There’s a reform making its way into the world of mobile marketing. Targeting is now more relevant and contextual than it ever was, thanks to the increasingly competitive market. When it comes to mobile marketing these days, time and location are two factors which can decide the success or failure of a campaign. Hence technologies such as geofencing, which help in location-based marketing, are increasingly becoming popular amongst businesses.
So What Really is Geofencing?
Geofencing is a term which comes from the words geo and fencing. What basically happens in geofencing is that we track users as they enter or leave certain geographical areas called geofences. The technology uses a location-based marketing approach wherein marketers collect information about the users and engage them whenever they leave, enter, or stay in a geofence. Geofences can be as small as an office and as big as a metropolitan. The flexibility is not just in terms of size but also in terms of shape. Geofences can assume any shape depending on the complexity of the situation at hand.
How Does Geofencing Work?
Geofencing uses the principles of geolocation to give you important information about your geofence.
Firstly, you would need to define a geofence. How you could do this is by setting up a perimeter on Google Maps, or well, any map of your choice. This is the area of concern for your business, and all of your marketing efforts would be made in this area.
While there isn’t any limitation to the area that you could target by geofencing, it is best to use it for large-range targeting. For small shops and offices, you could use Beacon instead.
Once done, you need to decide and implement what action would be triggered when someone enters, exits, or stays in your geofence.
Next up, you would need to monitor all the data collected by the system you’ve set up.
How Can You Benefit from Geofencing?
Geofencing can be used in multiple ways. You can use geofencing to send promotional offers to people when they come near a store to increase the foot traffic in the store. Also, you could suggest products to those people based on their previous in-app behaviors. It would help you to step up the procedure with which you serve your customers since you would be capturing their feedback. Moreover, it gives you the option to integrate social media channels to improve brand awareness.
Important Tips
- Try to keep the use of GPS low. In fact, avoid it, if possible since it drains the battery quickly.
- Do not neglect the offline behavior of your customers. These insights can be used to target users with a more personalized approach.
- If possible, use anti-spam tools since urban areas have tonnes of geofences sending a lot of notifications. Also, keep your notifications at a minimum.
- Write clear messages in the notifications. If your customers are unable to comprehend what you mean to say in the notification, your efforts would go in vain.
- Make geofences in areas where your customers are present. Most people set geofences up near their shops but what if the customers are somewhere else? Hence it is best to set up a geofence around the location where your customers are present.
- Write a call-to-action in your notification instead of simply putting up an ad out there if you really wish to make the best out of your efforts.
Geofencing may be daunting for a beginner. But if it seems too daunting, it is best to let experts handle it. BrainMobi is one of the best mobile app development companies excelling in utilizing the geofencing technology for the apps that it develops. Our team of geofencing experts can handle all of your geofencing needs with ease. So send us your requirements at sales@brainmobi.com for a free quote!