It’s always great when you see businesses trying new things that make their customer’s experience better. But sometimes, businesses have great intentions when adopting new technology but are unable to make it work. And we hate to watch an awesome tool go to waste. So for businesses looking to adopt beacon technology, here are some tips for success.
1. Get to know your customers
The first thing a business should do is learn about their customers. How did they find out about your business and what are they looking for are great questions to start with. Just general observation of your customers can tell you a lot about what they care about when shopping.
Are customers asking questions about your products? Are they doing a lot of comparing? These cues will help you produce better offers and provide a better more contextual experience for your customers. The more you know about your customers the more your beacon technology can work for you.
2. Don’t waste resources building an app
The main barrier with using beacon technology is that the customer must have something in their phone that can receive the signals. Previously, businesses would have needed to build an app and have their customers download it. But this is no longer necessary. If your customers have a Google app with notifications turned on, then they can receive beacon signals. The great thing about this is that certain Google apps come as a native app already preinstalled on Android devices. And many iPhone users use Google apps such as Chrome or Google Now.
This is important because it means that your business no longer needs an app to use beacon technology. Broadcasting an Eddystone signal, beacons can broadcast a URL to the user’s phone which can direct them to a webpage featuring the information that the business wishes to display from that beacon. So you no longer need to have all of your customers download an app and you can save thousands of dollars from not having to build one.
3. Provide useful information, not advertisements
This is the most important part of successfully using beacon technology. The point of beacon technology is to provide a more contextual, interactive experience for the customer. Not to advertise. If you see that customers are asking for more information about a certain product, then you should have a beacon that provides more information about that product. This provides real value to the customer.
Providing value will lead to a better overall buying experience and generate more sales. Advertising through beacons without providing value to the customer will simply turn them away. Consumers receive enough advertisments already, they don’t need beacons sending them more.
4. Use analytics to provide better offers and information.
Analytics will help you continue to grow your business and allow for you to continue to provide valuable information to your customers. You can tell how many people are using each beacon and how long they are using it for. You can then adjust your not so popular beacons so that they provide the information the customer is looking for. That’s part of the power of beacon technology. It can provide further information about your customers so that you can continue to help them have a better shopping experience.
Key takeaway: Beacon technology is about providing value to the consumer
Businesses using beacon technology need to remember that their main goal is to provide value to the customers shopping experience. By providing real value, you will help drive sales and gain more loyal customers. Don’t get sucked into thinking that if you blast your customers with advertisements that it will help drive sales. Customers will simply stop using your beacons.
Lastly, make sure to offer the entire proximity experience including mobile wallet. Beacons allow for a customer’s digital loyalty card to be brought to the lock screen of their phone while standing near the register. Which is very valuable to the customer. Check out this post to learn more about the entire proximity buying experience.
Always remember: Providing real value to your customers shopping experience will drive sales.
I hope these tips for success with proximity marketing and beacon technology help your business succeed. And if your interested in adopting beacon technology for use in your business- learn more here.
[thrive_leads id=’7764′]
