Button in the lower right.

Filter Shared Maps Too

As you may or may not realize, Map Business Online allows all subscribers to share their maps with constituents at no cost, up to 100 web sessions per month. Beyond that level, there is a modest fee. These shared “view only” maps do not allow your constituent viewers to edit the maps – but they can filter the map view!

Your MapShare viewers have access to the Data Window just like you do. And that Data Window function in the shared map allows them to filter the data you’ve shared and create subsets data sets – and Filter the Data on the Map.

They are not able to filter the territory view, so you’ll need to share maps saved with filtered territory views if that is required for your workflow.

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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 at geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson at jhenderson@spatialteq.com

Posted in Business Mapping Software blog post, How to instruction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What Conclusions Can You Draw From Business Mapping?

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Geoffrey Ives

We talk a lot about how to set up sales territory maps, customer visualizations and market analysis maps, but we haven’t dwelled long enough on the conclusions a user might draw from their specific map analysis. The short answer is many. A lot depends upon what your business is all about.

Sales Conclusions

A common application of Map Business Online and business mapping is supporting sales operations. These sales maps are going to include imported sales records by customer or by ZIP code largely to view where sales are occurring. By setting up such a sales map and including relevant Demographic data to augment your analysis, the map viewer will begin to conclude certain facts about their sales coverage area:

  • Sales occur in certain areas and do not occur in other areas. A basic realization about where sales occur and where they do not occur has immediate implications for any sales team:
  • Where more selling effort must be expended due to lack of sales
  • An understanding of why sales occur in key areas
  • Why and how workloads should be balanced

Adding multiple layers of demographic information can be useful for further conclusions such as establishing a ZIP code or County profile for a  successful sales area.  A best ZIP code profile will help identity the most fertile zones for potential new business in other parts of the nation.  The business map indicates where sales occur, the demographic layer will help identify why sales occur.

Include a data layer that depicts sales coverage, either by sales rep home addresses or by creating accurate sales territories.  By depicting coverage businesses can identify sales approaches that work. This analysis can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be. If your business sells a B2B manufactured product by outside sales rep, through face-to-face visits, then a map of sales rep locations and coverage areas may tell all. Consumer product sales, on the other hand, can be related to a variety of factors including specific climate, local ethnicities,  even extremely local factors like the number of hunting licenses issued each year per county. Through the application of business mapping analysis organizations learn what works across their coverage areas.

We’ve seen sales organizations in insurance, chemical manufacturing, paper production, ATM machines, and private education all benefit from the conclusions they’ve drawn from business mapping analysis. The list goes on.

Marketing to Test Results

Conclusions drawn from marketing analysis maps might include marketing campaign segmentation results. A new list of prospects, being tested in a specific area, can be compared to other sections of the country based on demographic makeup. Tests might be conducted through direct mail campaigns to densely populated counties in three western states. Tested counties can be examined and profiled based on:

  • Age breakdowns in population make-up
  • Income brackets as a percentage of the total population
  • Consumer expenditure levels for specific types of purchases across counties or zip codes

An analysis may reveal surprising results connecting demographic patterns with ad response patterns. Based on this data, direct mail investments can be tailored towards specific populations or certain geographic areas, linking anticipated consumer reactions to campaign spending allowances.  Thus, test results can help inform decisions around direct mail activity, increasing sales while minimizing campaign costs.

Our business mapping services have informed marketing decisions at companies in subscription management, bill board marketing, national sports network television advertising, healthcare marketing, dentistry and steel equipment manufacturing. You name it.

Operational Conclusions Improve Productivity

Operational Conclusions

Business and non-profit operations in general could stand some map analysis too. It’s not always about sales and marketing. Operational conclusions can improve productivity informing decisions around managed growth.

Operational map visualizations could apply to donor solicitation, field machine repair, or even landscaping decisions.  Business maps provide assessments of how you conduct business today and how it might be conducted better next year.

A map outlining all work locations by address, date, and start/finish time establishes a baseline of how jobs are handled over a specific period. By considering actual job locations and their proximity to assigned worker home locations, a manger can begin to consider operational perspectives that might include:

  • Color-coded job location points based on job type, average job times, or average job costs
  • Commute time to job locations and how this can impact worker satisfaction
  • Better workload balancing
  • Customer satisfaction surveys

Conclusions from operational analysis will inform decisions around business expansion, business mergers, or seasonal hiring.  Today the federal government is making decisions that may impact certain business’ ability to staff for seasonal requirements.  A business map can help your business get organized, to visualize where your next seasonal help shift might come from based on population concentrations.

Use business maps to answer your business questions. It’s another arrow in your quiver as you and your business move into an always uncertain future.

Map Business Online – Easy, affordable, advanced and we’ll help.

Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com

Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035

MapPoint users – please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or at the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

 

 

 

 

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How Do I Create A Territory Map?

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Geoffrey Ives

A territory map is a geographic shape defining an area of responsibility. Using territory mapping software, like MapBusinessOnline, a territory alignment map are created by lasso selecting or compiling an importable list of geographic districts, usually ZIP codes, counties, or states. These map alignment layers are included with MapBusinessOnline mapping software.

The mapping software allows you to collect a group of ZIP codes with a mouse cursor or import a spreadsheet of preassigned ZIP codes associated with a column of territory names. Territory maps in business mapping software include a map visualization and a data sheet or analysis view.

A Territory Map with Analysis View

Territory mapping is one of business mapping software’s most popular use cases. Territory maps, done correctly, provide a platform for shared sales objectives and shared results, potentially driving growth. With MapBusinessOnline, it’s easy to map sales territories.

All industries apply sales territory mapping. Sales and marketing application examples abound for our territory mapping software. These sales and marketing applications include:

  • Franchise territory development.
  • Manufacturing sales territories.
  • Car dealership territories.
  • Insurance company customer maps, claims maps, and insurance agent territories.
  • Healthcare mobile staff territory management.
  • Expansion planning maps.
  • Market analysis maps.

To name just a few.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Create a ZIP Code Territory map

The steps to building a ZIP code territory map, the most popular territory map alignment, using MapBusinessOnline are:

  1. Turn on the ZIP code map layer in Map and Data.
  2. Create a spreadsheet with district column(s) and a territory name column – import that list using the Territories button under the Adding to Map section of the Master Toolbar or,
  3. Using a polygon search tool, lasso a group of ZIP codes and name each territory.
  4. Adjust the territories as required, adding or removing ZIP codes by selecting them with your mouse cursor and Editing as necessary.
  5. Manipulate the territory analysis view in the Data Window to match your analysis requirements using the powerful Change Columns button.

MapBusinessOnline, an affordable and easy-to-learn cloud-based business mapping option, makes sales territory mapping easy, compelling, and fun. Armed with no more than a laptop and a mouse, new users access www.MapBusinessOnline.com, sign up for the FREE trial, and start creating sales territories using their preferred map alignment layers.

Business map users most often apply ZIP codes to online territory mapping. For local and regional businesses, ZIP codes provide manageable areas of accountability which can be assigned to traveling clinicians, technicians, field agents, or salespeople. ZIP Codes also serve as convenient map administrative units that a layperson intuitively understands.

Additional Options

Sales organizations might also build territories based on county or state geographies. If your business is super local, perhaps located deep in a metropolitan area, you may consider Census Tracts your best territory base layer. Census Tracts are wicked small, especially in high-population areas. I’ve seen home-care orgs use Census tracts to monitor clinician territories, which require a lot of subway travel in metro areas, complicating life in general.

MapBusinessOnline also includes MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas), a Census Bureau designation. These are city-focused marketing areas, similar to Nielsen’s DMA’s (which are cost-prohibitive to license, unfortunately.)

MapBusinessOnline also includes City Limits which can be applied to sales territory mapping, which is great if your business is strictly city or town based. The Music Man would have used City limits to track the towns and cities he conned, especially if he franchised the biz. “We’ve got trouble…”

The Free Form Option

Sometimes companies want to avoid district-based territories altogether in favor of free-form territories. These approaches use highways, mountains, and rivers as territory boundaries. Free-form territories can be achieved in MapBusinessOnline by using draw tools to highlight areas manually. Read more about free-form territories here.

Territory Analysis

Territory maps generated using business mapping software include data analysis views that combine disparate data layers into a detailed assessment of a territory’s underlying business DNA. You’ll be able to add population, income, and ethnicity layers (to name a few) while appending your own imported business data.

Territory data analysis assigns measurable data results to business processes. In this way, whether your map is for sales, healthcare, or field services, territory maps drive accountability. Shared territory maps help a sales rep understand their goals or a clinician’s limit for new referrals in a week.

Drive time searches could also generate territory polygons. Import a list of home addresses for your sales representatives. Conduct a drive time search from each home location, searching 60 minutes in all directions. This drive time query will establish a jagged polygon representing a drive time of one hour along every possible road connection. Next, use this polygon to select your ZIP codes list for territory creation. Now your salespeople understand how proximity to their home relates to their territory size. This approach is perfect for controlling travel expenses and minimizing sales overlap.

Your company could also compile preassigned lists of ZIP codes, counties, states, and even Census tracts, with a corresponding territory naming column, and directly import such a data sheet into the map to create color-shaded territories automatically. Even ex-Microsoft MapPoint users can convert their territories to new business mapping software by exporting to Excel and importing it into their new software. Be sure to download the MapBusinessOnline Map App, which includes a MapPoint map project converter tool and a free Map Viewer App for non-subscriber map sharing.

Once created and imported, territory maps can be easily adjusted. After all, nothing stays the same for long. Maintenance is as easy as a mouse click. You can click on ZIP codes, counties, state, or Census tracts and add or subtract them from the target territory.

Millions of organizations apply territory mapping software to define areas of responsibility and measure progress against goals and objectives. Territories help to organize business processes for industrial sales, healthcare, field services, retail services, marketing agencies, and subscription managers – to name just a few types of businesses that use territory mapping.

Business mapping software, supporting territory alignment, is so affordable and quickly applied today that companies without sales territories often go quietly out of business, never realizing what went wrong. Don’t be that company.

Here are some additional blog articles on Territory Mapping:

6 Easy Ways to Create Territories in MapBusinessOnline

How to Configure Drive Time-Based Territories

How to Define Your Territories by County, State, or ZIP Code

How Do I Edit MapBusinessOnline Maps

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Discover 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 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 at geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson at jhenderson@spatialteq.com.

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Make A Point Zip Code Territory Map

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Geoffrey Ives

Last week, as some of our newsletter readers know,  I presented Map Business Online’s first online Webinar. The webinar is included above. The subject was using ZIP Codes in business mapping. It was my first online webinar presentation.

Prior to scheduling, we reviewed a whole bunch of webinar software options and selected one we thought would be the best at managing the entire online webinar process. We chose WebinarJam.

Oh No! I Forgot My Password

As the content creator, presenter and webinar scheduler, I must say there is an awful lot of technology to get your arms around.  To put together and present our webinar I tapped into all these applications: Adsense, Constant Contact, Firefox, Chrome, Map Business Online, Microsoft Power Point, Excel, Word, WebinarJam, and YouTube. I also used my phone to check the time while presenting. For any webinar, you will use video recorders, chat windows, registration lists, email servers, web browsers, and a variety of saved file types. Don’t forget your passwords boys and girls. (Ugh.)

Imagine trying to explain what we do for work today, using the Internet, to our grandparents. Try it using this phone Quija app.  It is amazing to me just how much technology we apply to get work done every day. Of course, I still use a pad of paper, a Ticonderoga pencil and a wooden desk, just like my Bampa did. Got a metal file cabinet too. But somehow I think the old man would be stunned and fascinated to see what takes place in the modern office. That would be after he catches up on all the Titanic news since 1984.

Point ZIP Codes

My Webinar focused on managing ZIP Codes with an emphasis on the types of ZIP Codes. The Postal Service has two types of ZIP Codes – Boundary and Point ZIP Codes. We’ve talked about this before.

In Map Business, Online ZIP Code based territories are constructed upon boundaried ZIP Codes. That covers about 35,708 ZIP Codes around the nation. The other 5,747 are point ZIP Codes. If you import an address with a point ZIP Code Map Business Online will recognize it and place it correctly on the map.  The challenge is that because Map Business Online territories are boundary based.  The territory database list does not include any point ZIP Codes within the territory area. In other words, when a user exports the ZIP Code list for Territory X it only includes boundary ZIP Codes. Some users will expect both types to show up.

You can remedy this issue by importing Map Business Online’s Public Data for USPS ZIP Codes 2016 (Oct).  This complete dataset of all USPS ZIP Codes is accessed by using the Import Data Process and choosing the lower option labeled “Select Data You’ve Already Uploaded.”  Choose the Public Data options and select your ZIPs. This will place point data for all USPS ZIP Code types (boundary and point) on the map.

Search Inside a Sales Territory

Now, in the Data Window, you can select that dataset and query by the Yellow Puzzle Piece Button on the Data Window tool bar. That’s the Search Data Inside a Territory button. This will allow you to save a list of all point and boundary ZIP Codes associated with that territory. You can export that list.

Because that USPS ZIP Code list is big, it can take up a whole bunch of your geocoding allocation of 100,000 points per each Map Business Online map. So, before you import all those ZIP Code points, I suggest you consider creating a new map using your established territory layer.  Just do a Save As under a new Map Name. This new map will be your territory alignment research map. After creating and saving it, remove superfluous data if you have any.  Import that Postal Dataset as noted above and use this map to generate ZIP Code lists by territory. I remind users all the time – you do not have to solve all problems with one map.

This works well if you have internal processes that require a full list of supported zip codes upfront. Perhaps for your accounting department?  They have to generate commission checks and using an all zip codes query by territory may assist in their basic analysis of sales records for the month. You want to get paid right?

Please take a look at the webinar. Let us know if you have questions or suggestions for more webinar subjects. How about, “Setting Up Cool Passwords You’ll Never Forget – Moving Beyond QWERTY or your cat’s name.”

Map Business Online – Easy, affordable, advanced and we’ll help.

Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com

Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035

MapPoint users – please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or at the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

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