If you're a digital advertiser, you know the importance of reaching your target audience for quality leads and sales. Most likely, you're using digital ad campaigns, online video, and content and media advertising in your marketing campaign.
Have you also taken advantage of geofencing marketing? If not, you're missing out on a digital advertising method that can engage your target audience, pinpoint customers, retarget customers and boost return on investment. You might be thinking, "What is geofencing marketing?"
Read more about this incredible location-based technology that can bring your digital ad campaign to the next level.
What Is Geofencing?
As the name suggests, geofencing creates a digital boundary or fence. It uses the global positioning system (GPS) or radio frequency to define a virtual boundary. This triggers an action in a geo-enabled mobile device.
Geo-location lets mobile apps do groundbreaking things. Farmers used the first geofence by equipping herds of cattle with GPS units. When the cattle moved out of the geofence, the farmer received an alert.
Today, digital marketers use geofencing for consumer applications. It's incorporated into smartphone and tablet apps that offer many benefits to consumers.
How Does Geofencing Work?
When a mobile device enters the boundaries set by the geofencing administrator, it triggers an alert. For example, if you wanted to know when your child gets home from school, you can use a geofence enabled app on your child's phone. When the mobile phone enters your geofence, you'd get an alert by email or text message.
You can establish a geofence around a neighborhood, store or a specified geographic area. By using Google Earth, you can define the boundaries of the area. You can also use the longitude and latitude of web-based maps.
Mobile geofencing is either active or passive. Users have to turn on location services of active geofences and open the mobile app. Passive geofences use Wi-Fi and cellular data to work in the background. This type is always on.
What Is Geofencing Marketing?
When you use geofencing marketing in your digital advertising campaign, it creates personal communication between your brand and the customers. It helps promote brands and products, as well as growing the market size.
Geofencing also allows for precision customized targeting and is crucial for digital marketers. As customers browse the internet, they see your digital ads. This helps build trusting relationships through personalized and timely messaging.
The goal is to encourage a call to action, whether it's shopping at a local store or clicking through to a customized web page.
What Are the Benefits of Geofencing?
Geofence marketing has many digital advertising benefits for customer engagement. These are a few examples of what you can expect from this digital location-based technology:
Sends Special Offers to Customers
Geofencing allows businesses to send special offers to customers as they walk into a store, drive near a business location or visit a web page. You can advertise a targeted product or service to the customers who need it. This lets you offer real-time advertising that's relevant to each customer.
Sends Push Notifications
With location-based ads, you can send push notifications to mobile devices with relevant offers. These can be personalized discounts, coupons or rewards for loyal customers or just a welcome message as they walk through the door.
Allows Interaction with Nearby Customers
Like Facebook ads or other online advertising, geofencing lets you interact with nearby customers. When you get an alert for nearby customers, you can direct them to your store or website.
You can offer incentives for buying previous products or services. This gives your customers a personalized experience, which builds trust and brand loyalty.
Helps Gain an Understanding of Customers' Needs
One of the main parts of geofencing marketing is using analytics on customer location data. This gives your marketing team important information about customer behavior. When you analyze the data, you can micro-target customers so you can reach niche audiences.
This data collection is invaluable for fine-tuning your marketing campaign. Build on the digital advertising that's working and adjust the ads that aren't performing.
Enables Business Growth
Geofencing helps grow your business because you're not limited to a specific location. For example, if you're a real estate agent, you can send notifications when potential buyers go to an open house. They get a personalized message from you and a CTA for more information.
It also lets businesses engage with their competitor's customers. For example, if you own a restaurant, you can trigger a notification when a customer enters another restaurant. You can offer a meal discount or free item.
This type of location-based advertising allows businesses to grow beyond what they could do with other marketing tactics.
All of these geofencing benefits help customers find what they're looking for and receive the advertising that's relevant to them. Location-based ads are a great way to drive customers to specific locations for rewards, coupons, and personalized products.
How to Get Started With Geofence Targeting
To start your digital advertising campaign with geofencing marketing, you need GPS coordinates and a mobile app. You can contact geofencing companies for app development and GPS setup.
Also, ensure that you contact your current customers and target audience that you're starting geofencing offers and promotions.
Before you launch your geotargeting campaign, have a clear understanding of your customers' demographics. This keeps your ads personalized and relevant for targeted ads.
Also, don't make your geofence area too large. Keep it to a travel distance of fewer than five minutes.
One of the big factors of geofencing marketing is privacy. Make sure you're transparent about your advertising with mobile users. Let them know you have access to their information when they use your app. This will show you're trustworthy and make them feel secure when they use your app.
Geofencing Is on the Cutting Edge of Digital Marketing
What is geofencing marketing? Geofencing marketing is cutting edge and adds value to your marketing campaigns.
It's a way of sending relevant digital advertisements to smartphone users who enter a predefined location. It offers the broadest reach for sending targeted, engaging offers to customers.
Contact us for more information on geofence marketing that's sent to the right audience at the right time and the right place. Maybe it's just what you need to get new and repeat customers.