Geofencing: The Secret Weapon in a Retailer’s Arsenal

Location. Location. Location.  Geofencing is all about location. Over the past decade, several marketing tools have been developed to help retailers more effectively reach customers. According to CIO “geofencing is a location-based service that sends messages to smartphone users who enter a defined geographic area.”  This form of location-based marketing helps retailers lure customers into their stores using special deals, promotions, and coupons. At Copley Advertising, we allow you to create a geofence within a 50feet or 500mile radius of your target location.  We then tag all smartphones in this geofence and incorporate your desired ad in one of the thousands of apps we have access to. When the tagged user opens the app and clicks on the ad, we place that customer ID in our retargeting folder for future campaigns.

Picture this. You own a trendy teenager and young adult clothing store in a fairly popular mall. However, the foot traffic into your store is far less than what you think it should be. You decide to give geo-fencing a shot. As soon as anyone enters the mall, you send a digital advertisement to the person’s smartphone for a limited time only discount coupon.  Within a day you notice that the number of customers in your store has increased by 2 percent. That number triples by the end of the week.

Geo-fencing provides numerous benefits to retailers. Some of these benefits include: appealing to the unique interests of customers within a particular geographical region, helping customers find your store, directing foot traffic away from your competition, effectively analyzing campaigns, and providing a personalized experience to customers.

Appealing to the Local Customer

There are some common interests that remain constant regardless of the region in which a customer lives. However, buyer characteristics vary slightly from one region to another. The location specificity of geo-fencing allows you to send targeted advertisements that are relevant to people in that location. Advertisements could surround local events, celebrations, or interests.  Customers will be more interested in a brand that is relevant to them.

Finding Your Store with Ease

With geofencing, the idea is to lure customers into your store. Geo-fencing impressions allow you to provide specific directions to your store. Mapping out the path, as well as providing enticing deals, makes it less likely that a customer will give your competitors a second glance.

Providing Useful Information

Geo-fencing campaigns are useless if data isn’t adequately analyzed. Geo-fencing impressions provide several data metrics that help you determine the effectiveness of your campaign. Metrics include: how many people targeted offers were brought to the store, how many sales resulted from target offers, how long customers spend in the store, how often a customer visits the store and so on.  Having this data can be very useful in guiding future campaigns and adjusting aspects of your store to meet your customer’s needs.

Personalization Separates the Winners from the Losers

Humans love to feel important. Your ability to provide each customer with deals related to products he or she loves that will separate you from your competition. Geo-fencing impressions can be programmed to get specific data about each customer. This data includes spending patterns and the areas the customer frequently visits in your store. You can use what you learn to create targeted geo-fencing ads that add value to the customer and compel him or her to make a purchase.

Copley Advertising provides geofencing services for a variety of clients.  Each geo-fencing impression we create is tailored to meet the specific needs of our customers. We will help you stand out from the competition and drive more foot traffic to your store.

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