2015 brought a lot of talk about beacons, but few know what they are or what they do. But chances are, you have already experienced beacon marketing.
In a nutshell, a beacon triggered marketing is, in essence, a more accurate method of proximity marketing. Conversely, unlike traditional proximity marketing strategies, which get a device’s location from GPS or WiFi, beacon generated marketing works by looking for the Bluetooth signal from a beacon positioned within the store.
Much of the focus on beacons has been on the fundamental hardware and technology of it. More than 50 vendors such as Dunkin Donuts, have developed battery-friendly broadcasting devices that give stores an overabundance of options for Bluetooth-powered beacons.
With so much attention on the hardware, it’s easy to miss the fact that beacons themselves are just rudimentary transmitters that beam position data to Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones.
The key to beacon marketing is that they can trigger the delivery of hyper-targeted mobile content through a smartphone app at a specific time and location. Since smartphone browsers cannot recognize beacon signals, mobile apps are an essential component of any beacon marketing campaign.
Bringing The Marketing Budgets
As the digital marketing footprint of successfully deployed beacon campaigns in retail stores expands and a scaled audience of beacon-enabled apps is proven, more global brand advertisers will enter the beacon marketing ecosystem in a major way.
Stores will invite their most important business partners to join in their in-store digital and mobile marketing programs. These partners will be expected to contribute relevant and appealing content that improves the shopping experience.
By limiting access to beacons and the spectators that they reach with beacon-triggered marketing messages in their stores, merchants will become the hub of a burgeoning proximity-based marketing ecosystem.
For brands, being included in this marketing channel offers opportunities to deliver extremely engaging mobile experiences at the precise locations where their goods are being sold. With them, they’ll bring consumer marketing budgets and resources to develop captivating content.
As technology continues to expand, it’s important for business owners big and small to incorporate these progressions into their digital marketing plan. Doing so helps companies to reach their target demographic with relevant content and ads.