Why proximity marketing is the next big thing for retailers and small businesses
Whether you are a retailer or small business, proximity marketing could be the edge you’ve been looking for to steal business away from your competitors.
This relatively new marketing strategy combines the power of mobile devices with the relevance of location to attract customers to your storefront.
What is proximity marketing?
Proximity marketing is the use of mobile technology to send messages to smartphone and tablet users within a certain distance of your location.
This is huge for small businesses and retailers, as any person in your area has the potential to become a paying customer.
What better way to attract people to your store than by messaging them directly on their phones?
As a brick-and-mortar business, you know how important getting someone in the door is. If customers don’t come in, they don’t buy anything and you don’t get paid.
Proximity marketing is like a beacon, drawing customers into your lobby.
Speaking of beacons…
What is a Beacon?
A beacon is a small piece of hardware that transmits signals to smartphones and tablets within a certain range of the beacon.
The range of the beacon varies by manufacturer, but the general range seems to be around 50 meters (164 feet),
so about half the distance of a football pitch or American football field.
Beacons send information about your store and location using Bluetooth Low Energy signals (BLE).
Beacons can either send information to customers who have already downloaded your app, or to anyone in the area regardless of whether they have your app or not.
That last sentence is worth repeating: You can send messages to potential customers within a few meters of your store regardless of whether or not they have your app.
This gives you the ability to directly message people that have never been to your store before, a big advantage over traditional email marketing.
You can send messages to customers without an app using Google’s Eddystone platform.
Eddystone beacons can reach bother Android and Apple users, which is especially valuable.
You can learn more about Eddystone beacons here.
Google provides instructions and tutorials on setting the beacons up, even giving recommendations on which beacon devices to buy.
How to send Beacons to promote your business
There are a few techniques you can try, but one method our customers have had a lot of success with is using beacons to send digital coupons to people within the range of their store.
For example, imagine you are a local restaurant owner located centrally within a popular shopping district.
One afternoon you are looking out of your front window and notice a large number of people strolling around.
Being a savvy business owner that has already set up an Eddystone Beacon and is a member of Couptontools mobile marketing software,
You quickly create a coupon for Buy One Get One Free appetizer and use proximity marketing to send the coupon to every person that comes within 50 meters of your store.
Within 30 minutes, there is a line at your hostess station as customers wait to be seated.
If you had not sent out the coupon, many of these people may have chosen to eat at a different restaurant, or maybe they wouldn’t have eaten out at all.
Retail store owners can imagine how proximity marketing could also work for them.
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