Why Small Businesses Need to Know About Geofencing
A few years ago, the term hyperlocal marketing rode the wave of buzzwords, by making it possible to pinpoint a specific area with the help of location-based technology like the GPS.
This strategy gained momentum as mobile devices became more and more popular.
Today, with mobile search becoming the go-to guy when it comes to brand or company related research, an astonishing 51% of users say that they find a product or company using their smartphones.
The biggest advantage of smartphones is that they are always within reach of your customer, which is the reason why hyperlocal marketing strategies, such as geofencing, are on their way to glory in the mobile marketing world.
What is Geofencing?
Geofencing is a technique of creating a virtual boundary in a specified area using Global Positioning (GPS) or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). This helps locate people who are within the created boundary.
This virtual boundary is established by the administrator to set up triggers that send push notifications in the form of a text message, app notification, or email alert when a device enters or exits these boundaries.
The boundaries of the geofence can be as small as the backyard of your home or stretch as wide as a city.
How Does Geofencing Work?
For the functioning of a geofence, it is essential to have the geolocation data of the customer’s assets such as a mobile device, car, or any other hardware that has GPS enabled in it.
The data generated from the customer’s assets can then be leveraged by a product or app to understand the location of the asset. It then uses this information to provide services such as text messages, email alerts, or app notifications when the customer enters or exits the geofence.
How Can it Increase the Footfall of Your Small Business?
Now you can take your marketing efforts with geofencing to a localized level. Here are some Geofencing benefits that can help market your small business in a smart way.
1. Enhanced Local Performance
If your small business is making efforts to improve the local performance, then geofencing can be the right strategy for you.
Since geofencing is based on location, you can target customers who are within the geographical boundary of your business.
You can hyper-target local sales by changing promotional messages every day and providing limited time offers that will increase traffic and, in turn, boost sales from local customers.
One thing to note here is the conversion rate within a smaller radius is better because conversions from one lead to a new customer to a repeat customer is much higher.
If you have a small business and have a lot of competition around, then starting from a smaller radius like your backyard or neighborhood is advisable, and if you have a niche business with fewer competitors then covering a larger radius would be advisable.
2. Scalability with Accuracy
It is difficult to measure local sales with your online efforts because you cannot survey each customer visiting your store. Geofencing tracks the location coordinate, which happens multiple times, for the data to stay accurate.
With the help of a geofencing mobile app or geofencing tools, you can easily measure the following metrics and track or identify the reason that made the customer come to your business.
- How many times customers visit your store
- How long customers stay in your store
- Entire Conversations through promotional activity
- Total Sales
3. Give them What they Want
Another exciting benefit of geolocation is collecting data to personalize your customer offers according to demographics and their preferences.
You can increase footfall by merely identifying what your customers want and then you can promote products when they are around your store. You can also beat competitors by giving notifications of better offers as soon as you see the customer walk inside your competitor’s store.
4. Become their Reminders
Geofencing can also be used to send a reminder message when a user is near a service point location and to remind him/her of the upcoming service or provide an incentive to come in.
For example, if you have a dental clinic, you can notify patients about their due visit or appointment and also offer discounts on their visit if they reach out within the next few hours. This way, customers will remember your brand for making their life convenient.
6. Become Cost Efficient
Geofencing is an affordable marketing strategy for small businesses as it offers an accurate marketing strategy to promote their business (via timely messages) to the targeted local audience, at the right time and the right place.
It saves tons of money that your small business would have otherwise spent on paid advertising.
Therefore, geofencing is a great way to grow your small business with less money while competing with large businesses.
Final Thoughts
After looking at various benefits of geofencing, we can say that it is a powerful tool for your local business if done right. It helps to improve your local search ranking, increase sales and engagement at at incredibly low cost.
What are you waiting for?
Revolutionise your small business with geofencing today.
