Today there are many possibilities for communication between advertisers and their public, but without a doubt personalization and speed in marketing actions are characteristics that influence the final result of our advertising campaigns.
One of the strategies that is gaining more followers in recent years and that will be increasingly common among us, is that of proximity marketing.
Proximity marketing brings together all the actions that advertisers generate to get their message across based on criteria such as the proximity of the audience, the speed at which the message arrives or the possibility that the message is correctly personalized.
The smartphone: Universal receiver for Proximity Marketing
The most commonly used actions, within this concept, are those related to the use of the customer's smartphone as an element of attraction for the advertising messages to be spread. With mobile devices becoming a basic element of modern society and the preferred way to access digital content, digital agencies and brands have to understand how to successfully connect with their customers. The smartphone is a technological element powerful enough on the one hand and close enough to us on the other, to bring all these strategies together.
Proximity marketing strategies
Bluetooth, WiFi, QR codes or NFC, are the most widely used technological channels in the smartphone for the use of proximity marketing strategies.
- Free Wi-Fi network access. These are commonly called captive portals. Who hasn't ever entered a shopping mall, establishment (usually a franchise of a large chain), department store or airport and found themselves able to have an open and free Wi-Fi network? By accessing this Wifi, they allow us to stay connected in exchange for the registration of our data. This allows companies to send us advertising, usually based on the data captured in our registration, email, or phone number. This strategy is very beneficial for companies, since they are able to gather a lot of consumer information, which can be used in a punctual manner, but also in the medium-long term, especially if it is a place of great recurrence. On the other hand, there are companies, which use this strategy to position a proxy type connection with the clients, to be able, on the other hand, to monitor the user's activity and therefore be able to discover interests based on their navigation patterns.
- Offers and coupons for proximity. The use of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth as communication channels enables brands to offer promotions or information about their business based on coupons. This type of advertising can be very powerful when positioning, for example, certain offers inside premises for those people who "stand" in front of a shop window.
- QR codes and NFC labels. As in the previous example, the aim is to promote products or provide information to the customer. These strategies are, however, less invasive to customers and require customer action to receive the advertising communication. A QR label that encourages the download of an application, access to a specific URL or obtaining a discount code in the form of sms or email, are actions that could be included in this strategy. Similarly, in addition to QR codes, NFC labels begin to appear, requiring only the approach of the smartphone to the label, to activate advertising.
- Geolocation by Beacons. One of the most complete strategies of proximity marketing is the use of beacons. Beacons are small devices, with sizes that can vary from a coin to a pack of cigarettes, which work with a technology based on low consumption bluetooth. Currently there are beacons that additionally use Wi-Fi or acoustic signals as a communication channel. Each beacon has a specific signal and is capable of detecting nearby bluetooth devices, as well as sending a specific signal to these devices. The beacons are not only used to send promotions based on content (coupons, application downloads, specific product information...) but are also capable of passively collecting information on the location or type of devices near them. Therefore, this type of technology is also used in many places as "people counters", for example, located at the door of a shopping center, whose task is simply to have a count of the flow of people in a certain time range. Given the record of the geographic location that a beacon has, they are also associated with these elements, with guiding or in-door location strategies.
- Geolocation by mobile application. In a similar way to the previous one, and due to the innate capabilities offered by our mobile devices, the applications we have installed in our smartphones, if they have the necessary technology and user permissions, can relate the physical point of our location and therefore react to it. It is normal that many applications ask us for our location simply to position the catalog of offers associated with our province or town, however there are other applications can bring this geographical segmentation not only to our city but to the place by which we are moving at all times.
- Audiovisual media: One of the strategies that is receiving the most investment is based on the articulation of audiovisual media and how these can reach the person on the other side of the screen. The use of ultrasound or other types of signals could enable the media to react to a broadcast advertisement, generating a much closer and more personalized experience. Examples such as the application Shazaam, is a clear example of this type of proximity marketing.
Proximity marketing in our businesses
Using the above strategies or other alternatives or complementary, we can establish a communication plan to increase the engagement of our customers, reducing the time needed to communicate with them and at the same time establishing a communication channel when customers are within the radius of action of the brand. There are many alternatives for positioning a strategy based on proximity marketing; some of these strategies could be implemented in
Public centres with a massive influx of people: These are spaces where the influx of people is generally large (shopping centres, department stores, tourist offices, public bodies...). This type of space generally uses proximity marketing strategies to position information to their customers. In shopping centres it could be viable to use the bluetooth of our smartphones to generate a series of discount coupons from the establishments that make up the shopping centre, to welcome us or wish us a prompt return when we leave the centre. A tourist office could provide a link to their website or download their native app in order to offer information services even outside customer service hours.
Hotels, fairs and conventions: Proximity marketing brings together the strategy of offering valuable information to your customers. A fair or convention could inform attendees of the following presentations or the most relevant exhibitors at the exhibition, as well as opening hours and/or admission prices. All this, for example, to reduce or eliminate queues for information. A hotel can have a beacon in its entrance hall to show customers the opening hours of the dining rooms or the play activities for children, among other services. In addition, strategies could be used to generate customer loyalty, such as positioning discounts for exclusive services offered in the hotel itself, such as spas or themed restaurants.
Restaurants: The restaurant industry is one of the biggest potential beneficiaries of this kind of strategy. The generation of value services within the restaurant sector is enormous. The use of the smartphone can undoubtedly generate experiences aimed at increasing customer satisfaction, such as the automatic obtaining of product menus, management of self-attended reservations or requesting accounts from the table itself.
Financial institutions: This sector, traditionally based on face-to-face communication, can also be the object of the use of proximity marketing strategies. The use of beacons as an information positioning element could be used to speed up queues at branch windows. The generation of reactive communication (generation of feedback, surveys or customer satisfaction) based on the use of ATMs or the positioning of offers or latest products when using customer service points.
Implementation of a proximity marketing strategy
However, not everything fits into proximity marketing and many strategies, which on paper may be totally feasible, become real disasters in practice. The brand and the advertiser must take into account that the consumer, as a rule, only wants to receive the information that he demands, in form, time and context, and therefore the invasive generation of communication can be detrimental to the brand that advertises it.
Messages should always be short, clear, concise and if possible as personalized as possible. The client should always have the option to accept or reject the type of communication being attempted about him, respecting his privacy. The message always has to have the appropriate context, the digital support is basic and effective, if the client feels in a context related to the communicated message.
In short, proximity marketing represents another milestone in the digital transformation of companies, in the attempt to go beyond the traditional physical elements, generating an all-round experience with the customer, which provides a differential value in dealing with them and helps to increase the growth of companies' income.
