Bluetooth marketing involves marketing to consumers at the right location at the right time with extremely relevant as well as personalized notifications. Marketers across different verticals are starting to realize that proximity marketing provides immense potential other than just delivering coupons and vouchers. These tools function optimally when there are employed by brands to better comprehend the requirements and demands of their customer base and patterns in purchasing behaviour.
Also termed ‘hyperlocal marketing’ proximity marketing targets potential consumers with personalized advertisements based on how close a consumer is to a specific location and drawing them to make a buying decision in the immediate future.
The future of mobile marketing hinges on personalised campaigns. The more information you have about consumers and you target them as per parameters such as geographical location and demographics the faster your app user base will ramp up along with retention as well as engagement.
Location based campaigns are vital for retailers as these campaign supply informative alerts at the right time such as when consumers are close to the store or close to a particular product in a store.
In proximity marketing with beacons, a Bluetooth enabled mobile device at a particular place is set up within the range of the beacon and communicating data as text, images or video through the respective mobile app. There exist certain conditions to implement this marketing technique.
- The consumer should be carrying a Bluetooth enabled mobile device at the place where the proximity marketing technique is implemented.
- A beacon has to be deployed in the region where the consumer is presently situated for dispatching and receiving marketing messages or other kinds of data.
- The targeted consumer must have the relevant mobile app installed on the phone that has the ability to accept push notifications.
Once the brand deploys a beacon in the location chosen for promotion the communication happens in three steps.
Device detection – A Beacon searches for Bluetooth enabled mobile devices in its range. It also broadcasts its ID number (Which is unique to a specific beacon in that place) at regular intervals. The mobile app will have a list of ID numbers of each of the beacons that have been activated and link them with their location. When the device matches a beacon’s ID with the ID stored in the mobile app it will inform the app that the beacon is close by.
Permission request – For each Bluetooth enabled mobile device found within the proximity range of the beacon it will dispatch requests to consumers requesting permission to communicate with their respective mobile device.
Content upload – When the consumer gives permission, the app will inform the consumer of an alert showing a message. Clicking on the message opens the alert letting the consumer view personalized marketing message for products nearby.
Bluetooth marketing forms part of a larger domain of marketing termed proximity marketing. The idea behind the former is that the proximity of an individual allows a company to deliver a marketing message regarding products close by.
The beauty of Bluetooth marketing is that you can change your advertisement at your convenience. It can be leveraged in multiple environments aimed at different demographic units. You are communicating directly with the prospect via their mobile phone.
