Geofencing is a Location-based Service (LBS) that allows triggering Campaigns to mobile users that enter or exit a defined virtual perimeter within a geographic area.

Geofencing is part of our ever-expanding Interactive Campaign portfolio.

GeoFence Push Notification

After you have selected New Campaign, entered the Campaign Name, and selected Geofence from the campaign options, you are brought to the Geofence campaign creation section of the UI, which has the following steps,

  1. Delivery
  2. Message
  3. Region
  4. Summary

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NOTE

In the Preferences section of the platform is where Push notifications are configured.

Delivery

In the Delivery step, there is no need to preload a Subscription List as GeoFence campaigns deliver messages based on mobile app users' physical location. Only subscribers that have Opted-in to LBS services of the app, registered by the SDK, will be eligible to receive the push notification.

In the green confirmation box will show the number of subscribers eligible to receive GeoFence messages, while the gray box will show ineligible subscribers.

For Push Notifications, the list of subscribers eligible to receive the Push must be registered through the SDK integration.

The SDK integration is configured as detailed in the SDK Documentation.

Push notifications do not modify the Mobile Application.

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NOTE

Regular Push notifications do not require modifications by the application developer for notification processing.

In this step, you can verify the reach of your notification through the number of users eligible to receive the Push Notification once they enter the GeoFence area.

Move to the next step in the process by selecting Next.

Message

In the ‘Message’ step, the content to be delivered in the Geofence campaign is put together. Push notifications are processed by the device’s operating system, which gives notifications a consistent look.

There are for types of Push notifications that are supported by the Digital Customer Engagement platform:

  • Regular Push: Are simple notifications that only include a message title and text. These notifications do not modify the Mobile App as they are only informative. If modifications or specific actions are required within the App, you must use one of the other types of Push Notifications. The behavior of Regular Push notifications is included in InApp, Geo Push and Deeplink notifications.
  • InApp Push: Are regular push notifications with additional data displayed when the application is opened. These notifications consist of a Regular Push notification and additional data that is delivered to the application which is displayed when it is opened. It is 100% the responsibility of the application’s developer to implement this content in the application’s code.
  • Silent Push: This type of push does not generate a visual alert when it reaches the device and requires additional processing by the application developer for its implementation.
  • Deeplink: This type of push notifications use a URL that goes to specific content or section within a Mobile Application. Specific content could be a view, a particular section of a page, or a specific tab. For iOS operating systems, the developer must implement the navigation to the view or section of his application. In the case of the Android operating system, the Operating System will take care of this type of navigation.

Regular Push

This is the most basic push notification and it is included as part of InApp and Deeplink push notifications. The Platform supports delivering personalized Push Notifications for each subscriber. The notification is processed before it is sent, redirected to the device, and the message arrives personalized using a Subscriber Field.

The steps to create a Regular Push Notification are the following:

  1. Select the Regular Push tab located at the top.

  1. Select an existing Push notification message template or start a message from scratch. The template includes the Push notification Title and message content which can be modified to suit the campaign needs.

If you are starting from scratch you need to:

a. Enter the Push Notification Title.

b. Enter the Message content in the textbox.

c. You can also add Personalized Fields into the message content. The options are the existing Subscriber List Fields and placeholders are filled with each Recipient's information.

For example, if you wish to send a personalized Push notification to your Subscribers saying, Hi _with the subscriber's Mobile Number, type in _Hi _and select '_mobile' from the Personalized Fields underneath the Message textbox.

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NOTE

All Personalized Fields used are enclosed inside square brackets as follows [[personalized field]].

  1. You can preview the Push notification on the emulated phone screen on the right side for either iOS or Android.

The example that follows, shows a notification sent to app users of a discount offering for a certain product or service.

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NOTE

The icon and name that appear on the notification, depend on the App implementation that receives it.

InApp Push

InApp Push are regular Push notifications with additional data displayed when or if the application is opened.

The steps to create an InApp Push notification are the following:

  1. Select the InApp Push tab option located at the top.

  1. Follow the details of step 2 described for a Regular Push to define the message as it follows the same configuration steps.

  2. Enter the additional data to be sent to your application in the push payload. This is what differentiates an InApp notification from a Regular Push.

Key/values can deliver additional data you can use for a more complex, rich InApp push experience. For example:

Platform - Choose the operating system of the mobile phone where you want to send the push notification: Android, iOS, or both.

Key / Value - is a set of two linked data items: a ‘key’, which is a unique identifier for some item of data, and the ‘value’, which is either the data identified or a pointer to the location of that data.

Once you have entered the additional data, click Add.

Silent Push

This type of Push does not generate a visual alert when it reaches the device and requires additional processing by the developer for its implementation.

The steps to create a Silent Push notification are the following:

  1. Select the Silent Push tab located at the top.

  1. Enter the additional data to be sent to your application in the push payload:

    Key/values pairs can deliver additional data you can use for a more complex, rich Silent push experience. For example:

The user wants to update the application's background color and background image.

Background Color

Key -> backgroundColor
Value -> green

Background Image

Key -> Image
Value -> https://…

Platform - Choose the operating system of the mobile phone where you want to send the push notification: Android, iOS, or both.

Key / Value - is a set of two linked data items: a ‘key’, which is a unique identifier for some item of data, and the ‘value’, which is either the data that is identified or a pointer to the location of that data.

Once you have entered the additional data, click Add .

Deeplink

DeepLink notifications require modifications by the application developer for notification processing.

The steps to create a DeepLink Push Notification are the following:

  1. Select the Deeplink tab located at the top

  1. Follow the details of step 2 described for a Regular Push to define the message as it follows the same configuration steps.

  2. Target URL

    Android allows you to displace the value (URL - web address) for deep-linking provided by the user. On the other hand, iOS requires additional data to specify the value (URL - web address) for deep-linking.

  1. Enter the additional data to be sent to your application in the push payload:

    Key/values can deliver additional data you can use for a more complex, rich Deep Link push experience.

    For example: Notifying their customers about a special offer on a specific item. The user must provide the location of the item using deep links.

Key -> URL
Value -> https://www…

Platform - Choose the operating system of the mobile phone where you want to send the push notification: Android, iOS, or both.

Key / Value - is a set of two linked data items: a ‘key’, which is a unique identifier for some item of data, and the ‘value’, which is either the data that is identified or a pointer to the location of that data.

Once you have entered the additional data, select Add.

After you have finished configuring the Push notification you selected, click on the Next button to advance to the next step in the process.

Region

The Region step is where you define the virtual radius that will trigger the Push notification. The screenshot below shows one possible scenario where a GeoFence has been configured.

In it, the end-user behavior is tracked in the Trigger Notification section through three radio button options:

• Entering the location
• Exiting, or
• Both.

In the Location section, there are two methods of defining the focal point of the GeoFence:

  1. Through the Address box, where a valid address can be entered, or
  2. Through Advance Location Settings, which allows introducing a set of coordinates in World Geodetic System 1984 or WGS84 format.

Also, at the bottom of the Location section is the GeoFence radius tool, a slider with a thumb control used to set the outer perimeter of the GeoFence around the selected location. The values can be anywhere between 100 meters up to 500 kilometers (approx.110 yards and 310 miles).

Summary

‘Summary’ is the fifth step of the Geofence creator.

This will review and display the configured Campaign Details and set the desired activation time.

The summary step consists of the following elements:

  • Components: Type of components of which the interactive campaign is composed: Campaign type and Delivery Channel.

  • Recipients: Number of Recipients who received or interacted with the campaign.

  • Applied Filter: Filter type applied.

  • Additional Data: Additional data sent to your application in the push payload.

  • Map: The map displays the location where the recipient will receive the notification according to the GeoFence radius tool configured by the user.

    The Geofence radious tool is a slider with a thumb control used to set the outer perimeter of the GeoFence around the selected location.

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NOTE

In case the Geofence campaign has been configured as Regular Push or the user didn't add additional data to another type of push like InApp Push, Silent Push, Deeplink, the "Additional data" element will not be displayed in the Summary tab.

For more information about the Summary step settings, go to Summary in the Campaign Elements section.