Small Businesses Can Use Geofencing to Attract and Retain Customers

Geofencing is a hot topic with small and medium size business. I’ve been on several calls where the business owner or I bring it up, they want to know how it can help their business.

The best definition is a virtual border or perimeter that reflects the equal area of a real geographical district. The border can be set around your business, your competitors, your neighborhood or an entire city. The system of geofencing works directly with the GPS location systems.

How does geofencing advertising works

• A virtual fence is traced around an area where the advertiser wants to build an audience based on their visit to that particular location.
• When people enter the geo-fenced location, they will then become a part of an audience that can be targeted.
• As the user visits various apps downloaded on their phone (Angry Bird, Weather Channel, Candy Crush, Words With Friends) or browse the Internet on the mobile browsers, they begin to see ads from said advertiser.
• User can see the ads for 1 day and up to 30 days after he/she has entered the geofence.

A cost efficient way to market

Not only does geofencing provide a business with perfect marketing timing, it is also incredibly cost efficient advertising. Most small businesses don’t have a huge budget for marketing and advertising, yet still need these tools in order to grow their business. Geofencing doesn’t break the budget because a small business can create their own marketing channel. Geofencing allows small businesses to directly compete with big businesses for a fraction of the price. Whatever the budget, there is a wide range of options that any small business can afford.

Sold the program recently in three different ways.

1. An independent pet and feed store, with three locations, served ads to people visiting big box stores and corporate owned pet stores within their markets during the holidays. The ads promoted their holiday sale to entice people to check out one of three locations.
2. A two-location bank wanted to reach college students for their online banking. The ads were delivered on mobile devices to three local college campuses with a direct link to their online banking website page.
3. A locally owned burger restaurant served ads to people attending a local 5-day outdoor fest, the event brings a lot of people from outside the area. The special meal deal campaign ran for the five days within a small radius around the event’s location.

Geofencing is an incredibly useful marketing and advertising tool. Businesses can target consumers in strategic geographical areas of interest with enticing offers such as sales, promotions, and information about their business. Geofencing is even more useful for small businesses looking to increase business and customer awareness because of its budget flexibility and easy consumer targeting practices. If you are interested in learning more about geofencing, contact the experts at Shaw Media Marketing.