Events are becoming more and more popular for businesses and organizations as the economy continues to return to a sense of normalcy. They are a great way to drive business to stores, restaurants or other establishments, and they are also perfect for networking with others in a specific industry at conferences and trade shows. While events tend to have a robust marketing plan, one strategy is proven to get people in the door: geofencing.
Why is geofencing an important strategy for events?
Geofencing is a way to target people within a certain area. It is creating a digital radius or polygon around a real-world environment. It works by using a person’s location from their mobile device, and when that person enters the digital perimeter it triggers an action such as an ad with a coupon, or an alert about a nearby event. People can see an ad on their phone through commonly used apps such as those related to news, games, weather or sports (all applications people typically use multiple times a day). Geofencing seamlessly integrates into the lives of your customers.
Geofencing can help with various types of events from grand openings to conferences that attract thousands of attendees. For all types of events, big and small, a similar methodology will be used. When you are considering geofencing, you are targeting like-minded people and those people might be in specific areas or buildings. A grand opening of a restaurant may want to create a geofence around an entire town or neighborhood that it is in to get the locals to come and try it, but they may also want to target people who are eating at similar establishments to let them know that a new restaurant with a similar type of cuisine is opening. For events, you may still want to create a fence around the town, if it makes sense, but you will also want to consider creating a geofence around the venue of similar events, so people know another is coming up in X amount of months. Events tend to be specific around a particular demographic, so you will want to target the area that those people frequent, that might be a hospital, if it is a medical conference or university, if it is a conference for educators.
img. from Electronica
If this sounds great to you, you’re probably wondering how you can get started on geofencing for events marketing too. At Thumbvista, we have a couple of options that will help you get started. First, we have a self-service tool that will allow companies big or small to create campaigns with a basic level of geofencing. The tool will allow you to build geofences around zip codes, cities or DMA’s. We also offer a full-service tool, where you will have our experts at Thumbvista who can help every step of the way with no limits on geofencing capabilities, plus you can add on additional offers from our agency. To get started, click here to get started with self-service or here to see what our full-service option can do for you.