As proximity marketing grows, it will take more for competing businesses to promote their services and goods than simply having beacons in place. Just as it isn't adequate to establish an ill-planned billboard, it doesn't make sense to have an underdeveloped beacon marketing strategy. Here, we'll walk through three simple but effective ways to optimize your beacons for business.
1. Get buy-in from your customers
In this age of data breaches, hacks and constant spam, nobody is totally willing to give their phone number away for nothing - especially considering many people are still unfamiliar with how beacons work. That's why you need to be transparent, according to Internet Retailer. There's no harm in being up-front about your marketing campaign and the value it brings both your customers and your business. Tell customers that beacons are non-intrusive and only notify them when they're nearby and there's a promotion going on. You can also think of some good ways to get buy-in in exchange for a special service or deal.
"You can be creative about where you place beacons."
2. Be strategic with placement
The idea behind proximity marketing is, at its most basic, to pique the interest of consumers who are within range of your store. That means if a subscriber passes into your beacon's radius, he might receive a notification to check out a sale or promotion. But you can be creative about where you place beacons and what kinds of messages they carry. Maybe you pair a beacon with a digital sign somewhere outside your place of business, like a mall promenade - customers will see the sign, receive the alert and be totally focused on your brand, at least for a moment.
However, remember not to be redundant with your message - customers who are already at your store shouldn't be reminded to stop in. Instead, let them know about any specific promotions you're running once they're inside.
3. Think past the sale
Beacons are hugely useful for your bottom line, but they can serve well for other functions. Increasingly, businesses are using beacons for more than just sales - they're a great outreach tool without relying on cumbersome surveys, as Mashable notes, or for providing valuable information frequent customers, even employment. Other businesses are using beacons to gather information about peak hours, customer preferences and other valuable items - in a sense, using the technology as a market research tool.
Marketing is never a done deal - you'll always need to develop new methods for gaining customers and promoting engagement. With proximity marketing growing in popularity, there's no excuse to have a lackluster outreach strategy. For more information on how to best leverage your beacon technology, contact Digital Social Retail.
