A geofence is a virtual perimeter or a kind of boundary of a real geographic location. A geofence could be generated around a point location or can be a predefined set of fencing/boundaries.

Geofencing in essence creates a boundary around a business location using a combination of technologies (including GPS). A geofence could be a specific city, a particular pin code, a range of x number of kilometers around a store location. Big brands with multiple outlets can have various geofences operational at any given time.

Geofencing is extremely beneficial as a marketing tool. It is widely used in mobile marketing and has taken it to the next level. Geofencing essentially is a service that triggers an action when a person with their mobile device enters a particular location (a geofence).

In Local marketing, this tool is quite effective as local businesses can target audiences in their proximity to potentially lure them to their offline stores. When a person enters a geofence, they are in a position to get alerts and notifications like coupons, vouchers, engagement features, security alerts, etc. These are some of the creative ways in which businesses can draw the attention of prospective customers.

After defining a geofence, businesses can really take multiple strategies, and as there are endless possibilities for what businesses can do to creatively engage their audience. It has also gained immense popularity on Social Media.

Geofencing marketing allows marketers to target their audience more precisely based on their location and deliver appropriate, relevant, and impactful advertisements and content. With this kind of marketing tool, marketers and advertisers can understand the issues or pain points and/or the traits that make the people or community in this location unique from others. This factor becomes really important when it comes to effective and influential marketing and creating personalized content that resonates with the recipients. This kind of personalization becomes quite necessary as a community in North India for example will have very different likes, dislikes as well as needs and concerns than those in South India or East India. Priorities of communities can change every 100 kilometers or even less.

The geofencing tool is a powerful marketing tool as it allows brands to communicate their identity and message to the right audience at the right place and right time. A business can also take advantage of this tool and set geofencing around their competitor’s location to lure customers to their own brand by offering better deals, etc.

A common mistake with Geofencing could be casting too wide a net. This overambition can very well backfire if one isn’t careful. This has the potential to make your marketing strategy and content extremely generic and not personalized enough to be effective.

Geofencing can also help remarket and reinforce previous and pre-existing campaign messages. This also becomes a great way to reach more people in real-time while keeping marketing budgets to a minimum and getting the most out of existing campaign material.

While in today’s time most businesses are functioning and solely existing online, some are still operating in a brick-and-mortar setting. While the former may be selling to a wide range of people without any common geographical limitation and across states, countries, or even continents, many still rely on their local clientele to stay in business! Even multinational brands need to keep their stores functional and operating well. So, if your business is developing a multichannel marketing strategy for your brand, it would be advantageous to consider and apply geofencing strategies and unlock its potential.