THE GLOBAL PROXIMITY MARKETING REVOLUTION

6,201,000 proximity sensors have been deployed by brands around the world. And that’s growing. US retail stores alone will account for growing that figure by 1,000,000 this year.

Proximity is no longer fringe marketing. Major brands such as Heineken and Elle are using beacons right now.

But why? What’s so great about proximity marketing?

Well, for starters, it can drive brand awareness and direct response. That’s a pretty powerful combination and not one that many other media channels can lay such a strong claim to.

“We not only saw lift in core brand awareness measures, but more notable from a shopper standpoint, we saw significant improvement in purchase intent after consumer were exposed to our beacon engagements.”
Amberly Hilinski Commercial Marketing Manager at Dutch Brands, Heineken USA

As customers are walking around shopping centres, or even cities, content delivered to their smartphones from beacons can alert them to new stores and new products.

If you’re launching a new soft drink brand, get your name out there by sending notifications to people when they’re near stores that stock your product.

Your content can drive action too. You could alert people of deals or give them exclusive offers when they’re near your store, or even when they’re already inside and they’re trying to justify a purchase.

Using the soft drink brand again, target people on hot, sunny days with content that shows how refreshing your drink is. They’ll be diving into the nearest store to get it.

Plus, proximity marketing can complement the your other channels too. For example, if you have TV driving awareness and creating huge fans of your brand, you can use proximity marketing to remind those people to take action when they’re nearby.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, of course. Everyday people are doing more and more amazing things with the likes of ibeacon solutions that would have been unimaginable just the day before.

If you want to know what your brand can do with beacons, you can find out more here.

With all this great stuff that proximity marketing can do, it’s no wonder that Proxbook predicts a third of leading US retailers will spend on major beacon projects in 2016. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

That popularity isn’t likely to decline anytime soon either. This isn’t expensive fad technology that is difficult to implement (ok, it can be but it doesn’t have to be). This is accessible to pretty much everyone.

Beacons could become as big of an in-store consideration as window display or shop layout. Infact, they’re very likely to. The only question is, will you lead the revolution or follow it?