Should your bank’s digital marketing strategy include geofencing?

By Patrick Rose, 8/27/18

Last week, as I walked up to the reception window to check in for my doctor’s appointment, I felt my phone buzz with a text message:

You are visiting an [MEDICAL SYSTEM] service provider at this moment. If you have a concern, comment or compliment, please let us know during your visit today.

Being in the digital marketing and bank website industry, I understood that I had passed through a geofence to trigger the message. But it got me thinking about how banks and credit unions could apply this technology to their own digital marketing strategy.

What is geofencing?

Geofencing uses location-based technology to trigger an event when a device passes through a virtual geographic boundary. At that point, the geofencing program sends a notification.

All cleared up, right? No?

Let’s use the example of my doctor’s office. A virtual boundary exists around the building. As I passed over the boundary, the geofencing program identified my phone and sent me a text message. It could have been set up to send an email or a message through an app, but in this example, it was a text message.

How can financials use geofencing?

The ways banks and credit unions could use geofencing as part of their digital marketing strategy are limited only by their imaginations and overall business goals. But here are a few examples of how a bank or credit union could use geofencing:

Send a welcome or promotional message when a customer/member walks into your branch or uses the drive-through lane.
Partner with local realtors to geofence their office and send a message about your mortgage rates.
Run a charity promotion at a local coffee shop, inviting people to have a cup of coffee courtesy of your bank or credit union and collecting donations for a local charity inside.

These suggestions are just the tip of the iceberg. Let your (or our) creative minds find new and interesting ways to communicate with your customers, prospects and communities.

Every digital marketing strategy is made up of many tactics. Consider geofencing for additional creative opportunities to communicate with your customers or members.

Need help refining your digital marketing strategy? We’d love to help!