While I’ve known about Geo-location for quite some time I had rarely used it in the past other than Google Adwords or FaceBook. But there’s a newer platform, Simplifi, that is more concise, accurate, and less expensive. For marketers with strapped budgets Geofencing is a great way to get in front of your audience, especially when you have a longer sales cycle.
When we used our own platform we “fenced” over 50 buildings in which our target audience works and served ads to them. In one month we had over $100,000 in new estimates YOY! And the cost was less than $0.02 cents per impression!
I was surprised to say the least. I’ve been around and leveraged marketing automation, made global media buys, and leveraged social media syndication. Because the platform leverages 30+ active satellites and captures a person’s mobile ID when they cross a virtual fence, you get a better package.
When you know your client’s or customer’s lifestyle behaviors, it’s easy to start to figure out where they hangout. Once you know that it’s easy to “fence” their hangout spots and serve them ads over the next 30 days.
We’re working on a strategy for one restaurant where they will mail a birthday gift card to local customers and we also can automatically target the same address with geo-fencing, serving them reminder ads over the next 30 days.
The platform is not cheap at $22k per month, but we’re keeping the cost per thousand for clients at $16/1000. I don’t advocate using just one media channel but this particular platform is making a difference. Also, I’m a big believer in inbound marketing and leveraging content to pull people in. The platform will serve Native Ads, as well as Pre-roll which can just offer educational material.
Geo-fencing is at a price point that helps marketers drive a branding message as well as a direct marketing lead generation. For small to mid-sized organizations you can serve the audience relevant content and offers based on understanding their lifestyle and taking advantage of how their hangouts are part of their daily lives.
Eric Webb has over 30 years experience in marketing across many industries, including three start ups with MyPoints.com going public in 1999. He is the President of the AlphaGraphics Cary and North Raleigh offices. He brings his marketing experience and network create a combination of creators that help agencies, soloprenuers and large organizations develop marketing strategy and implement under one roof.
