6 BENEFITS OF PROXIMITY MARKETING AND HOW TO EXECUTE A CAMPAIGN

Proximity marketing is one of the fastest ways to gain a competitive edge when it comes to mobile marketing. Why? Because personalization is the key success factor for any digital marketing campaign. Moreover, personalization is the foundation for providing an awesome mobile experience for app users.

PROXIMITY MARKETING – WHAT IS IT?
Proximity marketing simply refers to communicating with customers at the right place, at the right time, with a personalised mobile message. It bridges the gap between offline and online marketing. Beacons, geofencing and push notifications play a vital role.

There are so many benefits of proximity marketing – far too many for one blog post. According to Beaconstac, proximity marketing is 16 times more effective than Google Pay per click! From easy geotargeting to improve app engagement and improved retention, you’ll be compelled to execute a proximity marketing campaign soon!

THE POWER OF PROXIMITY MARKETING
For years, we have seen the power of proximity marketing. In particular, the retail sector is notorious for geotargeting each other’s outlets. Even back in 2014, Dunkin Donuts delivered discount coupons to people near Starbucks. Needless to say, this gave them substantially higher coupon redemption rates. Recently, the initiative from Burger King is a great example of how to use the power of relevance and immediacy by offering customers something highly relevant and timely. Their proximity promotion was designed to retain customers that may be tempted to a competitor and promote a new feature in their app.

It’s not just retail which is benefiting from proximity marketing. Beacons are effectively used across all industries including airports, events, hotels, real estate and more. In fact, they work anywhere that there are people with your app on their mobile device.

So, before executing a proximity marketing campaign, let’s take a look at some of the benefits of adopting this personalised mobile marketing.

6 BENEFITS OF PROXIMITY MARKETING

1. Geotargeting is easy with proximity marketing
2. Proximity marketing increases app engagement
3. Beacons help to improve app retention
4. Proximity marketing helps you gain a competitive edge
5. Proximity marketing gives you immediate conversions
6. Proximity marketing = a personalized experience

1: Geotargeting Is Easy With Proximity Marketing
It’s so easy. Just pick a precise location so that when someone enters, exits or lingers within that geofence, a push notification is sent to that person’s mobile. Geofence technology can also send messages to anyone present within a geofence immediately or with a preset delay. If you use segments and channels you can send different messages to different customers who enter the same geofence and/or are near to a beacon. What’s more, beacons provide more detailed location data than GPS or WIFI tracking.

2: Proximity Marketing Increases App Engagement
Keeping users engaged is one of the most important ways of ensuring the commercial success of any app. For any business where the location is important, geotargeting in conjunction with push notifications is one of the most effective app engagement tools.

3: Beacons Help To Improve App Retention
Improving app retention is a priority for all businesses with a mobile app. Setting up proximity marketing campaigns with beacons is a sure way of increasing brand loyalty and improving customer retention. It’s important to have app analytics in place so that you can create reports on the open rate and engagement rate for push notifications.

The average clickthrough rate (CTR) for beacon-based push notifications can be as high as 80%. With this high CTR, it’s easy to see why beacons can help transform the customer experience.

4: Proximity Marketing Helps You Gain A Competitive Edge
By creating an interactive environment for your customers, not only will this help engage them and retain them but it will give your brand a competitive edge. However, there is a fine line between improving customer experience and appearing creepy with too many disruptive messages. This is why you need to analyse your target audience and spend time on your mobile marketing automation strategy.

5:  Proximity Marketing Gives You Immediate Conversions
By increasing app engagement, a proximity marketing campaign will help you with your conversion goals. With proximity campaigns, you immediately connect with prospects when they are most in a situation to purchase from your brand. Retailers can prompt customers, at the perfect timing, with enticing offers such as discount push notifications.

6:  Proximity Marketing = A Personalized Experience
Personalization is a key aspect to any customer experience. In retail, for example, with proximity marketing, not only can businesses send personalized messages to app users…but at the same time, the store staff can be alerted if a loyal customer walks in, enabling them to offer the best in-store experience to regular customers.

PLANNING A PROXIMITY MARKETING CAMPAIGN
When it comes to planning a proximity campaign, there are a number of things to take into consideration. Firstly, there’s identifying the target audience. Secondly, the content strategy requires attention. Thirdly, you need to think about the metrics you’ll track to measure the success of the campaigns.

But, most importantly you need to think about the digital technology required. A mobile app developer will need to incorporate a beacon solution along with a push notifications service. With many options available, it’s important to find a beacon solution provider and push notifications provider with a great fit. The partnership between Beaconstac and Kumulos is a great example. These solutions provide mobile app developers with great options for location triggered push notifications and proximity marketing using beacons and geofence technology.

IMPLEMENTING A PROXIMITY MARKETING CAMPAIGN
As mentioned, selecting the right technology is key to implementing your proximity marketing campaign.

Beacons
Beacons came on the tech scene in 2013 when Apple announced new iBeacon technology.

But buying beacon hardware is not always the most efficient answer as you also need a developer on board with plenty time. This is why many businesses prefer a complete proximity marketing solution. Proximity marketing companies like Beaconstac are not only cost-effective but they have robust integration with app performance management platforms such as Kumulos.

Geofencing
Geofencing has become a standard practice for plenty of businesses. It is a location-based service that allows you to set up a virtual boundary around a specified location such that whenever a device enters or exits the defined boundaries, an alert is sent to the administrator. Geofencing software along with SMS marketing systems and push notifications tools allow businesses to use a customer’s location to send out messages when they’re near a defined boundary, such as their shop.

Push Notifications
Regardless of the technology you use, your push notifications are the most important part of your campaign. Timely and relevant push notifications have a great influence on customer behavior. A good mobile marketing automation platform will enable you to schedule push notifications and manage geofences. For example, mobile app developers can easily provide app clients with proximity marketing by accessing both Kumulos’ mobile app performance management platform and our technology partner Beaconstac’s comprehensive proximity marketing solution.

PROXIMITY MARKETING IS HERE TO STAY
Remember that proximity marketing isn’t just limited to mobile devices. Wearables can also receive beacon notifications. So, if you are seeking new ways to gain a competitive edge, it’s time you suggested proximity marketing.