How to use Geo-fencing successfully?

Source: Unsplash.

When we go out to reach our customers, we are not going to dress up like the mascot of our brand and start chasing all the close walking people around. This can be fun for some out there, annoying for the guy that wears the custom, but most of all, it is unsuccessful.

With smartphones at the tip of our hands, it is more useful to engage with our customers via mobile, even you can put a GIF or a video of your brand's mascot if you like, but how do we do this. Through geo-fence.

Geo-fence marketing is a location-based tactic that sends messages to smartphones within a designated area, it relies on a mix of Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and behavioral factors.

Location-based mobile advertising is predicted to increase to $38.7 billion by 2022, according to a BIA/Kelsey study. Consumers are watching their phones all the time and because of this Geo-fencing it's an excellent way to reach them out.

If you didn't know anything about geo-fence or want to use it for your local store, in this article we are going to give a list of recommendations and information, so you can use it successfully.

Keep reading!

Guide for a Successful Geo-fence strategy

1st: Create your Geo-fences

First, you must know who is your target audience and what customers are you looking to target. This information can be as specific as mothers with kids that play soccer.

Now you have two options to create your geo-fence: around your store or a predefined location. Once you have chosen your point location you can set up the distance you want your geo-fence to be, and it can be as long as 100 km or closer to your business around 50 meters - spoilers ahead, it is better to set up a closer geo-fence. 

If you are choosing a predefined location you can choose a bus station close to your store or the mall where your business is, and as soon as targeted customers arrive at this place they will receive a message from your store.

Pro-tip: it is better to locate your geo-fence in a point where is only a five-minute walk away from your store, this way they are more likely to visit your store, and you will see a great return on spend for your business.

2nd: Add "Enter" and "Exit" conditions.

For your geo-fence, you can create enter and exit events. When your customers enter into your local store, different ads will arrive to their phones depending on the actions or products they are looking for, it can even notice when they are dwelling.

When someone enters into your Geo-fence, you should send ads that inspire a direct action from them, it could be a discount or a new product. If they left your geo-fence, you can add them into your retargeting list to stay in contact when they come back.

3rd: Specify your target customers.

Sending messages to your local community can be useful if you are a grocery store, everybody needs your products. But, if you are a more niche store, like sports? You can use the programmatic capabilities to add behavioral data to your geo-fence strategy. This feature allows tracking information like buying habits, online browsing behavior, past purchases and many more.

When you use behavioral data your  campaigns are more specific since you are sending message to customers that are more interested in your services. So, if you have a sports store, you can choose the age, hobbies and even the income of your desired customers. Also, focus on the digital marketing funnel.

Source: YouTube.

Tips for Geo-fencing

Build your Geo-fences where your customers are

With location based marketing the main idea is to follow our customers, and while it is obvious that most of them are close to our community or neighborhood, some of them could be a little further, but still they are interested in your products.

Turning back to the example of the sports store. If a big game is about to happen close to your town, it is a good idea to set a geo-fence in the place of the sport event, so customers on the big game could buy a shirt from their favorite team after the game is over.

The idea is to follow customers to location based activities, so you can track them at the right moment. SEO could also be a game-changing move.

Built short range Geo-fences

Your Geo-fences can be any size or shape you want, but in this time a large geo-fence it's not useful for your store. 

If a message shows up on a cellphone, and that customer is 30 minutes away from your business, chances are they are not going to drive to your place. As we mentioned before, the best option is to build short or medium range geo-fences where customers can take automate actions to your business.

Set the right time

Time is everything! Because of this, it is crucial to set the time for your geo-fencing ads with the consuming habits of your audience. For example, if you have a restaurant an awesome idea would be to set an ad for every meal of the day means breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The idea is that messages are not sent during work or busy time for your audience, so the geo-fence notification can go with their daily routines.

Survey customers when they leave

As soon as your customers leave, you can survey them to know how their experience was. Just create an exit event that says, "Hey, first name, we want to know what was your experience like? How would you rate us? Is there anything we could have done better" When you ask your customers about their experiences, they feel valued, and it is also the perfect way to keep improving your business.

At the end of the survey you can offer a reward for giving their information like a discount coupon.

Retarget to increase customer loyalty

It is important to have loyal customers, and geo-fencing can help you to stay in touch with them. When you retarget customers that have visited your business before, you can offer special promotions, loyalty coupons and many more options. This feature can also help you retarget shoppers within a few days after their purchase, and ask them if they liked their product.

Final Thoughts

Searching for our audience has never been so easy, and with the customization options that geo-fencing allows, you can even better classify who you are going to send your messages to. Remember that nobody in the world likes spam, therefore receiving messages from stores that do not interest you will cause more repulsion than a genuine interest in the brand. 

One of the first rules of marketing is to know your target audience, having this knowledge will help you redirect your efforts to the people who benefit from your services. Whether they are close to your community or only attend events that have to do with your niche, the important thing is to send them a relevant message that encourages them to come to your store to buy.

After this, geo-fencing will allow you to maintain contact with them, which is beneficial for their relationship marketing.
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