Use Geofencing for Mobile Apps To Enhance User Engagement

Posted by Juned Ahmed on January 1st, 2018

These days the biggest challenge faced by developers is engaging the user. Without any doubt, for gaining user engagement, your app needs to be useful and truly relevant to the user. You can no longer just rely on spammy spray-and-pray marketing. Mobile users are on a constant move in search for new and better apps to serve their needs these days. Recent stats indicate that on an average, after a year or so, you can retain only 4% of your app users. Thus, it is very important to know your app users real-world whereabouts for being more relevant and useful for them. This ensures that you reach out to them at the correct time and place. This is where geofencing helps you engage your users.

What is geofencing?
Geofence, as the name indicates, is a virtual perimeter of a real-world geographic area, like a restaurant, airport, business hub, etc. It may be in various shapes and scales like a circle (for more straightforward use cases) or a polygon (for more complex situations) around the area with various prefixed dimensions that may range from the size as small as a store to as large as a city. As location and time are the most important elements with regard to contextualism in mobile apps, geofencing is a tool that adds contextualism to your app. Thus, geofencing technology enables mobile apps to take advantage of location-based marketing. The app developers in India are using this to maximize their app’s functionality.

What is the function of geofencing?

• When the app users are in the vicinity of the geofenced area, you can send them notifications so that they can make relevant use of being around the place. For example, your store or outlet or some other action of interest to them around the place. This can increase foot traffic to stores as you send them promotional offers while passing through the location.
• You can also collect location data of your app users that is valuable for you such as the frequency of your user’s foot visit to your store and the duration of their stay at your store after an online campaign.
• This helps you build user profiles by tracking their locations to give you an idea of your user’s interests and spending ability.
• Geofencing allows contextual and relevant targeting. You can retarget users with ads that are relevant to their interests. You can suggest products that are relevant to the user’s interest.
• You can overpower your competitors in geofencing by building fences around rival locations and pushing incentivized content for redirecting shoppers.

What is needed for integrating geofencing into a mobile app?

• Cellular triangulation, WiFi tower triangulation, or GPS may be used in geofencing. Cellular and WiFi are preferred as they are more reliable as compared to GPS-based solutions that are extremely battery-draining.
• Geofencing is available as software that can be integrated into a mobile app and can be managed through an online dashboard or API. So, it does not require any additional hardware.
• Large-range outdoor targeting (in an area ranging between 50 and 50,000 meters in radius) can be done using geofencing to take maximum benefit. This can be equated to the area of a shopping mall or a neighbourhood.
• User permission is needed for a mobile app to use geofencing. This takes privacy into account while tracking user’s location and sending notifications.
• Geofencing may be implemented on almost any major platform like iOS, Android, Xamarin, Ionic, Cordova, Appcelerator, and PhoneGap.

How to get started with Geofencing?

• Select an appropriate geofencing software for integrating with your app and reaching your goals
• Check whether your geofencing software meets the needs of your existing app strategy
• Do not forget to test your software, though many are available with a testing app
• Integrate the software into your app using help of app development team
• Try to be as creative as you can with your geofencing notification campaigns to attract users

Important factors to consider when implementing Geofencing

• Prefer using cellular triangulation or WiFi tower triangulation as GPS will rapidly drain your app user’s battery. So, avoid using GPS -based Geofencing.
• Use a Geofencing software that is optimized for accuracy and battery usage. A system that maintains a well-optimized balance between the two should be chosen, and not the ones that claim to be super accurate.
• A management dashboard and API should already be integrated into an excellent geofencing solution. This allows you to manage your geofencing efforts better for easy creation and optimization of geofences.
• Offline user behaviour data is also important as it provides essential insights for targeting users in a more personalized way and go beyond the average push notification.
• Research and use anti-spam tools to avoid sending too many notifications to your users as dense urban areas have a lot of geofences.

Concluding thoughts
App developers should target to use Geofencing as a profitable tool for connecting with consumers as being done by App developers in India. Your business gets a competitive edge when you develop an app using geofencing technology. Not only does it maximize real-time user engagement, but also helps build loyalty, and maximizes conversions.