Recent changes to Google Latitude give new spark to marketing on the Android for small businesses. The big change is that now you can check in and let your friends know where you are while you’re there.
I performed a search for offers in the Minneapolis area and found 10 offers at over 70 locations. Businesses represented in the check-in offers include:
- Arby’s
- Radio Shack
- Quizno’s
- Great Clips
That may not look like much, but all of those are major chain stores. What if you were to make an Android-Latitude offer for your small business? Anyone searching for offers in the Minneapolis area (if you’re in Minneapolis) could find you easily on their Android Latitude app.
Or what if you were in Austin? You’d be competing only with offers for 60 places. In New York City, you’d be competing with 770 offers. That’s not bad.
I think the Google Latitude check-in offers service could grow more popular in the next year or two. Google seems to be paying a bit more attention to this local mobile marketing product, which it seemed to have abandoned as of last year.
If you are a local small business anywhere in the U.S., you’d be doing yourself and your customers a favor to at least look into using Google Latitude for the Android.
