Do you have a brand app? Use NearBee SDK to run proximity marketing campaigns

Proximity marketing as a form of marketing has been around for decades but has remained confined to just bringing people to stores. However, with Bluetooth beacons not only can brands bring more people to the store, but also engage with customers inside the store.

Related: Using beacons to improve the consumer experience

Think of Bluetooth beacons as salespersons that do not need to take a break and can work tirelessly to provide relevant and targeted content to customers. Big retailers like Walmart, Macy’s, Target and even Amazon Go use beacons in their store to provide their customers with a seamless shopping experience. Sephora, a makeup brand, has quite possibly the best implementation of beacons in their store even prompting their customers to buy products available at the store which they had previously added to their cart.

Related: What is a Bluetooth beacon and how does it work?

Why brands should integrate proximity marketing into their marketing strategy

1. Consumers use their smartphones to make in-store decisions

83% of consumers use their smartphones inside the store for various reasons. They look up product features, compare two similar products and look for the best deals and offers. A brand app powered by beacons can do all of that and more. By leveraging the smartphone culture, brands can turn smartphones into a powerful marketing tool.

2. It is relevant, contextual and personal

Once a customer is part of the database, they begin to receive newsletters, timely emails, and messages but it may or may not be relevant to them. Using their location in the store, however, is a much better way to disseminate content.

3. Beacons can drive powerful analytics

With traditional forms of marketing, there is no way to ascertain if a customer bought something at the store or online because of a particular marketing campaign. Beacons, on the other hand, allow you to do a deep dive into which campaigns work and fine-tune the ones that don’t. Brands can also integrate Google Analytics on the Beaconstac dashboard to get a deeper insight into the audience demographic.

4. Cost-effective and easy to run campaigns

Beacons are extremely cost-effective compared to other forms of traditional marketing and when you purchase beacons from Beaconstac, there is absolutely no need to configure them or even learn how to code to run campaigns. The Beaconstac dashboard is highly intuitive and allows you to start a new campaign in less than 15 minutes.

Since beacon powered apps have come into the picture, customers have started interacting with advertised products 19x more. Beacon powered apps are used 16.5x more than a regular app and customers who receive a beacon notification are 6.4x more likely to keep an app on their phone. All of which is more proof that beacons are the way forward to reducing spam and providing customers with the experiential shopping trip that they seek.

(Source)

So, what is NearBee and how can you use it?

NearBee is an app that scans for Physical Web notifications and displays beacon notifications on both Android and iOS devices. For brands that do not have an app, getting their loyal customers to download an app like NearBee can do wonders for the business. And, for brands that already have an app, we provide NearBee SDK – a single line of code – which lets any app scans for beacons.

We also have a third option wherein brands can take NearBee and customize it on your own and use it as your own app. Read more about each option in detail in our latest blog post.

Related: Features of NearBee: Why is it better than Google Nearby

Marketing campaigns you can run once you integrate the NearBee SDK

1. Loyalty Programs: Sephora has a great loyalty program for its customers that they run using beacon technology. The app lets customers see how many loyalty points they have and prompts them to redeem those at the counter. Brands can set up similar loyalty programs for their frequent customers using beacons which is excellent considering 53% of consumers prefer digital coupons.
2. Personalized Recommendations: With an app, a customer’s past purchase history can be leveraged to offer targeted and personalized products. Once they enter the store, beacons can notify them of a list of curated products just for them. According to a recent report from Accenture, 75% of consumers buy from retailers that recognize them by name and know their purchase history and build personalized offers based on that.
3. Scavenger Hunts: Several malls and brands have designed beacon scavenger hunts to engage more consumers and young children at the store to create a truly unique shopping experience.

          Related: How to design your own beacon scavenger hunt.

4. Product Information: 53% of millennials who shop at a store feel that the store associates do not possess the tools needed to deliver great customer service. This may be as small an issue as not knowing where a certain product is located or its availability and how it fares to other similar products. Beacon powered apps can easily let millennials compare two products and list all of the product features turning their smartphone into a second screen.
5. Customer Feedback: Amazon’s 4-star store uses customer reviews and feedback to drive inventory in their store and the same can be implemented using beacons. By asking for customer feedback and allowing them to vote for certain products using an interactive form, brands can instill loyalty in new and frequent customers.
6. Promote related app downloads: Brands that have a multitude of apps or want to launch a new app can use beacon notifications to do so. A universal link to the app can be sent to customers who can then download the app on the respective play store.

Watch our webinar on ‘How to build proximity marketing campaigns using beacons in 2019’ now!

Future of proximity marketing and beacons

By 2020, 400 million beacons will be deployed across the world. A beacon-enabled zone will become just as synonymous as offering free WiFi at stores. Consumers will come to expect this contextual, targeted advertising and will quickly flock to stores that do offer such in-store experiences. Beacons can be used to design a unique experience for every customer based on their activity and purchase history which is hugely beneficial as 71% of customers love personalized recommendations. It is evident that proximity marketing allows for a spam-less and rich end-user experience and a channel for brands to reach out to new and old customers mutually benefitting both parties.

Related: Proximity marketing in 2018 and the forecast for 2022

Good Reads

1. Beacon deployment strategy for car dealerships
2. Hyperlocal marketing through beacons
3. Holiday season marketing campaigns with beacons for 2018
4. iBeacon and Eddystone use cases that made headlines in 2018

Wish to convert your regular app into a beacon powered app with NearBee SDK? Talk to an expert at Beaconstac and make it happen today.

• Author Details

Author Details

Sneh Ratna Choudhary

Sneh is a Content Marketing Manager at Beaconstac and has a penchant for all things tech and startups that improve human lives. She adores dogs, Radiohead, and Michael Gary Scott.

[email protected]