Geofencing isn’t as scary or difficult to implement into marketing campaigns once you get the hang of it. It’s a great way to target and engage your customers in real life, creating more opportunities for them to see what you have on offer!
Simply put, geofencing allows you to create virtual boundaries around your business location and trigger actions when people enter or leave them using technology that is readily available on most smartphones today. Furthermore, geofence marketing doesn’t have to be an expensive investment – even if this isn’t something you’ve dabbled with before!
If this is a new technology that sounds expensive with lots of experience needed – don’t worry! Once we break down geofencing concepts for marketers who are just getting started, I promise it will be a lot less intimidating. Ready? Let’s go over everything there is about this type of location-based digital targeting so that next time someone asks if they should use it in their campaign…you can answer definitively: YES!!
Here’s what geofencing means, why retailers love it and what resources are needed to use it to high effect for your business.
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What is Geofencing?
With this technology, businesses can create virtual fences around their store and attract potential customers with an incentive when they enter these areas. This is great news if you’re looking for ways to market yourself on a smaller scale or independently from larger companies that have more resources at hand than other small business owners like yourself.
Geofencing is an immensely powerful marketing tool. It can make a big difference in how potential customers are reached, so here’s some compelling data to consider:
- A study by Forrester found that 71% of users who saw geo-targeted ads were more likely to complete purchases than those who did not.
- Another survey conducted on behalf of location company PlaceIQ revealed that 85% of marketers planned to increase their geolocation ad budgets over the next 12 months because it had been shown time and again as being effective at driving return on investment (ROI).
- About 80% of shoppers have stated they are more than happy to receive location-based messages, with over 50% of them visiting the actual store as a result.
- Over 70% of individuals who open the notification will then follow through with a purchase if the notification included a CTA.
Geofencing is a great marketing strategy because it can help you capture shoppers both in-stores and online. For example, the last statistic shows that even if someone doesn’t visit your store they might make a purchase later!
Brick-and-mortar stores lost business due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, shoppers visited physical locations less frequently compared with the previous year. Online shopping became a more viable option as it was not as difficult or risky for some people who lived outside urban areas affected by the virus. You can use this information and geofence your customers from previous years so they get an email corresponding to their location when you make relevant deals like promotions available on certain days.
Geofencing Examples
Geofencing started off as just being used by large businesses but has since grown in popularity with mid-sized organizations too. Big brands like Apple, PepsiCo., Target Corp., Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc.. have all successfully incorporated this strategy into their business model which means it must be effective! Below is a look at some of the best examples of using geofencing effectively.
Sephora Cosmetics
When customers with the app enter a Sephora store, they receive a notification asking if they want to use “store companions.” These assistants offer information about past purchases, recommended products, limited-time offers and local events that are happening in their stores.
Dunkin’ Donuts / Starbucks
People with their apps will receive a notification letting them know how close they are and offering them discounts on their favorite drinks when they come within specified distances of one another. This option combines geofencing, which tracks specific locations, along with personalization to great effect.
Burger King
Consumer loyalty is important for companies, and Burger King found a way around any competition issues by sending an in-app notification telling them to go over to the nearest McDonald’s location; since it would be much cheaper there! However, when customers got to within 600 feet of the McDonald’s, they received a one-cent Whopper coupon through their in-app Burger King account, which of course lead to thousands of customers doing a u-turn and then heading to their local Burger King.
Resources for running a Geofencing Campaign
Businesses often face a tough challenge: figuring out how to target customers based on their location. The good news is that there are two main options available for this purpose, each with its own unique benefits and drawbacks.
1 – Develop Your Own or Modify your Existing App
A business can create an app to target customers locationally. The app should send notifications when a customer enters the store’s radius so that it doesn’t waste time trying to appeal to people who are not interested in their products or services.
If you already have an existing mobile application, then there may be features of your current product that allow for this functionality such as geofencing and push notifications among others depending on how much flexibility has been built into them by developers at present – make sure these tools function properly before seeking out another solution though!
A good way to promote your business is by making an app that customers can download for free. This will let them know they’re getting the best deals online and allow you to create a loyal customer base of people who may not usually come out without some sort of incentive. Customers will most likely want to download your app as well so that they get special offers not found elsewhere!
If you’re trying to build your own app and don’t know where to start, here are some resources that may help:
Buildfire
With a free trial and every function you can imagine, Buildfire is sure to have the app that fits your business needs. Buildfire has everything you need for an exceptional mobile app: amazing tools like push notifications along with unlimited screens and devices on their paid plans. With features like these available in both its premium version as well as a free plan, it’s surprising more businesses don’t use them!
Radar
Radar helps users build mobile apps and automate their marketing to get more leads, sales, and customers by sending targeted push notifications based on where people are located within a specific location or radius of the user’s business. The main purpose of this app builder is for marketing campaigns and a way to keep track of your customer base in various areas with ease.
OutSystems
Interested in cutting development time by up to 75%? OutSystems is an app builder that you can try for free, and it claims to do just this. Their platform is very popular and offers users a wide range of features including Geofencing.
Flutter
The free app-builder Flutter makes it easy to build amazing iOS and Android apps. Now you can create an engaging experience without having to code from scratch or learn Swift, Objective C, HTML5/CSS3—or any other programming language for that matter! The open-source program Flutter allows anyone with a computer who knows how the internet works to make their own great-looking mobile applications.
2 – Work with a Mobile Advertising Expert
Mobile ad companies have the ability to send ads out directly to anyone in your area, whether or not they use your app. There are a number of companies that specialise in this type of advertising, and it’s much easier and effective to work with such a company, rather than try and learn everything yourself and set up your own campaigns.
Instead of developing your own application, which in some cases may be a complex and time-consuming process, you may decide to use geofencing software instead. Here are some of the options available to you:
Pathsense
Pathsense‘s geofencing modules include features such as user location, movement paths, and heatmaps to help your business or organization create tools for both iOS and Android users.
Plot Projects
Plot Projects helps companies geofence their apps with the PlotProjects SDK. This is useful if you’re already working on an app and want to implement location-based features or are building a new one from scratch but need geo capabilities like these built-in.
HERE
HERE’s Location Based Services allows users to map a specific store, find nearby stores and geofencing for tracking sales. They also offer an app-builder that lets you create apps with location-based services.
Herow
With Herow, you can track your customers’ behaviour and use data to optimize marketing. The mobile app is privacy-first — meaning it prevents the collection of personal information like email addresses or names without consent from each customer. Once permission has been granted, users are able to provide feedback on their experience at a particular event so that organizers know what they’re doing right (or wrong).
Conclusion
People may think that it takes a lot of money to get started with geofencing. However, this is not the case as there are low-cost options for beginners available in addition to premium ones which still aren’t very expensive. Geofencing has been shown highly effective when connecting with audiences so I hope you take away from this article that you don’t need much money or resources at all!
If you already know how to use geofencing and are wondering what other marketing techniques can benefit your business, I suggest using data from social media channels like Facebook. First, connect with current customers by creating a lookalike audience on the platform that shares similar characteristics to those of existing customer profiles then expand outreach efforts further through advertising campaigns.
Geofencing is a great idea for businesses to implement now because it’s likely that more people will be using this technology in the next five years. Businesses can get ahead of their competitors by implementing geofences and gaining access to customer data on demand.
