Did you know you can send targeted ads to a potential customer’s smartphone as soon as they enter your business’s vicinity, thus encouraging them to visit the shop?
This is all made possible by geofencing marketing.
In this article, we’ll cover:
• What Is Geofencing Marketing?
• How Does Geofencing Work?
• Geomarketing Solutions: How To Run Targeted Messaging
• The Benefits of Working With Geofencing Marketing Companies
But first, what is geofencing marketing, exactly, and how does it work?
What Is Geofencing Marketing?
Geofencing marketing is a location-based marketing strategy that allows businesses to send targeted advertisements or messages to consumers within a specific geographic area. By setting up a virtual boundary or ‘geofence’ around a defined location, businesses can trigger an action whenever a device enters or exits that area.
Such a trigger, often in the form of targeted advertising messages, allows businesses to engage with customers in real-time based on their geographic location. Consequently, geofencing enhances the relevance and personalization of mobile marketing services, potentially increasing customer engagement and conversion rates.
How Does Geofencing Work?
As location-based marketing, geomarketing solutions integrate Wi-Fi, GPS, radio-frequency identification (RFID) and Bluetooth. The powerful fusion of such technologies enables businesses to engage their audience in a more personalized and impactful way, creating a virtual boundary around a specific location, such as your business premises. After this, a geofencing or mobile marketing agency can target consumers within this boundary with personalized advertising.
When a device like a smartphone enters or exits this predefined zone, the geofencing system triggers an alert or a particular action.
So, when a person enters the virtual boundary around your business, your geofencing advertising campaign will immediately send a notification or mobile ad to their phone, promoting your local store, service or product. For instance, Facebook mobile marketing services, your targeted messaging ensures effective outreach and engagement with potential customers in your vicinity.
Geofencing can be used to inform customers of special promotions and offers at certain locations. For example, through a geofencing advertising platform, a retail store may send out messages about discounts or specials when customers enter the store’s geofence. This is an effective way for businesses to increase sales by targeting potential nearby customers more likely to visit your store.
Here are a few more examples of how a geofencing and mobile marketing agency work with different scenarios:
1. Event marketing. During a big event, businesses could use geofencing to advertise their products or services to attendees, creating awareness and potentially leading to sales.
2. Competitor conquesting. Businesses can set up geofences around their competitors’ locations to entice customers with competitive offers or discounts.
3. Real estate. Real estate agencies can set up geofences around properties for sale or rent, sending relevant information and offers to potential buyers or renters passing by.
4. Restaurants. Restaurants can use geofencing to send special offers to potential customers within a certain vicinity, enticing them to come in and dine at the right time.
Such ads can be run on various geofencing advertising platforms supporting location-based advertising. Experts in a mobile marketing agency use top geofencing platforms like Google Ads, Facebook (now Meta) and Instagram.
Geomarketing Solutions: How To Run Targeted Messaging
Here are some tips on how to run location-based marketing:
1. Get To Know the People Who Live Nearby
One significant drawback of mass marketing is that it often reaches individuals with little to no interest in the products or services offered. However, the same issue can arise with marketing geofences if they are set up without considering the target audience.
Assuming that your target audience fits the profile of people who live in nearby areas, take the time to dig deeper through their demographics. Remember, audience research is crucial in crafting targeted messaging that will resonate with them.
2. Maintain a Small Geofencing Boundary
To effectively target your local audience, it is recommended to maintain a geofencing area within a four to five-minute radius of your business. Overextending the boundary may lead to promoting your brand to disinterested individuals.
It is also crucial to take into account the predominant mode of transportation in your city, whether it be walking or driving. If walking is more common, limiting your boundary to a four- to five-minute walking radius is advisable. Conversely, a four- to five-minute driving distance will suffice if driving is the norm. Additionally, creating a list of competitor locations is necessary to inform your boundary better.
3. Remember, Timing Is Everything
Knowing who is near your business and where they go is crucial, but knowing when they will be there is equally important. Time-based marketing strategies allow you to catch customers at the right time, sending out offers and promotions when they are most likely receptive. You can also use seasonal campaigns for special occasions like summer holidays or Valentine’s Day.
It is essential to fine-tune your geofences to deliver appropriate marketing messages at specific times of the day. For instance, if you own a cafe, promoting your lunch menu through geofences at 7:00 PM is unlikely to yield desired results. Also, remember that people from certain demographics tend to visit specific places at particular times or on specific days. For insights, lean into mobility data to determine when people frequent specific stores or neighborhoods.
4. Keep Your Call to Action (CTA) to the Point
Which call-to-action is more actionable: “Buy our latte of the day and get a free brownie — for today only!” or “Try our special drink!” While both invitations entice users, the first CTA is more specific and concise. So, you may want to get rid of filler words and phrases that could water down your message. If you want people to take action, let them know exactly what they’re supposed to do.
You also want to be approachable, so avoid spammy or self-serving ads. For instance, when promoting a new product, invite users to try it instead of telling them to buy it. This method more likely leads to a natural buyer’s journey.
The Benefits of Working With Geofencing Marketing Companies
When it comes to enhancing your local search engine optimization efforts, geofencing can be a game-changer. Apart from how managing geofencing advertising platforms can be overwhelming to undertake, here’s why you should partner with geofencing marketing companies.
Promote Local Foot Traffic and Sales
Geofencing techniques enable your business to appear in local search results precisely when potential nearby customers search for products or services.
You can attract more local customers by marketing on geofencing platforms, leading to heightened foot traffic and sales for your business.
Drive Better Marketing Results With Data-Backed Campaigns
It can be challenging to determine the effectiveness of local sales efforts. It’s not always clear what prompted a customer to visit your store. However, geofencing platforms allow you to attract customers and track a range of metrics that provide insights into their behavior, such as sales, duration of stay and frequency of visits.
Such geomarketing analysis offers a more comprehensive understanding of your marketing performance and serves as practical insights to inform your future campaigns.
Personalized and Better User Experience
Among geofencing marketing’s numerous benefits is the ability to leverage data for a better user experience. Through your geofencing advertising campaign, you gain valuable insights into the local population’s demographics and discover which offers generate interest in your business.
This data can then be utilized to craft tailored messages that resonate with your target audience.
For instance, if you observe that a particular age group shows greater affinity towards one of your products, you can adapt your messaging and targeting strategies accordingly to drive more sales. By optimizing your approach through geomarketing analysis, you can enhance the effectiveness of your geofencing marketing efforts.
Target Nearby High-Intent Consumers With Thrive
If you’re ready to explore geofencing and mobile marketing services to better engage with your audience in a highly personalized and timely manner, Thrive’s geomarketing solutions can help. Talk to us to get started.
