By Neil Patel

Beacon technology is the next generation of proximity marketing. If you aren’t using it, you could be falling behind your competitors.

By leveraging the data collected from beacons, marketers have more opportunities to track paid campaigns, deliver personalized messaging to consumers, and improve local SEO.

What’s more, the beacon technology market is exploding, with Statista predicting the market will grow to 56.6 billion U.S. dollars by 2026.

What Is Beacon Technology?

Beacon technologies are small wireless transmitters that send signals to smartphones using Bluetooth technology.

The beacon device contains a CPU, radio, and battery that help it broadcast a constant identifier.

When a nearby mobile device recognizes the identifier, they connect. From there, the beacon carries out whatever action they are programmed to, including sending emails and notifications or ad attribution.

Essentially, beacon technology allows you to communicate with nearby smart devices to improve location-based searching and tracking.

For example, if you have a beacon installed in your store and a customer comes in who clicked one of your Facebook ads, you’ll know exactly how they found you.

Beacons can also nurture customers by sending coupons to users who clicked on an ad or visited your store but failed to make a purchase.

A retailer in a busy mall, for example, could install beacons in a store and connect them to the larger mall ecosystem. From there, you could join localized marketing campaigns and direct ads at customers shopping for similar items in your area.

ELLE Magazine leveraged this strategy in American malls and navigated 500,000 shoppers into their stores.

Beacon Technology for Organic vs. Paid Ad Campaigns

Organic marketing is the act of attracting customers to your business naturally over time. Organic marketing tactics can include SEO, content marketing, social media, and website development.

Paid marketing is when you pay to get your message or product in front of an audience. Examples of paid marketing include Google display ads, Facebook ads, and traditional marketing such as television and print ads.

Beacon technology can be leveraged for both paid and organic strategies. It’s all about what’s best for your business. Let’s look at the benefits and drawbacks of using beacon technology for organic versus paid ads.

Pros of Beacon Technology in Organic Marketing

• Costs are low: Beacons are usually cheap and require very little maintenance. If you already have a strong content strategy that brings customers into your physical store, you could improve their experience with beacons.
• Better customer experiences: The best way to retain customers is to make them feel seen. Beacons help you direct personalized messaging that tap into their individual needs.

Cons of Beacon Technology in Organic Marketing

• It takes time: Organic marketing doesn’t bring immediate results. It takes time to spread your message across the web, pique interest in consumers, and encourage them to come to your store.
• You need expertise: If you want to be successful, you’ll need a …read more

  Source:: Kiss Metrics Blog