A geofence is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area. It can be a radius around a location or a pre-defined set of boundaries. With Beaconit you can create Geofences with a radius of between 50 meters to 50 kilometers.
The process of using a geofence is called geofencing. Geofencing allows you to send notifications to your app users when they are in the vicinity of, for example, your store. This allows you to provide users with information that is highly relevant to them, which helps you to activate your users, drive revenue and leverage customer insights.
There are so many messages out there, that the one you actually need you might never need or see. If a user enter your premises, it’s probably because he wants something and geafencing helps him find it faster.

Geofencing can use GPS, cellular, WiFi or Bluetooth technology. At Beaconit we use the cellular and Wi-Fi network to triangulate location as it is the most reliable technology and preferable to GPS, as GPS drains the batteries of smartphones very fast. Using software from a supplier such as Beaconit, administrators can establish geofences and implement them in their own app. Some companies use geofencing to trigger an SMS or email. At Beaconit, we send push notifications through a mobile app. In some cases, suppliers require a mobile app to be open for an action to be triggered. At Beaconit we do not have this requirement. However, the users of either your iOS or Android apps must specifically opt in to receive push notifications when they download the app in the first instance.

To use geofencing technology you need a mobile app. You also need to have users that have downloaded the app as you can only send push notifications to your own users. If you don’t have an app then you may still be able to partner with a company that does.

Activate your users. People are bombarded with advertising everywhere they go. A lot of advertising is mass marketing and not well targeted. Location based push notification are not only well targeted by location and their timeliness, but because apps can also further segment and personalize push notifications using data that they have from user profiles and personal preferences. If used effectively, geofencing can increase your app usage, leading to higher customer engagement. Recent studies concluded that 70% of consumers find location based notifications to be valuable and 53% of them are likely to engage with location based advertising.
Drive revenue. Users are stimulated when they are offered a discount. 47% of consumers surveyed stated that they would be likely to shop from a retailer that offered promotions when they are nearby. As a result of building thought out and effective campaigns, Beaconit customers have achieved an increase in click through rates (CTR) of 40% for retail and 33% for restaurants. Comparing this to the CTR for generic push notifications which is just 2% and for mobile banners is 0.011%, this is an excellent result!