Geofencing: Building Contractors

Posted on by John Flynn - CEO - Copley Advertising

Geofencing can be used in numerous ways and its use for marketing campaigns and increasing interaction between businesses and the right prospects is increasing almost daily. Helping customers find you are one of the most common ways that geofencing has been used – alerting a customer who has stepped into a shopping mall of your great offer is becoming common practice, but what if you could target areas by weather patterns? It’s now possible to do just that by setting up impressions that are switched on or off by the weather forecast.

Timing is everything

Creating customer engagement based on someone’s exact location and current situation leads to a meaningful advert or communication. Imagine being able to send a message about your house repair services or DIY products to families in areas that have just been hit by severe storms.

A well-timed advert or message about your services to someone likely to need exactly what you are offering – construction services or DIY products for repairs for example – will put you at the fore of a customer’s mind right when they are thinking about work they need to have done. The figures back it up too – Secondary Action Rates, meaning people who visit a store or take some other action after seeing an ad are more than twice as likely with geofencing. What’s more, home and trade services rank amongst the industries receiving the highest secondary action rates.

Meet your customer’s needs right where they are

Going a step further than simply attracting customers to you with timely notifications, geofencing linked to weather forecasting allows for timely and relevant information that potential customers can use in emergency or severe weather situations. Because geofencing is flexible you are able to adapt the area that impressions are being sent to relatively easily making sure you are able to reach the most likely candidates for your services, be they upscale areas experiencing high winds and storm damage, or areas where DIY renovations are on the increase.

Build Trust Quickly

Businesses that are quick to respond with a tailored offer and can specifically target an area that needs the service they provide have a foot in the door when building trust with the consumer and are more successful at turning that prospective sale into a valued customer.

Given that 60% of consumers look for local information on their phones and around 75% of Americans own a smartphone, this is especially relevant for large national contractors, or big box stores who want to find business outside of their base area, and still, have a local feel.

Simply giving potential customers all the information they need to find you when it comes time to repair the damage caused by a storm, flood, fire or other weather related event begins building the foundation of trust needed for customers to contract expensive work or purchase big ticket items from big box stores such as Home Depot.

Copley Advertising has a team of geofencing experts who are able to help you create an effective campaign that follows the weather forecasts around the country. They can do all of the technical work for you and make the magic happen.  Have questions?  [email protected]

Geofencing: Car Dealerships

Posted on by John Flynn - CEO - Copley Advertising

The implementation of geofencing in car dealership’s marketing programs has been talked about for some time now, but it’s only in recently that the technology has allowed programs geared to the car and truck industry.  Geofencing uses GPS/RFID technology to create geographic boundaries. When a mobile phone enters the target area the desired the phone is tagged and Copley Advertising has the ability to place ads on the smartphone.

The mobile phones of users would be targeted when they enter the auto dealerships.  The customers will be informed of the top deals that they might have missed and special mobile offers. The sales team may not have enough manpower to attend to every single customer that walks in, but mobile geofencing ensures no customer is left without a pitch being made.

The most powerful program for auto dealers is geo-conquesting.  Copley Advertising can geofence all competing car dealerships and tag smartphones in the dealership.  As customers are on the smartphones they will see your ad.  Call to Action creative can include weekend only rebates and call before you buy.  Plus if the tagged user engages with the ad we can capture their ID and place it in our retargeting folder.

Marketing campaigns can also be launched to targeted neighborhoods that are within close proximity of the auto dealerships. A seven-mile geofence around each dealership is recomeneded as over 80% of the dealership customers live within seven miles of the dealership.

Geotargeting also allows a car dealership to target customers based on demographics. For example, used cars might be targeted to students living on a college campus, whereas family based neighborhood advertising an SUV might make more sense.

The targeted nature of geofencing allows car dealerships to place themselves on the map without putting a big dent in their spending budget.   Email us at [email protected] to learn more about Copley Advertising geofencing programs for car dealerships.

Geofencing: Trade Shows

Posted on by John Flynn - CEO - Copley Advertising

Excitement bubbles through your veins. You’ve spent months perfecting your product. Now, it’s time to present it to some of the leading retailers and angel investors at a trade show. Reality hits. Thousands of other startups are also trying to grab the attention of these instrumental people.  You have to find a way to lure them in…a way to stand out and get them to pay attention. Geofencing is your answer. The following tips can help you leverage the power of geofencing at your next trade show.

Have a Clear Call to Action

Location based advertising feeds impulsive decisions.  Your geofencing ads should, therefore, have a clear call to action. Someone who enters your chosen geofence and sees your ad should, for instance, be prompted to utilize a discount coupon at your booth. It’s about getting the user to make a clear decision related to your brand in the moment.

Don’t Bombard Users

Geofencing is location based. However, avoiding the temptation to bombard potential customers with redundant messages is crucial. For instance, someone who has already entered the geofenced area shouldn’t constantly receive the same message every time he or she reenters the area.  Using routing algorithms to help people who have seen your ad find the fastest route to your booth is your safest bet.

Use the Data

A myriad of consumer behaviors is captured by geofencing. Some of this data includes: where consumers spend the most time at the trade show, the aspects of your booth that generate the most interest, and the amount of foot traffic you’re actually getting.  Using this data wisely helps you make informed decisions.

Trade shows are often expensive investments. Geofencing is one strategy that you can use to maximize your ROI at trade shows. Having a clear call to action, avoiding redundancy, and using the data you receive wisely can help you make the best use of your geofencing campaign. Copley Advertising has a team of geofencing experts who can help you create the best geofencing campaign for your next trade show appearance. Email us at [email protected]

Geofencing: Recruiters

Posted on by John Flynn - CEO - Copley Advertising

Geofencing is being used effectively by small and large retail businesses to attract customers and promote their products to specific groups in a personal and timely way that provides great results. With over 65% of consumers opening the push notifications they receive, and geofencing campaigns experiencing a 70% higher click through rate compared to standard ads as discussed in a previous article, it is no surprise that corporate organisations and health care providers are finding ways to use geofencing to target and recruit the best talent available for their businesses.

Target Talent

According to Glassdoor HR statistics, job location is one of the top 5 considerations of prospective employees when considering new employment. Corporate organizations – from accounting firms to transportation and logistical firms, even hospitals are using geofencing to find and reach out to the right candidates with some great results.

By reaching out to a target audience – one that is exhibiting signs they are ready to change roles through their web search history, purchasing activity and other internet use behaviors – with geofencing these companies have been able to increase the expertise within their business relatively easily.

For example, Holland Trucking needed more drivers for their workforce. With a limited recruitment budget they chose to send targeted ads with geofencing – their adverts had a quick link to the company’s job application webpage and was sent to prospective candidates within a five-mile radius of specific truck stops along one of the company’s major routes. The campaign resulted in increased traffic to their employment pages and better recruitment results for the business.

Reduce Costs

Bersin by Deloitte states the average cost to fill an open position is $4,000 and that takes around 52 days to find the right person.

High-Value Employee Targeting with geofencing can drastically reduce the cost of finding the right people for your business. A case study of an Atlanta-based health care provider looking for nurses is a great example of this. The healthcare provider and their marketing team decided to geofence other top rated medical facilities and send messages to relevant staff about the job openings reaching a targeted area with over 21,000 impressions.

Comparing the average cost of a geofencing marketing campaign and the time it takes to find the right people for a vacant position with traditional recruitment methods, it’s no wonder that larger corporations and health care providers are turning to geofencing, making it an innovation that is set to stay and become common practice within the recruitment sector.

Attract Top Talent to You

Rather than trawling through the thousands of resumes on recruitment websites, geofencing allows employers to target the talent they want and have them get in touch with them. Quite obviously, this saves a lot of time and hassle for the business. It is becoming commonplace for corporate and healthcare organizations to use technology to target the talent they need to keep their companies ahead of the competition – and geofencing is at the fore of this.

Recruiters can use geofencing to place ads around workplaces, universities, banks, hospitals – the list is virtually endless. Getting targeted messages to the right audiences has shown to give noticeable impact to recruitment campaigns when other approaches simply aren’t providing the results needed.

Copley Advertising has a team of geofencing experts who are willing to help you create an effective recruitment campaign. They can do all of the technical work for you and make the magic happen.  Have questions?  [email protected]

5 Sure-Fire Ways to Earn More with Geofencing

Posted on by John Flynn - CEO - Copley Advertising

Reaching customers where they are with what they need is the fundamental principle of geofencing.  Earn more. Win big. Geo-fencing strategies provide a targeted approach to digital marketing that helps businesses win new customers. The biggest earners in the geofencing space, however, practice these sure-fire ways to boost their ROI.

Be Strategic

Geofencing can be likened to a game of chess. Make the right moves and you’ll be able to defeat your opponent.  Think carefully about geofencing placement. Some businesses have used the diversion approach where a geofence is placed in the broad region surrounding a competitor. A customer who enters this region would receive notifications with deals and coupons from your store. Enticed by these deals, the customer will choose to purchase from your store instead of the competition.

Using the right size for your geofence is another way to be strategic.  For instance, if your product is sold in a large department store you may want to place a geofence around the product’s shelf space. Also, if you are building a campaign to sell a specific product line, it would be wise to create a geofence around that specific product’s location instead of around the entire store.

Population Density is Important

Your aim is to reach a large number of people who are more likely to make buying decisions.  It is fair to assume that the larger the geofence, the larger the audience. However, you want that audience to include people who are more likely to make the impulsive decision to visit your store. Shops in busy urban areas, therefore, benefit more from a smaller geo-fence. Conversely, stores in rural areas, where people are willing to drive miles to get what they want, benefit more from a larger geo-fence.

Use Wi-Fi instead of GPS

GPS drains battery life. Apps that are programmed to use geofencing with Wi-Fi and cell tower information fare better with users.  Although GPS provides a more accurate picture, Wi-Fi preserves battery life. The latter is more important to a consumer.

Don’t Bombard the User

Let’s set the record straight. Customers in your geofence mailing list should be those who’ve opted into receiving location-based notifications from your company. It’s the ethical thing to do. Be considerate. These people don’t want to be bombarded by messages overselling your company. If they are, they’ll have no problem instantly deleting your app.  Provide each customer with relevant and timely messages.  Too many messages paint your brand in a negative light.

Use Geo-Fencing with Other Location-based Targeting Strategies

Geofencing is a useful tool.  However, it has its limitations.  One of its greatest limitations is its need for user participation. If the feature isn’t activated on the user’s device, no results will be produced. You could follow all the aforementioned tips and get abysmal results. Therefore, geo-fencing shouldn’t be used in isolation. Instead, it should be used with other location-based marketing strategies, such as beacons.

The team at Copley Advertising consists of geofencing experts.  We know how to effectively use these sure-fire tips to help you get the highest ROI. Trust us to help you create a strategic, relevant, timely and user-friendly geofencing campaign. Questions? Email [email protected] to receive our presentation (What is Geofencing?).