GEOFENCING MARKETING

Hyper-local targeting of clients via mobile tech can be a boon

By our News Team | 2021

A geofencing marketing strategy uses near-ubiquitous mobile phones to reach potential customers within a designated geographical area.

For bricks-and-mortar business, attracting customers from their local area has become a lot harder in the digital age and the era of home deliveries through the likes of Amazon and other e-commerce businesses.

For some retailers, and even B2B organisations that sell locally, geofencing marketing may present an opportunity to cost-effectively target potential customers within their catchment area using cellular technology.

While the geofencing concept is still not common in the African context, it is gaining traction in markets such as North America and Europe.

What is it exactly? In a blog post for international digital marketing firm Bullseye Strategy, company President Maria Harrison explains that geofencing is a local, mobile advertising solution that allows marketers to target smartphone users when they enter a specified radius.

Photo by Darlene Alderson from Pexels

Geofencing marketing takes hyper-local targeting to a whole new level, especially as more consumers are finding more businesses online than ever before.

Geofencing ads have double the click-through rate

“More than half of smartphone users have discovered a new business or product when searching on their devices,” Harrison writes.

“A massive 53% of shoppers have visited a brick-and-mortar retailer after receiving a location-based message. And if you need more convincing to try geofencing marketing, mobile ads with geofencing capabilities have double the click-through rate.”

According to Harrison, using either GPS, RFID, Wi-Fi or cellular data, companies can create geofence boundaries. When these are crossed, they will trigger a series of programmable actions to recipients – including SMS and push notifications, social media ads, mobile display ads and navigation-based app ads sent to a mobile device.

“In other words, geofencing advertising leverages the data around a physical location to target specific customers. Geofencing can be highly successful in a marketing campaign, with three out of four consumers completing a target action when receiving a programmed text message after approaching a designated location,” she says.

Within the North American market, geofencing mobile marketing is compatible with 92% of all smartphones, Bullseye notes.

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