Geofencing Unleashed for Small Business Growth

This episode dives deep into the transformative potential of geofencing for small businesses, demonstrating how this location-based technology can effectively target customers in real-time. Listeners will learn about the practical applications, success stories, and the importance of monitoring ROI in their digital marketing efforts.  

• Understanding the concept of geofencing and its applications  
• Examining case studies from local businesses  
• Discussing the importance of ROI and analytics in marketing  
• Exploring the benefits of demographic targeting in ad campaigns  
• Emphasizing ethical considerations in using customer location data  
• Encouraging small business owners to embrace geofencing strategies

Transcript

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Geofencing for Business Growth

Speaker 1 0:28

Hey y'all , I'm so excited about this episode . This is a topic that I have recently learned a lot about . In the last six to eight months , I've helped multiple clients reach targets and customers in areas that they haven't actually been able to get into , and so today I'm going to teach you all about it and how to apply this to your business . And that's right . We're talking about geofencing , and it may have piqued your interest whenever you saw the title of this podcast and you're probably like I've never even heard of geofencing . I have a few clients that have heard about it , and then I have new clients that haven't heard about it , and so just really trying to educate you guys about how you can use geofencing to help with your business , today's question is how would your business change if you could target customers exactly when and where they need you ? This is something really cool about geofencing that I've recently learned is we can target such a specific audience on any platform that we want to , as well as any area that we want to , and we don't get told no . The biggest pet peeve of mine when it comes to meta ads is literally the fact that they tell me no so many freaking times , and I don't like being told no , I'm an Enneagram 8 , so if you know anything about that , they don't like being told no . We want to have our way . We want to do what we want to do and we want to make sure that we can accomplish our goal . However , we want to accomplish that goal . So meta ads when it first came out , it was really great for businesses because social media was just being like , I guess , started for businesses , and so then they had ads . Come in , you could reach a lot of people and it like for a very small fraction of the cost . You may even see now on your Facebook page it it'll be like oh , boost this post for $20 . And you may think $20 is really not that much . It really isn't that much . But how many times do you sit and you hit boost for $20 ? So if you're doing that over and over and over and it's only going for like a week , at a time that money starts to add up and where's your ROI ? Like , what are you seeing in return for that $20 that you just spent on that post ? And then how do you read the analytics ? So another thing about when you're running online ads you want to make sure that you know how to run analytics and what those analytics mean , because that's how you're going to track your ROI with all of this .

Speaker 1 2:48

Marketing in general , with ROI is hard because you're like I mean , I'm just out here , I'm trying to put my face out there , I'm trying to put my brand out there . Really , that's what digital marketing is for . We want to put your face and your name and your business and your logo in front of as many people as possible . We want to take those people from that ad , from that social media post , and we want to take them to your website . Once they're to your website , then you can capture their email . You can capture their attention with more services , something that's easy to look at on mobile devices and on desktops . So , any kind of ads that you are doing , if this is a route that you want to take , make sure that you have a landing place for those people .

Speaker 1 3:27

So when we're talking about geofencing , the definition is a location-based technology that uses GPS , wi-fi , cellular data to create a virtual boundary around a specific geographic area . So technically , you are literally setting up a geofence . So I'm going to use my Coffee Corner client . They are and that's literally their name Coffee Corner . They're a coffee shop here in my town where I live at , and they wanted to be able to increase their online orders as well as drive-thru for people to come through and like , just drive through .

Speaker 1 4:01

A lot of people think that they have to go inside of their store , and we're trying to change the narrative , we're trying to change their habits . We want people to know that get off the boulevard , you go , you drive through , get back on the boulevard , that you're right there by a light . And so we set up a geofence the first month that I started working with them and this geofence was in a five mile radius . So you're like , well , that's not very big . Well , coffee shops are you really traveling more than five miles to go to a coffee shop ? Usually not , and the way , like where they're located , is a very high traffic area . People are going to work , they're coming home , they're coming home to lunch or they're in . It's a town where we literally live in this town and like we leave to go to work , like this is the kind of town it is and so it's a neighborhood community . So we're trying to reach people when they're going to school , when they're going to work , that kind of stuff , and so the first month we only spent a hundred dollars . So a hundred dollars over a 30 period day . This was during the holiday time , and so people were . It was cold and people did not want to get out of their car and go in and get coffee . They saw an increase of 25% when it comes to people that are driving through , as well as their online orders . So when I set up this geofence , I set up a five-mile radius . It was $100 for 30 days . Then , on the actual ad itself , I linked it to the online order , so it was an ad .

Speaker 1 5:25

I had one ad running that was all about their I think it was like a gingerbread mocha or something like that and it was all about their specials for that like holiday season , because you know us Americans , we love a good holiday seasonal coffee At least I do and so we had this and we're like ooh , that's really delicious looking Like there was a picture of it , people clicked it and it would go to their online ordering , and their online ordering has , like this is where we're located , you can pay and then you just run through . And their online ordering has , like this is where we're located , you can pay and then you just run through and they literally have it within three minutes . I buy coffee there all the time and if you're watching online , you see me have it right here . I picked it up on the way back from dropping my kid off at school and so this is what we saw with their little coffee shop $100 , 30 days , all about seasonal coffees , and their online orders went up 25% .

Speaker 1 6:16

We also educated people that were seeing these ads on the boulevard . We educated them of like , oh hey , hey , y'all , there's a coffee shop right here . Every morning , you're going to pass it right here . Even if they weren't one of the ones in the first 30 days , they at least were touched . The impressions over 30 days , I believe , were around 40,000 people Y'all . That's insane $100 to reach 40,000 people and over 600 clicks on the ad . That means over 600 people went to the website . So when you're thinking of ROI , when it comes to geofencing and this is like your goals and stuff , you want the clicks to be a really high number . We also want the impressions to be a really high number . So the 40,000 people , that is a huge number . That's how many people saw this ad and also super dangerous if you think about it , because I only ran it to where people on their devices , so on their phones or iPads I didn't do it on desktop and so those people are all on their phones while they were driving by within a five-mile radius .

Speaker 1 7:20

So then you start to ask yourself , because I was kind of curious , like okay , well , if I'm doing these ads , like where the heck are they actually showing up at ? Well , they're gonna be showing up on Amazon . They're gonna be showing up on any kind of meta that you have open . They're going to be showing up on a game . So I love to play games on my phone . I have several different types of games and when I'm playing I see like a little ad at the bottom for like a local car dealership and I'm like what the heck ? I remember seeing this the first time and I'm like how do they put their ad on my game on my phone ? Like do they have a contract with this game or something ? Ding , ding , ding . No , they don't . It's called geofencing . So this is the type of ads that your client and your customer are going to see . They're going to be banner ads on their games . They're going to be square ads on Amazon .

Speaker 1 8:08

Another example I'm going to use is a State Farm agent that I started kind of working on him first because I needed a little bit of practice with all of this , and so we did his during Thanksgiving era era , anyway . So we started doing his during the Thanksgiving time and we did 30 days and we spent $200 and he is in a very small town and within the first 30 days it was like 60,000 people had seen his ads . He got an increase of like 85% on his website and we had that verified from the state farm people on the back end to make sure like all those numbers were correct . And then the number one place that his ad showed up was on Amazon . And do you want to know why ? Because of Black Friday . So during Black Friday we're running his ad and it's popping up on people's Amazon pages and I think that's like the coolest thing ever and it's kind of creepy .

Speaker 1 9:07

So if you're kind of on the fence of like , I mean I don't really like it when I see ads . I mean I don't like it when I see ads either , but like also , if you're a small business owner and you're even slightly interested in this information , then you need to know that this is amazing Like this is something that a tool that you can use forever and almost like no boundaries whatsoever . So let's kind of break it down . When I set up a geofence for a client , like in a campaign , we have our budget , which is obvious . I do the ad creatives , so sometimes I'll do squares , sometimes I'll do banner ads , sometimes I'll run three to four different types of ads just to see , like , what people are clicking , but that's all within the $100 budget . I can also do demographics , so we're going to do male , female , we can do age .

Speaker 1 9:55

There is an option to do an income , but we don't really want to do income because how they get their information for the like through this software is that it's what people are putting on the internet , and so I'm not putting anywhere on the internet of how much money I make and so I'm putting on the internet like I'm a female , I'm 31 and I live at this location , so the internet knows that information about me , but they don't know how much money I'm actually making every year . So I would steer away . I learned this the hard way . I would steer away from an income-based ad because people it's not gonna be an accurate ad rating , so then we can also if's say , I , okay . So I just talked to a client and or a potential client and he has a software coming out and with this software out he wants to like target customers that are home builders or contractors . So I can set up our geo-fencing to where anybody that walks into a Home Depot or a Anybody that walks into one , walks out of one or is in a one mile radius of a Home Depot or Lowe's , is going to have a geofence ad from his software . That's literally how creepy and how amazing geofencing is .

Speaker 1 11:14

We can get down to the nitty gritty . I've almost thought about running one just for the heck of it . A state farm agent or any kind of insurance agent that offers pet insurance and be like , okay , anybody going into a pet co in this state , because you know insurance agents are per state . So , like , in this state , anyone that goes into a pet co is going to see this ad for pet insurance . I'm pretty sure it could be really cool . The numbers could be really great and those people would probably get a lot of calls because people love their pets . Right , if you have a pet , you're like I mean now I kind of want pet insurance because it's I mean , it's what we do , right ? I have insurance on my kid . I would definitely have insurance on my pet . So these are just a few examples of geofencing and how I use them for my clients . I haven't personally used them for me when it comes to business to business . I haven't figured that part out , so this is still in the works on that end .

Speaker 1 12:08

I think geofencing is going to be more for the small businesses or service-based businesses that are reaching out to the everyday person , to homeowners , to people that need their car washed , to people that need window tinting or people that need their car washed , to people that need window tinting or people that need insurance .

Speaker 1 12:25

Like if your customer base is somebody that's just like an everyday joe off the street , I would say geofencing is going to be the the best way for you to spend your ad dollars and when I say ad dollars , that means if you're doing google ads , if you're doing meta ads , I would would take a minute , 30 to 60 to 90 days and run your geofencing ads and see what the difference is in those analytics , going both ways , and I think you're going to see a really big difference on your website traffic

Benefits of Geofencing for Small Businesses

Speaker 1 12:54

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Speaker 1 12:54

You'll see a big difference on your phone and the inquiries that you get from those ads . So I just challenge you that if geofencing kind of seems a little bit out there or something that you're not comfortable with , just reach out to me . I would love to walk you through the process and I think that it's something that you would really benefit from if you are a small business . Again , reaching out to the everyday person in a fixed location , we can do all over America . You can do the state , you can do your city , anything like that . So I hope you learned a lot about geofencing . It's a really fun subject for me to discuss and it's something that I thought was a lot bigger than what it really is . And once you get down to the nitty-gritty , you're like oh , this is actually super rad and I love it because I see so many better influences than , or so many better results than , the other ad options out there through digital marketing . So thanks so much for tuning in and I will catch you on the next episode .