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

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey y'all, I'm so excited about this episode.
This is a topic that I haverecently learned a lot about.
In the last six to eight months, I've helped multiple clients
reach targets and customers inareas that they haven't actually
been able to get into, and sotoday I'm going to teach you all
about it and how to apply thisto your business.
And that's right.

(00:22):
We're talking about geofencing,and it may have piqued your
interest whenever you saw thetitle of this podcast and you're
probably like I've never evenheard of geofencing.
I have a few clients that haveheard about it, and then I have
new clients that haven't heardabout it, and so just really
trying to educate you guys abouthow you can use geofencing to
help with your business, today'squestion is how would your

(00:44):
business change if you couldtarget customers exactly when
and where they need you?
This is something really coolabout geofencing that I've
recently learned is we cantarget 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 toldno.
The biggest pet peeve of minewhen it comes to meta ads is

(01:08):
literally the fact that theytell me no so many freaking
times, and I don't like beingtold 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 todo and we want to make sure that
we can accomplish our goal.
However, we want to accomplishthat goal.
So meta ads when it first cameout, it was really great for

(01:29):
businesses because social mediawas just being like, I guess,
started for businesses, and sothen they had ads.
Come in, you could reach a lotof people and it like for a very
small fraction of the cost.
You may even see now on yourFacebook page it it'll be like
oh, boost this post for $20.
And you may think $20 is reallynot that much.
It really isn't that much.

(01:50):
But how many times do you sitand you hit boost for $20?
So if you're doing that overand over and over and it's only
going for like a week, at a timethat money starts to add up and
where's your ROI?
Like, what are you seeing inreturn for that $20 that you
just spent on that post?
And then how do you read theanalytics?

(02:10):
So another thing about whenyou're running online ads you
want to make sure that you knowhow to run analytics and what
those analytics mean, becausethat's how you're going to track
your ROI with all of this.
Marketing in general, with ROIis hard because you're like I
mean, I'm just out here, I'mtrying to put my face out there,
I'm trying to put my brand outthere.
Really, that's what digitalmarketing is for.

(02:31):
We want to put your face andyour name and your business and
your logo in front of as manypeople as possible.
We want to take those peoplefrom that ad, from that social
media post, and we want to takethem to your website.
Once they're to your website,then you can capture their email
.
You can capture their attentionwith more services, something
that's easy to look at on mobiledevices and on desktops.

(02:52):
So, any kind of ads that youare doing, if this is a route
that you want to take, make surethat you have a landing place
for those people.
So when we're talking aboutgeofencing, the definition is a
location-based technology thatuses GPS, wi-fi, cellular data
to create a virtual boundaryaround a specific geographic
area.
So technically, you areliterally setting up a geofence.

(03:15):
So I'm going to use my CoffeeCorner client.
They are and that's literallytheir name Coffee Corner.
They're a coffee shop here inmy town where I live at, and
they wanted to be able toincrease their online orders as
well as drive-thru for people tocome through and like, just
drive through.
A lot of people think that theyhave to go inside of their store

(03:37):
, and we're trying to change thenarrative, we're trying to
change their habits.
We want people to know that getoff the boulevard, you go, you
drive through, get back on theboulevard, that you're right
there by a light.
And so we set up a geofence thefirst month that I started
working with them and thisgeofence was in a five mile
radius.
So you're like, well, that'snot very big.
Well, coffee shops are youreally traveling more than five

(03:59):
miles to go to a coffee shop?
Usually not, and the way, likewhere 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'rein.
It's a town where we literallylive in this town and like we
leave to go to work, like thisis the kind of town it is and so
it's a neighborhood community.
So we're trying to reach peoplewhen they're going to school,

(04:21):
when they're going to work, thatkind of stuff, and so the first
month we only spent a hundreddollars.
So a hundred dollars over a 30period day.
This was during the holidaytime, and so people were.
It was cold and people did notwant 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

(04:43):
driving through, as well astheir 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.
I had one ad running that wasall about their I think it was

(05:03):
like a gingerbread mocha orsomething like that and it was
all about their specials forthat like holiday season,
because you know us Americans,we love a good holiday seasonal
coffee At least I do and so wehad this and we're like ooh,
that's really delicious lookingLike there was a picture of it,
people clicked it and it wouldgo to their online ordering, and

(05:23):
their online ordering has, likethis is where we're located,
you can pay and then you justrun through.
And their online ordering has,like this is where we're located
, you can pay and then you justrun through and they literally
have it within three minutes.
I buy coffee there all the timeand if you're watching online,
you see me have it right here.
I picked it up on the way backfrom dropping my kid off at
school and so this is what wesaw with their little coffee
shop $100, 30 days, all aboutseasonal coffees, and their

(05:47):
online orders went up 25%.
We also educated people thatwere seeing these ads on the
boulevard.
We educated them of like, ohhey, hey, y'all, there's a
coffee shop right here.
Every morning, you're going topass it right here.
Even if they weren't one of theones in the first 30 days, they
at least were touched.
The impressions over 30 days, Ibelieve, were around 40,000

(06:08):
people Y'all.
That's insane $100 to reach40,000 people and over 600
clicks on the ad.
That means over 600 people wentto the website.
So when you're thinking of ROI,when it comes to geofencing and
this is like your goals andstuff, you want the clicks to be
a really high number.
We also want the impressions tobe a really high number.

(06:30):
So the 40,000 people, that is ahuge number.
That's how many people saw thisad and also super dangerous if
you think about it, because Ionly ran it to where people on
their devices, so on theirphones or iPads I didn't do it
on desktop and so those peopleare all on their phones while

(06:51):
they were driving by within afive-mile radius.
So then you start to askyourself, because I was kind of
curious, like okay, well, if I'mdoing these ads, like where the
heck are they actually showingup at?
Well, they're gonna be showingup on Amazon.
They're gonna be showing up onany kind of meta that you have
open.
They're going to be showing upon a game.
So I love to play games on myphone.
I have several different typesof games and when I'm playing I

(07:16):
see like a little ad at thebottom for like a local car
dealership and I'm like what theheck?
I remember seeing this thefirst time and I'm like how do
they put their ad on my game onmy phone?
Like do they have a contractwith this game or something?
Ding, ding, ding.
No, they don't.
It's called geofencing.
So this is the type of ads thatyour client and your customer
are going to see.

(07:36):
They're going to be banner adson their games.
They're going to be square adson Amazon.
Another example I'm going to useis a State Farm agent that I
started kind of working on himfirst because I needed a little
bit of practice with all of this, and so we did his during
Thanksgiving era era, anyway.

(07:57):
So we started doing his duringthe Thanksgiving time and we did
30 days and we spent $200 andhe is in a very small town and
within the first 30 days it waslike 60,000 people had seen his
ads.
He got an increase of like 85%on his website and we had that

(08:19):
verified from the state farmpeople on the back end to make
sure like all those numbers werecorrect.
And then the number one placethat his ad showed up was on
Amazon.
And do you want to know why?
Because of Black Friday.
So during Black Friday we'rerunning his ad and it's popping
up on people's Amazon pages andI think that's like the coolest
thing ever and it's kind ofcreepy.

(08:40):
So if you're kind of on thefence of like, I mean I don't
really like it when I see ads.
I mean I don't like it when Isee ads either, but like also,
if you're a small business ownerand you're even slightly
interested in this information,then you need to know that this
is amazing Like this issomething that a tool that you
can use forever and almost likeno boundaries whatsoever.
So let's kind of break it down.

(09:01):
When I set up a geofence for aclient, like in a campaign, we
have our budget, which isobvious.
I do the ad creatives, sosometimes I'll do squares,
sometimes I'll do banner ads,sometimes I'll run three to four
different types of ads just tosee, like, what people are
clicking, but that's all withinthe $100 budget.
I can also do demographics, sowe're going to do male, female,

(09:26):
we can do age.
There is an option to do anincome, but we don't really want
to do income because how theyget their information for the
like through this software isthat it's what people are
putting on the internet, and soI'm not putting anywhere on the
internet of how much money Imake and so I'm putting on the
internet like I'm a female, I'm31 and I live at this location,

(09:49):
so the internet knows thatinformation about me, but they
don't know how much money I'mactually making every year.
So I would steer away.
I learned this the hard way.
I would steer away from anincome-based ad because people
it's not gonna be an accurate adrating, so then we can also
if's say, I, okay.

(10:10):
So I just talked to a clientand or a potential client and he
has a software coming out andwith this software out he wants
to like target customers thatare home builders or contractors
.
So I can set up our geo-fencingto where anybody that walks
into a Home Depot or a Anybodythat walks into one, walks out

(10:35):
of one or is in a one mileradius of a Home Depot or Lowe's
, is going to have a geofence adfrom his software.
That's literally how creepy andhow amazing geofencing is.
We can get down to the nittygritty.
I've almost thought aboutrunning one just for the heck of
it.
A state farm agent or any kindof insurance agent that offers

(10:56):
pet insurance and be like, okay,anybody going into a pet co in
this state, because you knowinsurance agents are per state.
So, like, in this state, anyonethat goes into a pet co is
going to see this ad for petinsurance.
I'm pretty sure it could bereally cool.
The numbers could be reallygreat and those people would
probably get a lot of callsbecause people love their pets.

(11:16):
Right, if you have a pet,you're like I mean now I kind of
want pet insurance because it'sI mean, it's what we do, right?
I have insurance on my kid.
I would definitely haveinsurance on my pet.
So these are just a fewexamples of geofencing and how I
use them for my clients.
I haven't personally used themfor me when it comes to business
to business.
I haven't figured that part out, so this is still in the works

(11:40):
on that end.
I think geofencing is going tobe more for the small businesses
or service-based businessesthat are reaching out to the
everyday person, to homeowners,to people that need their car
washed, to people that needwindow tinting or people that
need their car washed, to peoplethat need window tinting or
people that need insurance.
Like if your customer base issomebody that's just like an

(12:02):
everyday joe off the street, Iwould say geofencing is going to
be the the best way for you tospend your ad dollars and when I
say ad dollars, that means ifyou're doing google ads, if
you're doing meta ads, I wouldwould take a minute, 30 to 60 to
90 days and run your geofencingads and see what the difference
is in those analytics, goingboth ways, and I think you're

(12:24):
going to see a really bigdifference on your website
traffic.
You'll see a big difference onyour phone and the inquiries
that you get from those ads.
So I just challenge you that ifgeofencing kind of seems a
little bit out there orsomething that you're not
comfortable with, just reach outto me.
I would love to walk youthrough the process and I think

(12:44):
that it's something that youwould really benefit from if you
are a small business.
Again, reaching out to theeveryday person in a fixed
location, we can do all overAmerica.
You can do the state, you cando your city, anything like that
.
So I hope you learned a lotabout geofencing.
It's a really fun subject forme to discuss and it's something

(13:06):
that I thought was a lot biggerthan what it really is.
And once you get down to thenitty-gritty, you're like oh,
this is actually super rad and Ilove it because I see so many
better influences than, or somany better results than, the
other ad options out therethrough digital marketing.
So thanks so much for tuning inand I will catch you on the
next episode.