Geofencing: Pushing the Boundaries Means Setting Them
What an amazing world we live in. Over 92 percent of us walk around with a computer in our pocket. No one ever utilizes a map when they need directions. We can download apps that help us track our diets, appointments, and children. Technology has made life easier in so many ways. But it has made the world of digital marketing an explosion of opportunity. Along with tracking our kids and weight loss, GPS and RFID tech also enable practices to track potential patients and reach out to them in a specific geographic area.
How it Works
Like most things that involve technology, it mostly seems like magic. But geofencing is an exact science. It allows the creator of the geofence to reach out to potential patients immediately when they travel into the vicinity of the geofence area. The digital marketing agency will consult with you about the area that you want to be fenced. There are two ways to fence. First, you can fence an area around your practice. This is usually best applied when you offer specials or limited offers on quick procedures or private-label products. The second way to fence is to fence the area of a competitor. When a potential patient enters the office or is in a competitor’s area, they will receive a message reminding them that your practice offers those services at a higher rating or a competitive price.
Benefits
Why should you geofence? The benefits of geofencing are plentiful:
- The data that is provided to you from geofencing is some of the most accurate data that money can buy. Your geofencing metrics will tell you how many people entered your geofencing area and if they responded, clicked through or walked through your office door.
- It is a first-person-user data dream come true. Some metrics have shown that geofencing provides a 97 percent more accurate data return and reach than other marketing strategies. And the larger area you target, say a mile radius instead of a ten-building radius, reaches 99 percent.
- Engagement is in real-time vs. a delayed provision like paid search ads. And campaigns can be changed on the fly. Other types of invasive advertising, such as billboards, usually have a six-month wait until creative content can be changed. A geofencing ad can be changed any time, stopped or started, put on hold, or changed completely.
- Geofencing is a great way to begin considering mobile advertising. Practice managers are growing savvy with how they spend their digital marketing dollars, but mobile campaigns are still mysterious. Often, the assumption is that if a campaign is on the net, it can also be mobile fitted. But that is not true, necessarily. To find out if your digital marketing strategy is currently mobile-friendly, Caledon Virtual can provide a free digital marketing audit and deliver information about whether your marketing strategy is crossing platforms and taking you into mobile apps.
- Geofencing is one of the most affordable avenues of digital marketing. If you have a digital marketing campaign set up on various social media platforms, chances are one of them has the geofencing capability, and it is affordable.
How to Geofence
Don’t be shocked, we aren’t giving away any big trade secrets by telling you the inner workings of geofencing. It is something that you can do yourself, just to try it out. However if you want to run consistent geofencing campaigns, it is a good idea to involve a digital marketing agency as they can oversee continuity and make it fit with your current goals.
Here’s a quick look at how geofencing works:
- Define the geofencing perimeter – a geofence is a polygon or shaped perimeter placed using maps.
- Define the trigger – a trigger is the point where a person (or their phone) enters into the configured area and receives a push notification with your information.
- Define the desired action or event – once the perimeter and trigger are set, then you must decide what is going to be pushed out in the notification. They are also going to be added to a list of contacts so they become part of your push notification listing.
Like most things requiring a digital strategy, geofencing can be complicated at first. But it is the first step toward glocalization – a portmanteau word that combines global and localization. And in reality, that is what geofencing is. Inhabitants of a localized world fenced by you to benefit your business may sound like the stuff of dystopian movies, but in reality, it is happening and benefitting businesses daily.
