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What is Geofencing Marketing? How to Add it to Your Strategy

Geofencing marketing is one of the most powerful marketing strategies available today. It enables brands to understand the customer journey and deliver mobile advertising at exactly the right time and place. Want to find out more? Our guide will tell you the many reasons why your business needs to use geofencing marketing and how to get started.

What is geofencing marketing?

What is geofencing marketing and how does it work?

Geofencing marketing might sound complicated but it’s actually quite straightforward. Also known as geofencing advertising or location-based marketing, the tactic allows businesses with apps to target mobile users with hyper-local notifications.

It involves setting up a virtual boundary (geofence) around a real-world location such as a shopping mall or restaurant. When a smartphone user crosses the geofence, it triggers an event on their mobile device such as the delivery of a promotional ad or push notification.

While geofencing is great for delivering content and advertising more precisely, a big part of its value is what it provides in terms of data and analytics. You can use it to build advertising audiences, improve user engagement and provide your team with valuable insights for your next marketing campaign.

Retail locations, restaurants and commercial premises can all be geofenced, as can conferences, festivals and even competitor’s locations. You can target one location, or many. The possibilities are endless with a properly set up geofencing campaign. Find out more in our guide about geofencing for mobile apps.

Here’s a quick recap

  • Geofences are virtual boundaries that can be set up around specific real-world locations.
  • When a mobile user crosses the geofence, they can be added to advertising audiences and targeted with personalised push notifications.
  • A successful geofencing campaign will help you drive new leads, gather valuable location data, improve ROI and beat your competition.

Why your business needs a geofencing marketing strategy

Smartphones have become such an integral part of our daily life. Wherever you go, it’s likely you’ll use your mobile phone and others will be using theirs too.

Based on a recent report, smartphone users make up 77.5% of the global device market. And by 2024, it’s predicted there will be over 290 million smartphone users in the US alone. What’s more, users spend a big part of their time online through the use of mobile apps. 

With geofencing marketing, businesses can get on board with a locally optimised approach. Studies show that location targeting more than doubles the performance of mobile apps. So it’s important to invest in a robust geofencing marketing strategy and stay ahead of your competition.

Some interesting stats about geofencing marketing:

  • Geofencing is compatible with 92% of smartphones
  • 53% of shoppers visited a retailer after receiving a location-based notification
  • Mobile ads with geofencing have double the click through rate 
  • 71% of consumers prefer a personalized ad experience
  • 90% of SMS are read within 3 minutes

Some examples of geofencing marketing

Geofencing has many uses. It can be used in human resources, transportation and logistics, healthcare, law, home automation and even child safety. However, its most common application is as a marketing tool for business owners.  

A retail store could create a geofence around its premises and set the geofence to a few mile radius to target customers nearby. Or a business owner could set up a geofence around a competitor’s location to lure customers away with better deals. 

Plenty of big brands use geofencing marketing. Both Burger King and Dunkin Donuts have run famous geo-conquesting campaigns. While Vouchercloud, Uber, Starbucks and Volvo are just a few of the many other companies that run highly successful geofencing marketing campaigns. 

Here are some places you can target with geofencing marketing:

  • Business locations
  • Competitor locations
  • Trade shows, concerts & festivals
  • Hospitals, colleges & universities
  • Commercial premises, airports
  • And many more!
How to set up geofencing marketing

The benefits of geofencing marketing

Are you thinking about setting up geofencing marketing? Here are just a few of the many benefits of using this powerful marketing tool. 

Boost local sales 

Geofencing marketing allows you to hyper-target your customers at exactly the right time and place. Rather than casting a wide net, geofencing makes it possible to specifically target local customers based on their location within your geofenced zones. 

Geofencing marketing is cost-effective

Location-based marketing is a cost-effective way to make the most out of your content, campaigns and promotions. With hyper-targeted notifications sent at the right time and place, you’re focussing on the consumers who are more likely to engage and take action. You can try a full-featured geofencing platform like PlotProjects for free right here.

Understand consumer behaviour

Geofencing marketing makes it possible for businesses to collect valuable insights about consumers’ behaviour. This can be used to personalize your promotions accordingly. Location data can also be used to improve engagement and experience, retarget visitors, combine offline & online data and add depth to your analytics. 

Increase brand awareness

Location-based ads can also be helpful in boosting brand awareness and promoting your online channels. Receiving promotional push notifications reminds customers about your brand, your products and your location. 

Get ahead of your competitors 

Sometimes competition is fierce and you’re losing out to your competitors. You can leverage geofencing technology to target your competitors prospects or frequent customers and lure them away with better deals and promotions. 

How to add geofencing into your marketing strategy

Many businesses are already using geofencing marketing to boost their sales. And if you haven’t already started using it, you should definitely consider setting up geofencing as part of your marketing strategy. 

Getting started is easy, especially if you use a full-featured geofencing platform like PlotProjects. Hailed as one of the best geofencing plugins for mobile apps, the PlotProjects SDK is quick to set up and easy to integrate across your entire digital infrastructure. Plus it offers all the tools you need to build accurate and efficient location functionalities into your mobile apps.

The basic Developer package is free to use and supports one app with up to 1,000 geofences and up to 10,000 monthly tracked users. The Small Business package starts from €100 per month and supports two apps, 10,000 geofences and up to 50,000 monthly tracked users. For unlimited geofences, apps and MTUs, the Enterprise package is available with custom pricing. Want to check it out? You can try it for free here.

Top tips to boost your geofencing marketing campaigns

Get the most out of your campaigns with these geofencing marketing tips to help you boost conversions. You can find more tips in our guide to supercharging your holiday sales. 

Research your target audience

Knowing about your target audience is the key to building a successful geofencing marketing campaign. With the PlotProjects platform you can access a wealth of user demographics and data. Set up listening campaigns to collect valuable insights, and build interest-based audiences which will improve your campaigns and boost engagement rates. 

Plan your geofences carefully 

Don’t waste your efforts by targeting users who are too far away. Sometimes it’s better to make use of several smaller geofences that are within easy walking distance. Your prospects are more likely to engage with your notifications and visit your store if it’s convenient for them.

Serve great content 

Your geofencing marketing campaigns will get more engagement if you serve great content. Send personalized ads with relevant content, and highlight the best deals and rewards. You don’t want to overload users with lots of irrelevant notifications. Include a clear and compelling call to action to top it all off.

Use multiple targeting options

Hone your targeting techniques to communicate with your audience more effectively. The Plot Plugin offers an array of valuable features that will help you engage with consumers at the right time. With things like home and work targeting, contextual pages, behavioural targeting and retargeting you can deliver the right content at the right time.

Review your data regularly

Maximise the success of your geofencing marketing campaign by reviewing your data often. Track the relevant KPIs and metrics such as ad impressions, click-through-rate, costs and conversions. If users aren’t responding as you expected you can figure out what’s not working and modify your promotions accordingly.

Is geofencing marketing ethical?

When implementing geofencing marketing, nothing is more important than maintaining an app user’s trust. Now more than ever, consumers are aware of their privacy settings and how their data is used. And while there are many benefits to opting in for location tracking, some still find it unnerving. 

Aside from using location to proactively target consumers, businesses use location data to gather insights about their audience. This includes things like when and where they shop, eat out, travel and more. This is a key element in understanding who their customers really are so that they can adapt and personalize their marketing messages accordingly. 

is geofencing marketing ethical?

But for all this to be ethical, you must treat consumer data with integrity, make marketing a positive experience, and be open and honest with people about how their data will be used.

Importantly, the amount of information provided or disclosed by users is now a choice they can make. Opt in or opt out. Enjoy the many benefits of location services or don’t. The data suggests that when permission is asked and the implications are made clear, a good percentage of users are still happy to opt-in.

When implemented with integrity, geofencing marketing is a hugely valuable tool for both businesses and the end consumer. The technology itself is important, but perhaps most importantly, businesses must earn their customers’ trust, by being open and honest, and making their privacy a priority.

Ready to get started with geofencing marketing?

If you need help getting started with geofencing or you want to find out more about how our platform can drive results for your business, contact PlotProjects today.

You can try our demo app for free, or download one of our customer’s apps to see how it works. Don’t have an app? No problem. We can create a custom geofencing app using the PlotProjects technology.

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