Originally published August 1, 2019 , updated on September 9, 2024

If you haven’t integrated geo-fencing into your business, there is a definite chance you are missing sales, engagement, and ultimately, a more loyal customer base. If you need a refresher on what geo-fencing is all about, here is the simplest way we can explain it.

Geo-fencing is a location-based service that businesses can use to pique the interest of their audience. It happens by sending relevant messages to their phones when they enter a predefined location or geographic area.

While a geo-fence provides the framework for reaching an audience within a boundary, it is important to remember that it does not contact the audience for you. The end-user must have location settings enabled so that a notification is pushed to reach the end-user in real-time.

Businesses That Have Successfully Used Geo-Fencing

Here’s a look at six businesses that we think have successfully used geo-fencing to increase sales, engagement and loyalty.

1. HotelTonight

HotelTonight is famous for providing its app users with information about the best open accommodations. It uses GPS data to deliver accurate, location-based content. To clarify, HotelTonight’s app has two stand-out features: the rate drop tool and the bonus rate. The rate drop is enabled after 3 pm if the customer happens to be a few miles away from a participating hotel and pushes a discount of 10 – 40% on accommodation. Bonus Rate entices remote users to see better discounted rates for a hotel than the users nearby. This way, it encourages them to travel a bit further.

2. Whole Foods

Recently, Whole Foods used geo-fencing to improve its click-through conversion rates for mobile ads. They entice potential customers by placing geo-fencing around several store locations, targeting ads at mobile users who walked by.

Whole Foods went so far as to use geo-conquesting tools (placed near competitors’ stores) to target ads at shoppers near competing grocery stores, encouraging them to rather shop at Whole Foods. The cheeky campaign yielded Whole Foods a 4.69% post-click conversion rate – more than three times the national average of 1.43%.

3. JetBlue

JetBlue was able to improve its already very popular app by introducing geo-fencing features. These features recognized a traveller’s location and automatically sent them a digital boarding pass.

It also went one step further, by letting the traveller know about their in-flight entertainment options before they even boarded the plane. It is these small touches that can really improve customer satisfaction and loyalty in the future.

4. Taco Bell

Taco Bell uses their mobile app and geo-fencing as a way to drive sales. Whenever a customer drives by a store, they receive a push notification, which encourages them to order food. After launching this campaign, Taco Bell reported a 6% increase in sales and the average order amount from the mobile app was 20% higher than in-store orders.

5. Sephora

Sephora’s “store companion” geo-fencing feature is an example of a smart location-data solution. The feature turns on as soon as the customer walks into the store and gives them access to their past purchases, product recommendations and reviews and limited-edition offers.

Using geo-fencing technology, the app increases customer satisfaction and loyalty through the creation of daily mobile content, including location-targeted messages.

6. Burger King

We have saved the best for last; The Burger King Whopper Detour campaign that made use of geo-fencing in one of the smartest ways imaginable. During the campaign, Burger King boosted downloads of its mobile app by 1.5 million with its “Whopper Detour” campaign. It offered 1-cent Whoppers to smartphone users who visited the competing McDonald’s locations.

Customers had to firstly download the upgraded Burger King app and then get within 600 feet of a McDonald’s restaurant to activate the offer.

After customers placed an order, the app rerouted them away from McDonald’s and toward the nearest Burger King to pick up their food. Not only were sales dramatically boosted, the campaign made the Burger King app the most downloaded app in Apple’s App Store for several days in a row.

If You’re not Geo-fencing You’re Fenced out

Overall, geo-fencing is a great technology at the disposal of marketers and brands, enabling them to improve upon the level of personalization they provide in marketing. As the above examples show, many companies have successfully used geo-fencing to provide target offers to their potential buyers.

Geo-fencing has proven itself to be a highly effective way to send customers offers or targeted promotions. They see them the moment they trigger a search in a certain geographical location, enter certain premises or area. In fact, 61% of marketers rate location data as “important” for targeting.

BIA/Kelsey’s forecast for advertising to and targeting local audiences reports that location-targeted mobile ad spend will nearly triple from 2016 to 2021 -an increase from $12.4 billion to $33.3 billion.

Goodman Lantern and Geo-Fencing Services

Goodman Lantern is here to assist you to integrate geo-fencing into your marketing campaign. We help you yield fantastic and consistent results to transform your business. We pride ourselves on being the experts in location-based app development, having built several fully customised solutions in this particular sphere. In a time where contextual information matters more than ever before, experts predict geolocation apps and geo-fencing to continue to disrupt and dominate the industry.

The location of consumers and users plays a pivotal role in establishing real contexts. People want real-time, value-added information based on their current location; and they want it as easily as possible. So if you’re interested in putting your location to work and would like to explore the concept of geo-fencing, get in touch with us today.

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