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9 Ways to Use iBeacons for Next-Level Proximity Marketing

Introduced in 2013, iBeacon technology has grown speedily. Though the retail industry is utilizing it the most, there is a lot more iBeacons can do. From in-store marketing to intelligent airport assistants – businesses are using iBeacons in every possible area.

If you deal with customers, visiting your venture for taking services or purchasing products, this potent and revolutionary proximity marketing aid is surely going to benefit your business too. It’s just you have to innovatively think and figure out how could it help you. Or, you can just read this article, in which, we’ve provided an industry-wise use case listing about iBeacons’ applications. But first things first – Get to know the basics of iBeacon before we proceed.

iBeacons

What is iBeacon Technology?

The technology utilizes Beacons, which are the tiny devices, capable of transmitting low-energy Bluetooth signals. Content related to geo-locations or some personalized data can be sent over Beacons.

Though one Beacon can cover a small range, i.e. 12 inches to 50-55 yards, when installed in series, these little battery-powered devices can cover a much larger area. These transmitters need a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone and an app in this phone, in order to send notifications to users or trigger any action.

Deployment of iBeacons

1. In Retail Industry

Beacons have dozens of applications in retail or in-store marketing only.

Reminding a passerby about your store, telling store visitors about latest offers as per their previous purchases, providing assistance in parking, welcoming buyers as they enter the store, in-store navigation, making people aware of discount offers, running promotional campaigns and giving product highlights to the person interested in a particular product are a few things you can do using iBeacon technology.

Nowadays, Beacons are enabling customers for booking purchasable products, automatic checkout, getting feedback, directing the people towards salesperson, etc. Also, Beacons can be used for cross-selling too. For instance, if a person picks an umbrella to buy, you may promote raincoat too. Chances are that it’ll sell.

2. In HR Operations

We know beacons are perfect for engaging customers, improving customer experience, collecting insights and analyzing customer behavior. But, do you think beacons could be useful for your HR department too?

Companies are now enabling beacons in their premises to track their employees. Beacons are being deployed for locating employees, conference hall booking, cab booking when an employee leaves the building, and theft prevention too.

"Recently, DB CORP launched an app named DB MY APP which is efficient at marking attendance automatically using iBeacons and GPS which developed by iTechNotion "

Enabled with Office I Card display and auto-attendance feature, this app has removed the need of carrying ID card for employees. Benefits of doing so are:

  • For the employees, who used to forget it at home often, this app is a wonderful help.
  • For the HR team, attendance tracking and leave management have become easy.
  • DB MY APP app, developed by iTechNotion, remained a big hit and has thousands of installs at present.

Additionally, there are a few time-tracking tools, which use iBeacons for making timesheets and calculate business expenses. It requires the ventures to install beacon devices on each entry and exit point. Also, employees need to download the app too. Through this setup, employees’ in-time is calculated.

3. In the Education Industry

Colleges, university campuses, coaching institutes, and other such organizations are using Beacons in tracking students’ attendance and verifying if they are skipping any class.

An assistant professor has recently created a Beacon-enabled app to track students when they are in class or campus. This app is capable of tracking attendance and notifying students if they are missing the class, even when present in the campus.

Such implementations help the education sector improve academic results and grow.

4. In the Hospitality Industry

The more personalized services you’ll offer, the higher will be your customer satisfaction and retention rate. With Beacons, it has become possible to provide highly personalized services for hotels, rental properties, restaurants, etc.

There are many businesses, which -

  • Use an automated greeting message while a guest enters.
  • Guide customers to their room with the help of digital maps or navigators.
  • Take information from customers regarding their preferences.
  • Ask for feedback after food or stay.

5. In Cleaning and Laundry Industry

The increasing trend of outsourcing household chores has given rise to the cleaning and laundry industry a new height. The increasing burden of work for the cleaning contractor has also made it important for this industry to get equipped with the latest technology aids. Hence, a few for this sector have started using iBeacons.

Here is one such example - " Majestic Cleaning Excellence utilizes beacons for indoor navigation, auto-detection of rooms and Live Tracking of cleaning staff. "

The app can also guide the cleaner for room cleaning. Such deployments are proven to improve the productivity of cleaning teams and organization of teams at the same time.

6. In Academic and Corporate Events

In small and big events, there are many important areas, people miss to visit.

Sometimes, people find it difficult to walk through the events, concerts, etc. because of the wide celebration area and new location.

In Academic or corporate events, it becomes tough for judges to make decisions about the most popular stand.

All this is changed with the entry of iBeacon Technology in the market.

See how –

Bonnaroo Festival, in 2014, had Beacons enabled. They integrated some beacon functionality with their old event app and used the module to gather detailed insights. The event managers tracked the time spent by each visitor at each stall, VIP entrances, and most crowded areas during the event alongside many such metrics.

This data not only helped the event organizers understand what improvements are to be made in the next event, but improved the experience for visitors too.

Another event, organized by another tech pioneer, gave visitors points for visiting stands, swapping contact information, finding locations within the event area in order to make their event more engaging.

7. In libraries

There are giant libraries, where finding a book without human assistance is possible, especially for first-time visitors. With Beacons enabled for navigation assistance and information supply, things become easy for the readers.

Take the example of Port Clinton Library. Here, the beacon-enabled app tells the visitors about the capabilities of the library app, availability of library card in the app, digital catalog, meeting room booking facility, dues, etc.

With this app at work, the library needs fewer human resources to assist the people visiting the library.

8. In AR/VR Gaming or Entertainment Sector

There are many malls, which setup AR/VR gaming areas to earn extra revenue and increase the shopping time for parents as kids stay engaged in these games. There are amusement rides or themed haunting houses, which could be made even more interesting if the location of players/visitors is known.

With the help of Beacons, it is possible now. So, entertainment or gaming related businesses are making full use of it. A few examples of its applications are –

A game, dark ride, streams the caption data as per the rider’s location, in order to improve the gaming experience.

A shopping mall, which entertains kids through AR games while parents are busy, uses beacons to place virtual treasures for the players using beacons.

9. In the Travel and Transportation Sector

Public, as well as private, sector in the transportation industry, is finding Beacons awesome.

While Google has installed more than 2000 beacons on different Railway stations in India for providing free Wi-Fi services to the travelers, there are some airports, which are using Beacons to automate check-ins and guide the travelers.

Railways, bus stations, airports, and many tourist spots use beacons to assist first-time visitors in finding a path, food, etc.

Other Applications of Beacons

The story of iBeacons does not end here. With governments enabling beacon devices on roads in order to instruct visually-impaired people, automotive dealers suggesting newly-arrived vehicles or offers to their visitors, and real estate apps installing beacons in the listed properties to give real-time suggestions to their users – iBeacon has a broad spectrum of applications yet to be unleashed.

Are you already utilizing it for your business or have found an innovative way to deploy it at your store, outlet, office, or business area?

Drop a comment here, telling the purpose of usage and what’s your experience with it. If not, ask us how it can be used for increasing your revenue.

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