Every day, technology becomes a little bit more mobile.

Parents drop off their kids at school with their phone active on their car’s dash and their smartwatch giving them calendar and email alerts. Notifications ding, alerting them of new social media messages and posts.

You know that to reach your enrollment goals, it’s crucial to reach families digitally.

But how do you effectively do it? Especially when they already have so much coming at them?

That’s where geofencing comes in.

What Is Geofencing, and Why Does It Matter?

Geofencing is a marketing tool that uses GPS location to hone in on the right audience. A school selects specific geographic areas to advertise to, with the perk of knowing that they are making connections in real-time, with people in the desired area.

For example, maybe you want to connect with parents at a nearby school.

Rather than spend money on advertising for the entire surrounding neighborhoods and cities (who may or may not be the right fit,) you can target people whose mobile phones show that they are actually visiting the nearby school. 

Geofencing allows you to advertise to people in a specific target area.

Here are a couple of ways you might use geofencing to target your ideal audience:

• Specific Locations (Feeder Schools, Competitor Schools, etc.)
• City/Region (Your Relevant Zip Codes)
• Work Location (Major Employers in the Area)
• Nearby Events (Fairs, Zoo Events, etc.)

How Do I Advertise with Geofencing?

Geofencing works like a “trip wire” of sorts. Someone steps into your chosen boundary, and the marketing automation you’ve set up is triggered.

The simplest form of marketing with Geofencing involves serving an ad. For example, if a parent opens their Pandora app to change stations while waiting to pick up their child from a particular daycare, they might find themself staring at your ad. 

The next most common method of geofencing marketing is web advertising. Using Google AdWords alongside geofencing, you can boost your school’s online presence while parents are surfing the web.

The result?

Unlike other forms of advertising that can show your ads to a lot of people who may not be your ideal client, geofencing shows your ad at the right place, at the right time. Geofencing makes your advertising efforts more targeted, streamlined and effective.

How To Optimize Geofencing

Unlike traditional forms of marketing, geofencing provides specific and actionable data so you can best use your marketing dollars.
For example, when you use geofencing you’ll be able to see: 

• What locations lead to the most traffic. Maybe you are targeting three feeder schools in your marketing, but with your geofencing marketing, you can see which school is providing the most (or the least) traction. 
• What advertising materials are the most impactful. Perhaps your ads about programs hardly get any clicks, but you can see that parents in your area always click on ads about the curriculum. It provides you with valuable information that can inform the rest of your marketing plan. 
• What methods reach your audience the best. This enables you to spend your advertising dollars most effectively.

With geofencing, you have incredibly specific data about YOUR audience. You don’t have to guess or rely on generalized research.It allows you to target your message to your audience, assisting your school in reaching your enrollment goals. That’s important…you’ll be able to stop focusing on marketing and start focusing on the operation of your school.

Start Geofencing Today

Meeting your enrollment goals doesn’t have to be hard or take up every second of your day. Geofencing gives you the data you need to ensure that you are reaching your target audience based on their behaviors and location.