Because of how useful it can be to target a local audience, geofencing become the tactic of choice for some self storage companies. But only some. A lot of self storage companies are still using traditional ways to target prospective customers, and they could be left behind.

If you’d like to harness the power of geofencing and get ahead of your competitors, but you don’t know where to start, here is our ultimate guide on how geofencing works and just how useful it can be for the self storage market.

What is geofencing?

Whereas before you may have had to pull data together based on demographics or postcodes, geofencing allows you to ring fence anywhere, such as a building, a park or an event venue, to target people based on very specific parameters. It’s easy to see why this is growing in popularity.

It follows three easy steps:

1. Define fences or boundaries on a map
2. Once a person passes into this area, the ‘audience’ criteria is met and a digital marker is placed on them
3. You can then serve them with relevant ads on whatever device they’re using, such as their smartphone or tablet. You can serve them an ad in real-time or at a later date

How does geofencing work?

Geofencing allows you to target based on very specific criteria, such as an address, post/zip code, or in line with a specific landmark. This could be anything from a music venue to a community centre to a residential street. It all depends on who you want to target and why.

• You can bulk upload address files, making it quick and easy to use
• Another option is to hand draw a custom shape polygon to target a specific area on a map
• It’s accurate up to 10m²
• You can target up to 500 locations per campaign
• You only collect users that have specifically completed the action of entering the geofence – so they’ve entered the building, the venue or postcode area
• You can then target this audience on a specific date and time and up to 30 days afterwards

Who should I target?

With geofencing, the better vision you have of who you want to target, the better results you’re likely to see. With so much power at your fingertips, it’s always advisable to take a bit more time to plan to ensure you maximise the results.

Here are some general examples of how geofencing targeting could work:

Q – How could I target customers who visit or commute through my business’s location? A - You could geofence a 5-mile radius around each physical location across the country

‍Q – Could I target competitors’ customers? A – Yes. Simply geofence your competitors’ locations

‍Q – I’m promoting a summer event, how could I attract local tourists? A – Geofence local hotels or visitor centres, where tourists are most likely to be

‍Q – How could I target someone who has a particular hobby? A – Geofence trade shows, expos or specific shops that relate to that hobby

How could it work for the self storage market?

Focusing in more specifically on the self storage market, you need to first understand your audience. Let’s have a look at some key stats* on the self storage market and how you could use these to your advantage.

• People renovating their homes are 3 times more likely to rent a storage unit - Geofence – DIY stores in the local area
• 41% of storage customers have used self service previously - Geofence – Your competitors’ local locations
• 29% of domestic customers used self storage for reasons associated with house removals - Geofence – Estate agents in the local area
• 79% of all storage users are between the ages of 40 and 70 years old - Geofence – Local places that attract a slightly older audience – use your local knowledge to benefit the campaign!
• Students use self storage - Geofence – the local Universities

For all of these, make sure you have very specific messages targeted to these groups of people. It will increase your chance of getting noticed.

Don’t forget to keep measuring your success

The great thing about digital advertising is that it is easy to measure. For geofencing, you can track how many impressions there have been (people who look at your ad) and how many people have clicked on it.

It’s vital to keep monitoring and measuring. Analytics provide insights into the target audience and allow you to constantly improve and optimise what you are doing. The more you know, the better results you can get. As with anything, there are a few limitations… Geofencing is incredibly powerful, but it also has its limitations at times, and these are good to be aware of, such as:

• Geofence success varies depending on location
• Data providers and population density is higher in cities and therefore success improves
• If the geofence is in a location with WiFi, this could mask the user’s mobile signature
• If you have a geofence where there is a high concentration of users in one place (e.g. a football match), you could get mast disruption so the signals can get scrambled
• A user needs to have location services enabled (any app will do)
• Cookies generally renew every 30 days, but if a user refreshes the cookies earlier then you will lose this user
• Geofencing is not available via the Google Display Network, so you will need a specialist provider

Geofencing is undoubtedly one of the most powerful tactics for targeting your local market, and it’s growing in popularity because of this. If you want to get ahead of your competition, then why not book a demo or speak to our team of experts today to find out more about how geofencing could improve your sales.

We have flexible options for businesses to outsource their campaigns or manage them themselves, depending on their available budget and resources. Our team will be able to advise on what is the best option for you.

*Stats sourced from www.top-removals.co.uk.