What you say in your marketing messages isn’t enough to get potential customers to buy from you. It also depends on how, when, and where you say it. When it comes to the “where” aspect, proximity marketing devices offer unique features.
Even though the number of benefits this marketing provides is huge, people still ignore it.
That’s because you must buy and deploy some devices for it to work. While that’s understandable, especially with the challenge of getting customer consent, you’ll find the benefits worthwhile. Let’s jump into the details.
What Is Proximity Marketing and Why Does It Work?
The first step to getting your hands on it is answering the mighty question, “What is proximity marketing?”
Proximity marketing is a method of distributing advertising content within a particular area via a wireless connection. Basically, you set up technology to send notifications, offers, discounts, surveys, or other marketing materials to people within a localized area.
How you decide to put this marketing into action is up to you. While WiFi marketing solutions seem to be the best choice, Bluetooth, NFCs, geofencing, and other proximity tools also offer benefits. But regardless of the medium you choose, you’ll be well on your way to a reliable marketing strategy.
At the top of the benefits list lies the fact that location is one of the most obvious personalization factors. When customers are close to your venue, they’re more susceptible to visiting and purchasing.
Marketers have been searching for a way to bridge the gap between online and offline marketing.
Proximity marketing technology is one of the best answers they’ve stumbled upon. It gives you deeper insights into customer journeys and helps you understand them better.
The more you know your customers and their preferences, the better your marketing efforts will become.
Moreover, this marketing can be helpful if you have a mobile application. The push notifications you send through this marketing increase engagement on your app.
Lastly, imagine a customer is passing in front of your venue. But they have your competitor in mind. By letting them receive a personalized and enticing message, you can bring them to your business.
4 of the Best Proximity Marketing Devices
Unless they’re impulse buyers, customers take a long time to make a purchase decision. They spend this time researching your brand, comparing it to your competitors, and reading what others say.
During the process, they come across a lot of your marketing materials. They visit your website, check out your Instagram page, and more before finally buying from you.
Beacon marketing helps 71% of retailers track and understand their customers’ buying patterns. Let’s have a look at the four best proximity marketing devices you can use to pull more customers.
1. Leveraging Bluetooth Proximity Marketing Devices
The first device to get a move on proximity marketing is using beacons with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE.)
When you place these devices around your venue, they constantly try to send signals to other devices with Bluetooth on. But the condition is that those mobile devices must be in close proximity to the beacons.
Let’s put that into context with an example. Suppose you own a clothing shop and have placed three Bluetooth beacons across your venue.
One of the beacons detects a Bluetooth-enabled device and sends it permission to connect. You’ve set this push notification to say, “Become a fashion star while saving money!”
This piques the customer’s curiosity, and they click on the notification, which redirects them to your marketing message.
Here, you’ve explained the details about your in-store fashion show, where the winner will get a freebie.
Since the customer is already present in your store, they won’t miss this chance of winning and saving. Plus, you’ve sent this message to a lot of customers. As your store gets more engagement, you’ll have no trouble standing out!
When it comes to Bluetooth proximity marketing devices, there are two standards. iBeacons works for Apple devices, while Eddystone helps you connect with Android devices. Since you’ll have both iOS and Android users in your venue, it’s a good idea to implement both.
2. Use NFCs for Secure Payment Options
Near Field Communications (NFC) technology simplifies payment but has other useful features. It’s easy to implement since all you need are smart posters on windows or NFC tags on products.
The reason why NFCs became so popular was the strict regulations about other forms of payment.
When customers want to purchase or get more information, they’ll touch their smartphone to this tag. After that, your proximity marketing efforts will start yielding results. Besides, customers will be consciously touching their phones to the tag. However, to maximize the results, your call to action must be simple yet enticing.
3. Invest in WiFi Proximity Marketing Devices
What smartphone doesn’t have WiFi these days? Providing free WiFi in the venue never fails to bring in swarms of customers.
So, it wouldn’t be wise to let this opportunity go by without using it for proximity marketing. To set up your guest WiFi and make the most out of it, you have to create a custom splash page.
It’s a web page where customers must authenticate to access the free WiFi. It also gives you the opportunity to collect customer data such as their names, email addresses, etc.
This data is the first step to building extensive customer profiles and email lists. Once you have the contacts, you can run effective marketing campaigns and see your sales grow.
But that’s not the only benefit of implementing a captive portal. You can customize it to reinforce your branding and show your WiFi conditions. However, implementing all this from scratch can be hard. WiFi marketing software is a popular solution to automate these tasks.
4. Combine Interesting Calls to Action With QR Codes
QR code marketing is the cheapest and most effective way to take advantage of nearby customers. Everyone knows these pixelated squares since pretty much every person uses them on a daily basis.
Like the NFC tags feature, almost all smartphones can scan QR codes. You only need a QR code generator and a printer to get things running.
People who see these codes can scan them, and the code will redirect them to the right page. However, the effectiveness will depend on how you use them. Placing them in the right location, along with an engaging CTA, will maximize your results.
Which Device Provides the Best Results?
Proximity marketing owes its success to the fact that customers are close to or inside your place of business. As you have seen, there are many proximity marketing devices that you can use to your advantage. The best one is the one that suits your needs and capabilities.
If you want to get started with WiFi marketing, try out Beambox. They offer QR code generation, which you can use as a proximity marketing device. You can also easily create a captive portal and collect data to enhance your customer experience and marketing initiatives.
Over 12,000 venues are using Beambox to grow their profits. Do you want to be next? Start your thirty-day free trial now!
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