Food services is one of the largest industries in the US, making the advertising space quite competitive. Whether you have been in the restaurant business for years or are opening a new spot, attracting new customers and keeping guests returning is key. Restaurants can craft a perfect menu and create a welcoming atmosphere, but how do you ensure potential customers choose your establishment?
Pushing out advertisements through traditional channels can be expensive and confusing. Companies also find themselves spending extra dollars only to reach an uninterested audience. On the other hand, geofence advertising is an ideal method if you have a targeted niche audience that you want to reach specifically. It leverages GPS technology to target an audience based on their mobile devices’ after crossing a defined geographic area. Companies can connect with a more engaged audience that is more likely to resonate with your message and answer your call to action.
The Process of Geofencing
Geofencing Advertising is a strategic way to attract your intended audience. It focuses on reaching people based on their geographic location. By understanding these steps, you’ll find the process is straightforward and rewarding:
- Identify your audience: Identify locations your potential customers frequently visit based on their demographics, age, income, and lifestyle. These locations can range from competitor restaurants to grocery stores or specific neighborhoods.
- Define the Virtual Boundary: Use the geofencing platform to create fences around those locations of interest digitally. It is essential to focus on areas with foot traffic geographically. Correctly structuring geofences ensures you reach people who are present and engaged in that location, not individuals quickly passing through. Advertisers can also take advantage of addressable geofencing, a tactic that involves uploading a CSV file with a list of addresses. This will automatically geofence the addresses as long as there is at least 50.
- Device Detection: When someone with a smartphone or other GPS-enabled device crosses the geofence, their device is identified as a targeted system to display ads.
- Directly Delivered Ad: Once their device is tagged, your tailored ads will be displayed directly to these individuals. Depending on the ad fit for your campaign goals, they can appear over the internet on third-party websites, apps and streaming services or on connected smart TVs and devices.
How Geofencing Can Serve You
Geofencing offers many advantages for restaurants of any size. The location-based advertising method optimizes your chances of displaying ads on interested users’ devices. When strategically placing virtual boundaries, individuals crossing the virtual boundary are more likely to be interested in your restaurant’s offers. Here’s how it can specifically benefit your establishment:
- Personalized Outreach: Leverage this technology to offer personalized deals or information based on the audience’s location. You can tailor messages to match your audience’s habits and eating routines
- Substantial Impact: Personalizing these messages makes your audience more likely to resonate with what they are seeing, leading to more ad interactions and engagement. Geofenced campaigns lead to more clicks and, ultimately, more customers.
- Pinpoint Precision: The hyper-precise nature of geofencing means you’re not wasting impressions on uninterested parties. You can focus on areas with the highest potential for conversations based on your restaurant style, price range, or accessibility and create more efficient campaigns.
Benefits of Self-Serve Geofencing Platforms
Smaller companies often don’t have the budget to spend thousands of dollars on advertising agencies. Self-serve advertising has proven to be just as successful. Platforms like Qujam provide greater flexibility and control over your advertising efforts and offer significant advantages:
Efficiency:
- Simple sign-up process without unnecessary paperwork
- Users can often set up campaigns and launch them within hours or minutes
- User-friendly platform with provided tutorials and support, making it easier for smaller teams to manage
- Users can access campaigns, analytics, and reports anytime, anywhere
Lower Costs:
- Self-serve platforms, like Qujam, don’t require a minimum spend amount
- No middleman fees when setting, monitoring, or adjusting your budget
- Precise spending control and access to campaigns
- Flexibility to scale up or down campaigns based on performance and needs
Direct Control:
- Users can immediately adjust campaigns without a lengthy briefing process
- Hands-on control over every aspect, from audience targeting and ad creative to bidding strategies and scheduling
- Variety of parameters based on campaign goals, then within minutes, begin creating geofences and testing strategies.
- Ideal for testing new ideas and strategies without significant investments or commitments
Self-serve platforms can support a variety of your business’s goals, budgets, and resources without a complex process.
Strategic Geofencing for Restaurants
Users can get very creative with implementing geofencing to attract new customers. Users can create various campaigns targeting a mix of residential areas, business zones, and community spots depending on the type of ad and targeted audience. Here are some examples:
Promote timely offers: Launching a new seasonal menu? Target seasonal festivals or events. A weekend brunch special? Target areas around churches or coffee shops. Offering a new dessert? Target local bakeries or ice cream shops. Geofencing allows you to target specific audiences most likely to be interested.
Matching the vibe and price point: Geofencing can help attract all types of guests. Users can target country clubs or theaters for upscale dining, local sports complexes or kids’ stores for family-friendly dining, and major transit stops or areas with lots of retail for quick service.
Connect with audiences interested in current trends: Create advertisements with your restaurant’s spin on a popular food trend. For a plant-based option trend, geofence around fitness studios, health food stores, or farmers markets; for “viral” food trends that pertain to a younger demographic, geofence around universities, malls, or skate parks.
Conclusion
Geofencing has proven to be a successful advertising method to connect directly with your ideal audience. Smart, targeted outreach can enhance customer loyalty and encourage repeated visits. Combining geofencing strategies with your direct mail and social media efforts can help you achieve a wider reach. Platforms like Qujam give you direct access to your campaign’s clicks, impressions, and conversions, allowing you to optimize your impact. Self-serve platforms provide the advertising abilities of large agencies without the unnecessary added costs and turnaround time. Allow geofencing to work smarter so you can work harder, creating food people enjoy.
Learn more about geofencing with Qujam at qujam.com. Create your own account here to start geofencing on your own.
