Retail
23 Jan 2023 16 min

Published:

Last update 23 JAN 2023

Marketing Based on Beacons: A Comprehensive Guide

Retail
Navigine - Marketing Based on Beacons: A Comprehensive Guide
23 Jan 2023 16 min

Published:

Last update 23 JAN 2023

Img Source - Hom Ho

The global beacon market is growing every year. Studies show that in 2020, it was estimated at $1,215.257 million, and by 2027 it’s projected to increase by about 41.91% and grow to $14,087.993 million. The main use of beacons is for indoor navigation and indoor positioning. However, they are increasingly being used to set up advertising campaigns. Beacon marketing allows you to carefully study visitor behavior and create personalized ads with a high ROAS.

What is beacon marketing?

Beacons are small Bluetooth®-powered sensors placed indoors to help pinpoint the exact real-time location of visitors or objects. With them, you can implement indoor navigation inside the buildings, control assets, and track the movement of customers and staff.

The term “beacon marketing" (also known as proximity marketing) refers to the interaction of beacons with an interface (usually mobile apps) to send ads or other offers as notifications. For example, when a person enters the system's coverage area, the beacon determines their location and creates a signal to send a location-based push notification to a smartphone with useful information or ads.

Research shows that modern consumers are willing to use their smartphones to receive discounts or share their experiences. Notifications are personalized and sent out based on the interests of customers, which increases customer loyalty and encourages them to come back to the store again and again.

A beacon marketing campaign is fundamentally different from conventional marketing. It reaches the target audience more effectively and provides several benefits, such as:

  • Allowing you to personalize any action, which improves the quality of service and guarantees a high ROI.
  • Helping better understand customers, as it’s largely based on user analytics.
  • Providing a lasting relationship with customers through redirection to social media.

How beacon marketing works

The beacons "ping" smartphones multiple times and, via triangulation, calculate the location of a person inside the room. A distinctive feature of beacons in marketing is the high-precision detection of objects. Beacons detect the location of users with an accuracy of 3 ft, which makes them a great solution for the marketing department.

To set up a beacon marketing system for your business, you will need:

  • special equipment (such as beacons and readers);
  • a mobile app that works in conjunction with the beacons and provides the necessary user access to track the location of objects;
  • a detailed map of the building showing all rooms, hallways, stairways, elevators, etc.

Using beacons, you can implement several features, such as sending advertising push notifications based on location and detailed visitor analytics for certain areas in the building. The location where the promotional notification is sent is customizable based on the user's interests. It can be either a specific aisle or a whole department at the store. Sometimes messages are based on the movement of a person, thus they are sent only when they move from one point to another.

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What does the system require?

Implementing For Bluetooth® beacon-based advertising only requires several steps: installing beacons, setting up push notifications, and integrating the system into a mobile app of a store, shopping mall, etc.

Installing beacons

The implementation process always begins with installing the beacons, which should be placed in the most crucial spots within the building. They should be mounted in a way that guarantees the sensors freely interacting with customers. The range of devices is carefully calibrated to prevent the beacons from interfering with other equipment in the building. There are several installation guidelines:

  • To ensure maximum reach, beacons should be installed at an average height of 4 to 6.5 ft. Ceiling mounting is also allowed.
  • It's advisable to place devices in spots where people move quite slow or have to stand still for a long time (e.g. queues).
  • It’s recommended to create a line of sight between the sensors and the users' smartphones. Typical installation spots are entrances and exits, main points of interest within a building, or areas with long wait times (e.g. doctor's offices, hotel lobbies, etc.).

Setting up push notifications

Notifications are configured with special software that helps integrate the platform into the company’s mobile app. At Navigine, we offer our customers Navigine SDK tools to implement the system. The Navigine platform allows you to add any notifications that appear on the smartphone screen when a person approaches a certain beacon. Additionally, you can get access to the following features:

  • selecting a beacon for a particular notification from the list of available sensors;
  • setting the messaging frequency;
  • determining the priority when there are several push messages;
  • setting the time of sending (when users are in the coverage area of the beacon, when entering the coverage area or when leaving it);
  • specifying the duration of a notification activity;
  • determining the distance between the beacon and the smartphone;
  • disabling push messages if needed;
  • viewing message history.

Integrating the system into a mobile app

The last step is to integrate the solution into an existing mobile application. Navigine provides you with a special SDK and helps you determine the settings that make sense for your business. We guarantee an easy integration process and instant interaction of a mobile app with users via a smartphone.

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Global brands that use beacons for marketing

Statistics show that beacons proximity marketing technology is used by about 50% of world-famous brands. Here are some examples of beacons in marketing:

  • McDonald's uses this technology to attract customers to their restaurants. As soon as users approached the entrance, notifications were sent to their smartphones that announced special offers or discounts.
  • At Levi's stadium in Santa Clara, visitors can order food for their seats during the sports games using beacons. This allows them to significantly increase their revenue.
  • Carrefour has seen a 400% increase in profits after they began sending notifications to shoppers in their stores.
  • After introducing beacons, Amazon Go stores have managed to completely get rid of the checkout zone. The sensors keep track of what items visitors take off the shelves and then charge accordingly.
  • Tesco uses beacons to send notifications when a visitor is in a particular part of the store. For example, if a person enters a room with frozen or chilled products, they may be sent a message about discounts on a certain brand of ice cream.

Sometimes beacon-based solutions are geared towards not so much consumers but the staff. For example, Woolworths uses it to prepare orders. The system sees when a customer walks up to the store door and requests the products to be assembled, and then immediately notifies the staff of the task.

How can Navigine help implement the system?

Navigine is a supplier of software for indoor navigation and tracking. Our main goal is to help businesses integrate and customize navigation and notifications for mobile apps. We provide unique solutions for indoor navigation, which are complemented by analytics and sending promotional push messages.

Our company boasts many successful projects. For example, our partnership with the Finnish supermarket chain Kesko, which used to face the issue of inconvenient store navigation and lack of ad personalization. After installing the beacons, the company was able to increase their brand awareness and improve their ROAS. About half of all users of their mobile application now receive special push notifications, and 25% follow the recommended routes to the shelves with advertised products. This means that the conversion rate of this advertising tool is about 68%, which is quite impressive.

 

If you’re curious about beacons in marketing, contact Navigine by filling out a form on our website or by booking a demo via Zoom. We will help you choose the right tools for your business and assist in implementing them into your infrastructure.

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