What are Beacons and How Can You Use Them in Your Marketing?
A year ago was the first time that I heard about beacon marketing, and the concept caught my attention because of the implications it had on digital marketing. I could see that beacons could quickly create attention, especially because this form of advertising was so different from traditional advertising methods. As the owner of a digital marketing agency, I recognized the potential of beacon marketing as a way to overcome the problems of making a brand noticeable in an over-saturated digital advertising world.
After investigating more about beacons, I saw that it was a bit premature for immediate implementation, because of the fact that there were only a few vendors that provided beacon sensors at the time. The initial product releases only had a few core features, and there were many additional features that needed to be integrated to really make the marketing platform work well.
Then, things changed when Apple released iOS7.1 and gave a big push to beacon implementation. App will listen for beacons even if it was hard closed, which opened many marketing doors. At the same time, the prices of beacons began to drop, and beacons have become more mainstream all over the world.
Changes in Digital Marketing
As a digital marketing agency, we noticed that the old methods that used to work for marketing weren’t quite as effective as they were before, making it hard to connect with customers in the same manner. So, we started in-house testing with beacon technology, which eventually led to the development of a simple app, “Beacon Puncher,” that automatically tracks office presence.
The results from our test were amazing, and we could see that is a game changer in the marketing industry. Since many businesses are still stuck in old marketing concepts this is a big opportunity for marketers, especially in retail.
What is Context Based Marketing?
Beacons allows you to tap into the context of where your customers are spending their time, so that you can deliver the ad at the perfect moment. Marketers were finding that randomly timed ads weren’t as effective, mainly because the customer wasn’t ready to make a purchase when the ad was delivered.
But, with context based marketing, digital information can be used to understand more about the customer’s proximity and buying patterns. Then, the ad can be delivered to their smart phone at an optimal time, to increase the likelihood that they will take action on the ad.
Why is Proximity Marketing so Effective?
When you are marketing based on a customer’s proximity to the product or service that you are advertising, then it provides you a highly targeted customer base that is closer to the point of purchase. These small marketing messages can provide them with the information or motivation that is needed to increase the likelihood that they will follow through and make the purchase.
Beacons are setup in the store, and they can communicate with mobile apps to recognize the type of phone, ownership of the phone, the approximate location of the person, as well as other potentially useful details such as the motion of the person and the temperature in the area. These beacons can be placed in any location, to allow you to maximize your interactions with cell phone users who are nearby.
Using Beacon Marketing for Your Business
Beacon marketing is the newest form of digital marketing, and it is easy to see why you shouldn’t overlook this form of advertising. Here at Mobiuu, we work hard to stay up-to-date with the trends to offer the best marketing methods for our customers, including digital strategy and consulting, mobile applications, web development, social media marketing, and more.
Contact us today to learn more about beacon marketing, as well as the other types of digital marketing methods that are available!
