Getting Started with Beacons – The Game Plan

Seema Nayak
February 21, 2017

Getting started with any emerging marketing tech can be intimidating. You’re not sure where to begin, what to expect and how fast you can start seeing results. Proximity marketing using beacons is no different. While thousands of retailers and other businesses have deployed beacons successfully, it can be quite daunting to understand what proximity marketing is, as well as where and how to begin.

I’ve put together a very clear game plan that can help you hit the ground running and begin using location-based marketing this year:

1) Start Small

Buy 6 beacons + 1 month subscription

The great thing about beacon tech is that the cost of getting started is quite reasonable. The first step in the process would be to get hands-on experience with using beacons. Buy a few beacons, get a software platform to create your proximity marketing campaigns and you are set.

At Beaconstac, your total cost to get going could be as low as $168

Decide on a basic use case to test beacons

To get started, we recommend something as simple as a ‘Welcome message’ campaign. The goal of the campaign is to trigger a welcome message via the Chrome app on a smartphone when someone comes in the range of the beacon. This campaign can be easily set up in the Beaconstac dashboard in 15 minutes.

Test in office or in 1 location

We always recommend customers to test within their own office space or at a location they are closest to. This helps you monitor the campaign closely and make modifications in the beacon placement if need be. Fixing the beacon up is super easy. Just use the 3M tape provided and stick the beacon at your preferred location.

2) Get internal buy-in

Set up a demo within the company

Once you have run the test for a couple of weeks and have some numbers to show like no. of notifications sent, click through rates etc., set up a meeting with the internal stakeholders. For a successful demo, you can place 1 beacon within the conference room where the demo is being held so that you can show beacons in action to the team.

Key aspects of a successful demo:

– Make sure the device is Android 4.3 and above or iOS 7 and above.

– Ensure that the device you are using for the demo is the one you have already tested on before the demo.

– Set the transmission range to around 2 meters so you can easily give a demo in the conference room.

Share industry numbers

Everyone loves stats. They help build confidence amongst the audience and helps set expectations. Proximity marketing has been successfully used by thousands of businesses across the globe and has loads of interesting stats that you can use to make your case. Download this PPT we’ve created which is ideal for presenting your proximity marketing project within your organization.

Show initial numbers and conversions of the initial test

Present your beacon campaign results to the team. If you run digital campaigns, you can present a comparison of the number of impressions and CTRs received by the digital campaign vs. your beacon campaign.

3) Take the plunge

Add more use cases and locations:

Once the team sees the pilot results, take the plunge and launch your deployment campaign at multiple locations. Now is the time to expand from the initial use cases and try out different ways of engaging via beacons. Check out this exhaustive list of proximity marketing use cases to learn about all the possible use cases that you can benefit from.

May the power of proximity marketing be with you!