Mobile ads accounted for roughly 63% of all digital ad revenue in 2018, so it’s fair to assume that most marketers are now focusing on breaking into mobile to promote their brands or businesses.
But in the digital age, there’s always something new creeping around the corner, and often the chances of a marketer’s success depends on how fast they get on the bandwagon. The newest trend taking mobile marketing by storm is called geo-fencing.
What Is It?
The idea is to use new technology like GPS, Bluetooth and other location-identifying tech to single out specific people based on where they are. From here, the uses of geo-fencing can vary from promoting a sale at a local dealership to highlighting enrollment opportunities at a nearby college or even restaurant recommendations. It’s great for a variety of industries, and you can expect more and more businesses to take advantage of its benefits.
Even though geo-fencing isn’t exactly new (targeting based on a person’s location has been around for a while in marketing,) it still may be a bit unclear just how it can help you grow your business.
Here are a few very compelling perks:
- It’s More Reliable
When you target based on location, you get a higher level of accuracy. But when you use geo-fencing, you are effectively drawing the map of where you want to send your promotional material, hitting all those potential new business opportunities in that area. The more specific you go with the location, the better chance you have of getting a customer through the front door. While geo-fencing isn’t necessarily designed for local businesses, you can see just how valuable it can be for them. - Customers Are Happier Too
People see ads every day. In fact, they see so many ads, that they start to tune them out, which is a very big problem for marketers. But with geo-fencing, you send them notifications about something they actually care about, not just an ad. Geo-fencing lets people know you have a great sale coming up, or a new product they can be the first to check out. And they can be personalized based on people’s preferences. For example, if you are a water sports shop, you can let your scuba diver customers know when you have a sale on scuba gear. When you send people messages with real, valuable information, they won’t count it as another ad. They’ll see it as a useful tip. - It’s Cost Efficient
Not everyone has unlimited resources for marketing. Many business owners simply cannot afford to use every marketing trick at their disposal, they have to prioritize based on their budget. So you’ll be happy to hear geo-fencing is very cost-efficient because you can create your own marketing channel and control the cost of promotion, rather than relying on one provided by a third party. You can go as wide as you can afford, at least until those new customers start coming in. Once you get more customers through the door (virtual or otherwise) you can start scaling your efforts and invest more in this marketing strategy.
To Conclude
Geo-fencing gives businesses and marketers the chance to advertise specifically to those users located within a certain geographic radius. And as any marketer knows, the more accurate you can target your potential customers, the most likely you are to convert them. Have you given geo-facing a try yet? We would love to hear about your experience or discuss your options, please click here to connect with us now.