Geofencing is a key capability of location-based intelligence; one that offers you the chance to optimise profitability and enhance your data-gathering processes.
By setting up digital ‘fences’ around locations important to your business – your own stores, your competitors’, transport hubs and local amenities – you can track important customer information, automate promotional activities, and reach customers at the most relevant times.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to three of the most effective ways to integrate geofencing into your business strategy.
How to make an impact with geofencing
Here are three ways your business can leverage geofencing:
1) Location-based marketing
Geofencing is so much more than a passive data-gathering process. It’s an active, and intensely effective, marketing tool.
By setting up geofences of a pre-selected radius around all your locations, you can send out promotional materials to incentivise customers to visit your premises.
This could be a discount, bespoke offer based on their purchasing history, loyalty-based offer, or simple showcasing of your new range.
For known customers, you can use geofencing to send out marketing emails, or push notifications direct to their mobile devices. Alternatively, you could use Facebook Advertising or Google AdWords to target as-yet unknown customers when they enter your geofence.
2) Geo-conquesting
Geo-conquesting – sometimes called ‘mobile conquesting’ or ‘competitive geofencing’ – is a form of geofencing, but with a twist.
Instead of simply setting up geofences around your own stores, you set them up around your competitors’.
When a known customer, or someone who matches your target demographics, moves close to a competitor’s location, you can automatically dispatch a marketing message or position an ad to incentivise them to choose you instead.
Companies of any size can use this technique. US retail giant Whole Foods was an early adopter, while Dunkin’ is currently using this technique to counter Starbucks.
However, smaller businesses stand to benefit most. Geo-conquesting gives them a means of feeding off the buzz surrounding larger entities, challenging their market dominance, and unlocking already saturated markets.
3) Footfall analysis
As well as allowing you to reach out to your customers, or your competitors’, geofencing helps you gather valuable data that will enhance your overall business strategy.
With geofencing, you can find out more about what makes your customers tick. You can gain a clearer picture of their regular patterns: where they work/visit, what routes they use to get there etc.
You can also use geofences to assess footfall in a given location. This could be close to a store, a competitor’s store, or major transport hub, for example.
Using this information, you can make strategic decisions about how to allocate your resources, and what type of store would be most suitable for a particular location.
So, try out these innovative techniques and see how far geofencing could take your business.
Optimise the location intelligence of your business with Periscope® from Newgrove; sign up for a free, 10-minute demo today.