Recently we’ve received a ton of questions here at Adva Mobile about SMS geofencing, which is sometimes referred to as SMS geo targeting. Mostly, you have shows coming up in different cities and want to notify fans in that vicinity of your show and where to buy tickets via text. The Adva Mobile tools for specifically targeting fans are especially rich, however maybe we need to be more clear as to how exactly an Artist would use SMS geofencing in an actual SMS marketing campaign.

This post helps to set the record straight on how SMS geo fencing works, and how Artists are able to use it to not only make their SMS marketing campaigns more interactive, but generate higher engagement rates from their SMS promotions.

It’s extremely important first to realize that SMS Geofencing does not allow you to send out text messages to mobile phones that are in the area, without first receiving permission from those fans to receive text messages. For example, lets say Beyonce’ wants to text message people within a 50 mile radius of her next show to tell them about her awesome meet and greet special. If those phone numbers have not given Beyonce’ permission to text message them first, Beyonce’ would be unable to text message them.

So how is it possible to use geofencing in SMS marketing? An Artist first has to receive permission from a fan to text message them. This is usually done when you motivate your fans to text <GETArtistName> to 444999 – your keyword and shortcode. Once this has been done, the fan can then provide their zip code / location through any number of engagement tools on the Adva Mobile Platform – Contests, Surveys, Exclusive Content, Purchases, Tickets … All these engagement activities on the Adva Mobile platform capture fan location data (and other social and demographic information)

SMS Marketing and Geofencing

Now that the Artist has received permission to not only text message the customer you’ve also received permission to track that fan’s location, and to send them messages based on their location. Sounds pretty creepy, but in most scenarios with SMS geofencing, your fans in Phoenix really appreciate NOT getting a text from you about your upcoming show in Dallas.

Hopefully this post helps clear up some of the confusion around using geofencing in SMS marketing. If you still have questions about SMS marketing and geofencing, contact us at +1- 877-752-5116.