There is no doubt that the cost of living and the way of living are vastly different throughout the country and that a single marketing campaign does not fit everybody. You likely already know you need to come up with multiple campaigns, but then what do you do? Where do you place them?
And what do you do if you feel like all of the technology for business marketing focuses on online marketing, but you have a physical location and want the benefits of digital marketing as well? Geofencing marketing might be for you.
What is Geofencing Marketing?
Geofencing marketing uses location-based ads that allow for specifically targeted locations. A geofence is the physical boundaries of the target location, which could be the block around a storefront, a postal code, or the western corner of a territory.
Geofencing Marketing Strategy
In online marketing, there’s a fine line when it comes to expanding your targeted area. It can backfire if you go too far, which is where geofencing marketing comes in handy. Many retailers open marketing to the internet, even when the majority of their customers are still local.
If you have a national company, marketing promotions may change based on the targeted audience. For example, you might not have the same promotion running in Toronto, ON as you will in Moncton, NB. The cost of living and way of life are drastically different in these cities, and you may need to adapt for the potential customer base in each location.
Geofencing creates an imaginary boundary that automatically switches when someone passes through it. Essentially, it is a smart marketing campaign that continuously adapts to the location of the consumer.
Ways to Use Geofencing Marketing
There are several ways in which geofencing marketing helps a business, too many to mention here, but here’s a look at some that you may have come across as a consumer:
- A brick-and-mortar store sets up a perimeter around the business, whether it’s a block or a kilometer radius, and when you pass through that perimeter, you get a push notification on your phone.
- A business owner may try to entice local customers away from competitors with better deals by setting up geofencing marketing perimeters around his competitors’ locations.
- Companies may utilize geofencing ahead of time for marketing conferences and industry events to bring brand awareness to the places they will be visiting.
- Service-oriented businesses can now geofence towards specific service areas as if geofencing has become the new ambulance chasing.
Just because geofencing marketing exists does not necessarily mean it is the best option for your business. It’s always good to do your research to be sure that the return on investment is worth it and determine details like where you should set up your geofences.
If you would need help with geofencing marketing, Mobile Distributors are social marketers that can help you get started understanding everything geofencing can do for your business.
7 Benefits of Geofencing Marketing
Some people are skeptical when it comes to targeting a marketing audience, thinking that a bigger audience is better. But having a smaller, local, dedicated base is much more valuable in the long run, and the long run is what you want for your business.
Let’s look at some of the benefits you can get from geofencing marketing when done correctly:
1. When you keep your geofenced area small, you target a specific local audience, which allows you to build personal relationships and ties to your community, and it increases the chances that the customer will return as well as refer to other customers.
2. You will have a better chance of creating higher quality content. You know your audience better, so you can speak directly to them with your content. If your geofencing marketing target area is too large, you have less of a chance to resonate with everyone within, and some may feel that you are speaking to uppity, while others may think you’re speaking down to them. Either way, people could get offended.
3. While your local customers will most likely be the majority of your base, you may get a lot of online orders as well. Geofencing marketing helps you expand your local following into brick and mortar stores in the future as well.
4. Geofencing marketing helps with timely offers. Michaels Arts & Crafts uses this on their slow days. It sends out a text message to local customers with a coupon to use to try to drum up sales.
5. If you have a Google Ads account, then you already have the tools you need to set up a geofencing marketing account. For no extra charge, you can use it with your Paid Ads account.
6. With geofencing marketing, you can gather much more data than you might otherwise, information such as spending, time spent in-store, message effectiveness, and more when customers respond to a geofenced advertisement.
7. Data from geofencing marketing campaigns help your marketing team develop content and promotions targeted towards your customers.
Geofencing Marketing in Practice
Each year, more and more industries and companies turn to geofencing marketing to draw in more customers, which is not just a marketing strategy used by larger corporations. Businesses of all sizes use geofencing to their advantage, and smaller ones often see the most value.
Several big corporations use geofencing already. If you have the Starbucks app and you drive by a location, you might notice that you receive a push notification on your phone notifying you that you are near a location.
Some companies have taken this further. For example, make-up giant Sephora opens its app if it is installed on your device and shows your previous transactions and other helpful information that may help you with your current shopping trip.
Coca Cola has one-third of vending machines connected to the internet with facial recognition and payment tracking tools. With this information, Coca Cola used geofencing technology to determine which products sell the best, which machines are used most often, and which need help.
There are several different uses for geofencing marketing and several ways to use it. Geofencing marketing can help you build brand loyalty and relationships with your customers, bringing them back again and again. The precise targeting of a geofencing marketing campaign is much more valuable than targeting everyone on the internet, in which return customers are statistically not very likely.