Location-based advertising and marketing hones in on local readers and offers them something relevant to the area. Retail stores and restaurants have used this up-and-coming idea with strong results. And as with any other innovation, it’s always only a matter of time before someone figures out how to make it better.

Geo-location expands the reach of newspapers to a broader audience. This gives your advertisers more reasons to buy ad space, but it can also benefit your publication -even print copies.

Here are three ways geo-location can expand your reach and generate revenue:

QR Codes Help Your Advertisers

Location-based advertising isn’t trapped inside a fully digital world. Print-based news papers can lead your audience to where your advertisers want them to go. QR codes, those odd-looking square designs that resemble a bar code after way too much caffeine, are the avenue.

SEE ALSO: Augmented Reality Advertising for Publishers: Coolest Ad Format Ever?

PSFK says one coffee chain in Israel, Café Joe, has the right idea. The way it works is readers install a QR code reader on a mobile device, then scan the code in your newspaper. From there, the code reader routes users to the advertiser’s mobile app.

This is classic print-based advertising, good old fashioned revenue generation, re-imagined for a new age.

QR Codes Build Your Publication

Now think about QR codes another way. Instead of only benefiting your advertisers, these codes can also benefit your publication by bridging the gap between print and digital.

Naturally there are digital offerings that you can’t duplicate in a print copy, such as videos and libraries of images that supplement a story. When a reader turns the pages of your newspaper and finds a QR code, she can capture it with her smartphone and viola: She’s traveled from print to digital in a matter of seconds.

Cincinnati Brings Home the Bacon with Bacon

What’s pork got to do with geo-location? The Cincinnati Enquirer seems to know the answer.

Enquirer Media has developed a mobile app called Porkapplois. The name is a spin off Cincinnati’s moniker, Porkopolis, which evolved from its history as a place where pork products are produced. That’s a polite way of saying that Cincinnati has been known in the past as the slaughterhouse capital of the country. Fortunately, their mascot is a cuter, cartoon pig.

Porkapplois lets the Enquirer audience check in at local businesses to get stickers and build rankings, and other features similar to Foursquare. But this app is a bit more than that. Social Media Explorer says the monetization possibilities are huge. ”It’s a chance for local advertisers to serve relevant messages to a hip and trendy audience in an emerging platform, but one that is custom to their community.”

Media giant Gannet owns the Cincinnati Enquirer, so you know this isn’t something that’s going to stay quietly in Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area.

Location-based marketing and advertising is still in its elementary stages, and it’s only predicted to grow. Mobile devices are aptly named, since you can take them anywhere. As mobile catches up with, and presumably surpasses, desktop computers, it’s only natural for marketing to go along for the ride.