How BIDs can leverage smart location data for deeper insights.
In today’s urban landscape, business improvement districts (BIDs) play a critical role in enhancing the economic vitality and overall appeal of city and town centres. One of the most powerful tools available to BIDs is geolocation data from smartphones, which can offer valuable insights into visitor behaviour and movement. However, while smartphone data provides a solid foundation, it often falls short of delivering the full picture needed for strategic decision-making.
Nov 13, 2024
This is where PFM’s smart location data comes into play. By blending geolocation data with additional datasets, PFM offers a more comprehensive view of visitor behaviour and trends. This approach, which incorporates visitor insights into its analysis, ensures that BIDs have access to market-leading data that goes beyond surface-level information. Here’s how this powerful tool can help BIDs monitor, manage, and improve key aspects of the areas they cover:
1. Visitor counts
Accurate visitor counts are essential for understanding footfall and movement patterns in city and town centres. Using strategically placed monitoring points, PFM’s smart location data delivers highly accurate visitor counts, which serve as a reliable benchmark for other datasets. This enables BIDs to track footfall trends over time and identify peak periods, helping them make informed decisions about staffing, security, and event planning.
2. Visitor demographics
Geolocation data, when combined with demographic information, provides rich insights into the age, gender, and even interests of visitors. This demographic breakdown allows BIDs to tailor their marketing campaigns or plan events that cater to specific groups. For example, if the data reveals a high proportion of younger visitors, a BID could organise youth-focused events or partner with brands targeting this demographic to enhance engagement.
3. Customer origin
Understanding where visitors are coming from is critical for assessing the effectiveness of outreach and marketing efforts. By mapping visitor catchment areas, BIDs can gauge the reach of their campaigns and make adjustments as needed. Additionally, this data helps assess the success of tourism marketing initiatives, showing whether these campaigns are drawing in visitors from desired regions or countries.
4. Event effectiveness
Events are a key tool for BIDs to drive foot traffic and engagement. With smart location data, BIDs can monitor visitor flow in real-time during events, providing instant feedback on their success. This data also offers insights into which aspects of the event were most popular, informing future event planning. By comparing foot traffic before, during, and after an event, BIDs can measure its impact on the local economy and overall visitor engagement.
5. Space usage
Geolocation data can reveal underutilised areas within a city or town centre. By identifying these spaces, BIDs can develop strategies to activate them, whether through temporary installations, pop-up markets, or events that encourage more foot traffic. Activating these spaces not only enhances the vibrancy of the area but can also stimulate economic activity and create new opportunities for local businesses.
Unlocking strategic insights for BIDs
While traditional geolocation data offers valuable information, it often lacks the depth needed to fully understand visitor behaviour. PFM’s approach of blending geolocation data with additional visitor insights creates a more nuanced, actionable dataset—one that enables BIDs to make informed, strategic decisions about everything from event planning to space activation. With PFM’s smart location data, BIDs can unlock deeper insights, ensuring that they not only meet the needs of today’s visitors but also anticipate the trends of tomorrow.
This is where PFM’s smart location data comes into play. By blending geolocation data with additional datasets, PFM offers a more comprehensive view of visitor behaviour and trends. This approach, which incorporates visitor insights into its analysis, ensures that BIDs have access to market-leading data that goes beyond surface-level information. Here’s how this powerful tool can help BIDs monitor, manage, and improve key aspects of the areas they cover:
1. Visitor counts
Accurate visitor counts are essential for understanding footfall and movement patterns in city and town centres. Using strategically placed monitoring points, PFM’s smart location data delivers highly accurate visitor counts, which serve as a reliable benchmark for other datasets. This enables BIDs to track footfall trends over time and identify peak periods, helping them make informed decisions about staffing, security, and event planning.
2. Visitor demographics
Geolocation data, when combined with demographic information, provides rich insights into the age, gender, and even interests of visitors. This demographic breakdown allows BIDs to tailor their marketing campaigns or plan events that cater to specific groups. For example, if the data reveals a high proportion of younger visitors, a BID could organise youth-focused events or partner with brands targeting this demographic to enhance engagement.
3. Customer origin
Understanding where visitors are coming from is critical for assessing the effectiveness of outreach and marketing efforts. By mapping visitor catchment areas, BIDs can gauge the reach of their campaigns and make adjustments as needed. Additionally, this data helps assess the success of tourism marketing initiatives, showing whether these campaigns are drawing in visitors from desired regions or countries.
4. Event effectiveness
Events are a key tool for BIDs to drive foot traffic and engagement. With smart location data, BIDs can monitor visitor flow in real-time during events, providing instant feedback on their success. This data also offers insights into which aspects of the event were most popular, informing future event planning. By comparing foot traffic before, during, and after an event, BIDs can measure its impact on the local economy and overall visitor engagement.
5. Space usage
Geolocation data can reveal underutilised areas within a city or town centre. By identifying these spaces, BIDs can develop strategies to activate them, whether through temporary installations, pop-up markets, or events that encourage more foot traffic. Activating these spaces not only enhances the vibrancy of the area but can also stimulate economic activity and create new opportunities for local businesses.
Unlocking strategic insights for BIDs
While traditional geolocation data offers valuable information, it often lacks the depth needed to fully understand visitor behaviour. PFM’s approach of blending geolocation data with additional visitor insights creates a more nuanced, actionable dataset—one that enables BIDs to make informed, strategic decisions about everything from event planning to space activation. With PFM’s smart location data, BIDs can unlock deeper insights, ensuring that they not only meet the needs of today’s visitors but also anticipate the trends of tomorrow.
This is where PFM’s smart location data comes into play. By blending geolocation data with additional datasets, PFM offers a more comprehensive view of visitor behaviour and trends. This approach, which incorporates visitor insights into its analysis, ensures that BIDs have access to market-leading data that goes beyond surface-level information. Here’s how this powerful tool can help BIDs monitor, manage, and improve key aspects of the areas they cover:
1. Visitor counts
Accurate visitor counts are essential for understanding footfall and movement patterns in city and town centres. Using strategically placed monitoring points, PFM’s smart location data delivers highly accurate visitor counts, which serve as a reliable benchmark for other datasets. This enables BIDs to track footfall trends over time and identify peak periods, helping them make informed decisions about staffing, security, and event planning.
2. Visitor demographics
Geolocation data, when combined with demographic information, provides rich insights into the age, gender, and even interests of visitors. This demographic breakdown allows BIDs to tailor their marketing campaigns or plan events that cater to specific groups. For example, if the data reveals a high proportion of younger visitors, a BID could organise youth-focused events or partner with brands targeting this demographic to enhance engagement.
3. Customer origin
Understanding where visitors are coming from is critical for assessing the effectiveness of outreach and marketing efforts. By mapping visitor catchment areas, BIDs can gauge the reach of their campaigns and make adjustments as needed. Additionally, this data helps assess the success of tourism marketing initiatives, showing whether these campaigns are drawing in visitors from desired regions or countries.
4. Event effectiveness
Events are a key tool for BIDs to drive foot traffic and engagement. With smart location data, BIDs can monitor visitor flow in real-time during events, providing instant feedback on their success. This data also offers insights into which aspects of the event were most popular, informing future event planning. By comparing foot traffic before, during, and after an event, BIDs can measure its impact on the local economy and overall visitor engagement.
5. Space usage
Geolocation data can reveal underutilised areas within a city or town centre. By identifying these spaces, BIDs can develop strategies to activate them, whether through temporary installations, pop-up markets, or events that encourage more foot traffic. Activating these spaces not only enhances the vibrancy of the area but can also stimulate economic activity and create new opportunities for local businesses.
Unlocking strategic insights for BIDs
While traditional geolocation data offers valuable information, it often lacks the depth needed to fully understand visitor behaviour. PFM’s approach of blending geolocation data with additional visitor insights creates a more nuanced, actionable dataset—one that enables BIDs to make informed, strategic decisions about everything from event planning to space activation. With PFM’s smart location data, BIDs can unlock deeper insights, ensuring that they not only meet the needs of today’s visitors but also anticipate the trends of tomorrow.
