What Is Geofencing?

Get your brand message onto smartphones with help from geofencing

It’s not enough to know where people are today, businesses need to know what consumer’s intentions are. Just because a person is near your business doesn’t mean they are going to walk in and buy your product or service.

With the extensive use of smartphones, it’s relatively easy to geotrack consumers using their GPS (global positioning system) coordinates to send ad messaging through apps. Is it possible to take it further? Yes, advanced targeting not only uses the consumer’s location data but also uses demographic, behavioral, and brand affinity to reach consumers. This provides a greater opportunity to deliver highly relevant ads and messages.

Deploying this technology means using real-world behavior including visits to specific places, businesses, retailers, restaurants, venues, exhibits, and more. It can even be determined if people are driving or walking to these places. The frequency of visits, when the most recent visit was, and the time of visits can all be tracked. This type of targeting can put you in front of the right audience at the right time.

It’s all about collecting and deploying based on quality data, not just when the audience is within feet of your business, but afterward based on their behaviors and preferences. This process is hyper-local, focusing on a smaller but more relevant audience. The bottom line is that it can drive customers to your door and continue to target them even after they have purchased your product or service.

For example, say that a local butcher shop wants to reach sports fans attending a national league football game. Attendees of the game are a strategic target for an offer of a free pound of ground beef if they bring their game ticket into the butcher shop. Many of these sports fans tailgate and cook burgers before the game, so there is a correlation between the product and this particular audience.

Geofencing sets up a virtual boundary around a point of interest using radio frequency identification (RFID), Wi-Fi, GPS, or cellular data. Ads can be deployed to those tailgaters while they’re at the game and to take it even further, deploy additional ads to the same audience after the game is over. For instance, if they walk into any grocery store within a week of attending the game, messages can be sent promoting the free ground beef offer. Behavior triggers can be included specifically based on where and who they are, such as moms who attended the game and visit the supermarket twice per week. The options are endless! The redemption of a coupon promotion can be tracked and tied to actual resulting sales, capturing the ROI (return on investment).

Target potential customers can be found based on their preferences, real-world actions, and intentions. Once the targets have been in a specific geographical area marketers can identify, reach, capture, and convert these audiences.

If you’d like to learn more about how geofencing can help your business get the awareness it needs, click to fill out this form and PIN Business Network will help your business grow!