When it comes to ensuring success in the world of real estate, never underestimate the value of information.
From the history of a neighborhood to the quality of the nearby schools, information about specific locations important to clients has long been a vital element to successfully attaining and retaining customers throughout the buying, selling, or renting process.
Thanks to the evolution of mobile technology, it’s now easier than ever to collect user information and determine how exactly location should impact marketing.
It is not unusual to have multiple marketing campaigns that are unique to specific areas, for example, with those campaigns relying on device location to ensure accurate targeting.
This kind of marketing requires the use of accurate geofencing via a mobile app, and it can be a game-changer in real estate. Let’s take a look at geofencing for real estate and how to use this kind of technology when building apps.
What is Geofencing?
Geofencing software is increasing in popularity, but it is far from a universal term with which everyone is familiar. So what is geofencing and what it is used for?
In simple words, geofencing is software that works to pinpoint a device’s location within a predetermined area. Think of the predetermined area as a fence. Mobile app developers use geofencing software to promote location-based services or products.
Once the smartphone device enters the gate or the geofenced area, their location in the geofence will be tracked by the geofencing software. What happens next depends upon the type of mobile app and the services you want to promote.
How Does Geofencing Work for Real Estate Apps?
Geofencing for real estate doesn’t have to be a confusing concept. It’s actually quite simple when you break it down.
The first step in using geofencing for a real estate app is to determine where the geofence should be located. It is the location within which customers are targeted, so make sure that the geofence’s site makes sense to your goals.
If you want to direct clients that are interested in a particular listing to your services, then you can set up a geofence around that specific listing.
What happens when a potential customer nears the building depends on the actions you have set up to trigger in your geofencing software.
It doesn’t take much good to create geofencing apps that determine when a device nears a particular location.
Why do you want to know someone’s location? The answer is to encourage them to invest in your services. You can send a push notification or send a marketing message, letting users know about the nearby listings and how you can help. This way, you could direct their attention straight to your business.
How to Use Geofencing in Real Estate App?
A mobile app designed with geofencing software in mind allows you to tailor your marketing process to people in a particular market or a location.
It enables you to provide information tailored to the everyday needs of people in that area. To create the perfect app with the triggers, you need to adhere to a few simple guidelines.
Let’s look at how to create mobile apps for real estate using geofencing software.
1. Picking Your Area
As we mentioned above, choosing an area is the first step to using geofencing. It’s essential to keep a few things in mind before you make the selection.
It might be tempting to make your geofence large and encompass as much space as possible. However, this can be less than ideal in certain situations.
If you are looking to use geofencing to send prospects notifications about nearby listings, then having a large geofence area could actively work against you.
Clients interested in a specific location probably won’t be interested in learning about listings located an hour or more away from them. They’ll view such notification as irrelevant and, potentially, bothersome.
Keep your location concise and create multiple smaller fences rather than one large fence that is so large it renders your marketing ineffective.
2. Finding Specific Locations
In addition to keeping it small, you also need to build your geofences strategically.
You might want to create a fence around key spots in town, not just arbitrary boundaries. Potential homebuyers usually visit local institutions while searching for the property. You can set up a geofence around such key institutions and send alerts on prospects’ device.
If you’re considering implementing geofencing as a broader marketing technique, consider geofencing the financial institutions, credit unions or even the local events. Town fairs provide an incredible opportunity to reach out to a larger audience.
3. Creating Your Actions
To fully reap the benefits of geofencing, you’ll need to have the right actions set to trigger when the device (and the prospect carrying it) enters your geofence.
There are a few different things you can do. Push notifications, as mentioned above, is a great option to help quickly alert potential customers.
You can also send SMS messages or use social media platforms such as Facebook to show location-based ads.
Once the target enters your geofence, you have a limited window to catch and keep their attention. Make sure the actions you program make the most of that time.
4. Embrace Retargeting Tactics
Not all customers will buy right away. Many hesitate to invest in real estate and continue to look at properties and locations beyond their first viewings.
This is one reason why retargeting is vital. Even if prospects don’t end up buying from you right away, you need to stay on their minds and let them think about your offer or your service.
Targeting the listings geofenced by competing firms is a great way to push a reminder about your business and stay on top of their minds. This is probably one of the most effective uses of geofencing for real estate agents out there, and it’s overlooked by many.
Using location-based marketing techniques in your mobile app for real estate could be a great idea. But you need a reliable technology partner to implement such innovative features in your real estate mobile app.
Make the Most of Your Real Estate App with Us
A custom mobile app can give a competitive edge to your real estate business. If you’re looking to develop a custom mobile app for your real estate business, get in touch with us. We, at Imaginovation, are an award-winning team of mobile and web app developers.
We have helped thousands of real estate business owners boost their ROI through innovative mobile applications. Let us know your real estate app ideas and we will help you take your business to the next level.
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