What is Geofencing? After customers enter a defined, physical space, powerful marketing technology, aptly called geofencing, displays your company's ads or content based on a user's location. This technology is used to develop extremely, targeted and effective, social, content, and ad campaigns. Using smartphones to collect data about whom entered the predefined zone, geo-fencing then adds users to a targeting audience, giving you the ability to serve ads in a variety of ways. Social media, Google, display, banner ads, as well as, other in-app notifications, are just some of the places able to deliver ads. Smartphones are packed with useful technology (GPS, RFID, Wifi, Bluetooth, and others) that can be used to identify a user’s geographic location--down to 1000 square feet. If a company is looking for a way to get in front of the right audience, geofencing is certainly, an option.
Here, we will discuss some of the ways to use geofencing in your marketing and advertising efforts. Some of them may surprise you.
Target the Competition
One of the most surprising ways geo-fencing can be used is placing a “fence” around a competitor's location. For companies participating in high stakes sales, this is the ultimate Trojan horse. Not only will it give the competition something to sweat about (your competitor will see your ads too), it will make sure your company gets a fair shot at the sale. This is especially useful if a customer is at a competitor’s facility or location. It is safe to assume that your potential client is actively seeking a similar product or service, likely a qualified prospect.
Fence Your Own Location
This is especially important for maintaining mind-share with the customer during negotiations. The ability to serve ads to a user actively working with your company increases the likelihood of reaching a deal. This is especially true during long sales cycle times, typically common in the industrial manufacturing sector. Staying in front of your customers provides them with useful information about your company and all the great things they can expect. This, combined with an active sales team, will guide your company through very smooth sales.
Fence a Tradeshow Booth or Other Events
Does your company want to capture more leads from a tradeshow? There are several ways to do exactly that with geo-fencing. Set the fence around the entire expo center. Next, serve an ad, encouraging users to come to your booth with booth numbers, dates, times, etc. Another strategy, geo-fence your booth, and your competitor's booths. Serve ads that are more specific, a product, machine, or process you are showcasing at the show. Also, stay in front of people that you may not have a chance to talk to or collect contact info. If you want to get really specific, while fencing a competitor's booth, display a comparable product or service from your line, based on what your competition is showing. When used intelligently and tastefully, you have the potential to start going after market share at shows.
Target Specific Prospect Companies by Addresses
This strategy is effective when prospect lists are in play. If you have a company's address, set up a fence around that address. This allows you to specifically target certain businesses. You will not be able to focus in on certain job titles, as with some other forms of advertising, but you will reach decision-makers as they spend time in their office. An added benefit to this type of targeting is exposing the entire staff to one message, maintaining continuity in the message and branding. This is especially useful when there are multi-level decisions required for large/capital purchases or investments.
Data Mapping
Geo-fencing is not meant for serving ads to users. It’s also meant for counting how many people pass through a defined area. This effectively, collected data, draws a picture of certain flow behaviors at events (for instance, a trade show). This allows a company to understand which areas of the booth are most useful and interesting to customers and prospects. It also gives you an idea if certain areas of the show hall are busier than others, helping make more informed decisions in the future.
Easily Track First Contact In the Sales Cycle
We, as marketers and companies, are becoming increasingly sensitive (and rightfully so) to showing our math. While tracking ROI on specific forms of advertising, we need to be able to show that a piece of content or tactic is working, in order to continue receiving the budget, required for driving these activities. When geofencing is utilized correctly, it is possible to gather this type of information, create the conversion into a warm lead, tag it in the CRM, and follow it through to completion or close. This gives a company a clear pathway to understanding where they made contact with the customer, as they continue to drill down into the customer journey or discovery process, better understanding the customer’s perspective. Geo-fencing gives us these tools, when paired with tactics, like sales funnels and landing pages and drip campaigns.
As a concept, geo-fencing is an extremely, effective form of delivering targeted and useful information to the right audience, based on location-specific data. When utilized with other forms of advertising, branding, content, and data, it becomes a powerhouse for getting your company or brand in front of the right audience--and staying there. We must remember, in order to stay relevant, a company needs to be in the right place at the right time. Processes like geo-fencing, and other forms of remarketing or retargeting, allow us to simplify this process. Hone in on tactics that work best for each individual company and their customers or prospects. If you are interested in utilizing geofencing in your marketing efforts, contact Nesbit Marketing, today!
Info@nesbitmarketing.com
231-360-0179