With each day, the beacon campaigning marketing strategy is gaining more popularity due to its effective results. This article is going to be a detailed description of Beacons, their components, applications, types, terms, advantages, etc.

Learn about Beacon

Do you know what is a Bluetooth BLE beacon? Before you proceed any further you need to learn about it to get a better understanding of this article. Are you acquainted with the function of the lighthouse? Well, the same is the case with beacons. These tiny hardware devices resemble the function of the lighthouses and derive their power from the battery. Beacons can be described as small Bluetooth radio transmitters that are associated with transmitting BLE or Bluetooth Low Energy signals. Now, you might be curious about how these signals are scanned or displayed. The answer to that is simple, any smartphone consisting of the Bluetooth function can effortlessly scan and display the BLE signals.

Where can you spot beacons?

Usually, beacons are found in a lot of places. The primary or most common among them are:

• Advertisement sectors
• Theme parks
• Shopping malls and stores
• Real estate properties

You can also find these tiny hardware devices in various public events, venues, restaurants, etc. They are kept at the front of many stores to boost the convenience of both the buyers and the sellers.

What are the main components of a beacon?

On the inside these tiny hardware devices are composed of primary 3 components that are as follows:

• A small ARM computer with an attached antenna system – This component is associated with transmitting electromagnetic waves within a specific frequency
• Batteries – These components act as the powerhouse of the beacons as they provide power to make the total circuit work.
• A Bluetooth connectivity module – This component helps to connect the device with other Bluetooth-associated devices.

Specify the difference between classic Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy

If you want to understand the concept of BLE beacons more vividly, the first thing you would need to learn is the difference between classic Bluetooth and BLE. There’s a fine line of difference between them. The first one, which is classic Bluetooth, is developed primarily for Bluetooth headsets and speakers. It is associated with transmitting long-range signals and as a result, consumes more power. However, Bluetooth Low Energy consumes less energy comparatively as it is associated with transmitting a short range of signals.

The complete working procedure of a Bluetooth beacon

Check out the below-provided info to get a complete and defined idea about the operation of these hardware devices step by step:

Additional info- The typical range of Bluetooth low-energy BLE beacons varies from 20m to 300m.

• If the beacons are deployed at the entrance of a shop, they would transmit signals up to 300m approximately which would be scanned by smartphones in that range.

• Once the smartphone catches the signal, the ID number of the BLE signal would be further transmitted to the cloud server where the server would further respond to the ID.

• This would transmit the necessary information related to the store on the screen of your smartphone. Now, if you click on those notifications, you would be further transferred to a webpage, website, form, etc.

For instance, if you deploy these devices in your pastry shop, the information related to your pastry shop that as your newly launched items, discounts, coupons, etc would be transmitted via Bluetooth signals to the smartphone of the customers. In this way, the BLE Bluetooth beacon would add a lot more convenience to your business advertising virtually.

What is the process to activate a beacon?

Bluetooth BLE beacons carry out campaigns assigned to them only after they are activated. However, the process to activate every beacon is not the same. Keep reading to learn about it precisely.

• Keychain beacons neither require an external battery nor an external power button for their activation.
• Long-range beacon Bluetooth low energy BLE requires an external power button but not an external battery for its activation.
• Indoor beacons require only the external battery for their activation.
• Outdoor beacons require both the external battery and power button for their activation.
• Pocket beacons require only the external power button for its activation.

Once the BLE Bluetooth low-energy beacon is activated it would successfully transmit the notifications to nearby devices.

4 reasons for marketers to opt for Beacons

• Helpful for small businesses – With the introduction of the Beacons, small businesses have successfully thrived. Earlier it was critical for small businesses to keep pace with large businesses regarding the advertising sector. But, with the technology of BLE, this became much easier and smoother elevating the game of small businesses incredibly.

• Not heavy on the pocket – Another important reason to opt for this marketing strategy is its cost-effective nature. You can considerably elevate your marketing strategy by making use of replaceable batteries. As a result, you won’t have to replace the entire device but, only the battery. You can also use USB beacons to save the cost of batteries.

• Serves high click-through rates – High click-through rates are also initiated by the Bluetooth BLE beacon, which favorably impacts the marketing plan. Through various campaigns, pop-ups, forms, etc., more and more individuals become connected in your company. If a beacon campaign is perfectly performed, its CTR may reach impressive heights.

• Increased retargeting – Beacons also induce increased retargeting. Now, what does retargeting means? It means the beacons would engage your customers once again in your advertising campaign after they have left your store through the means of retargeting. This is an incredibly attractive reason for marketers to opt for this marketing strategy

Elaboration of the process of interaction of a beacon with end-users

Through the medium of the Nearbee app installed on the Bluetooth-optimised smartphone, the beacons send push-up notifications related to the campaign assigned to it. The function of the app is to transmit these signals to the smartphones in the proximity of the hardware device and as a result, the users or customers get notified with different CTA buttons(links, forms, webpages, etc), videos, posters, quizzes, surveys, etc

Is a proximity beacon useful?

The applications of a proximity beacon are plenty. Take a look at them now:

Proximity beacons enable location-based advertisements

The proximity beacons replacing standees in shops, restaurants, parlors, spa centers, etc makes sure that the customers are well aware of the ongoing offers and deals of the company. physical advertisement seems annoying to many and If it was not for the beacons, as a store owner you would have lost many potential customers which would negatively affect your business. But, now with the advancement of the marketing strategy or rather elevating the marketing strategy with the help of beacons, customers can store the deals and offers for later use. In this way, both you and your customers would be benefited through the service of the proximity beacons.

The navigation feature

This is a lucrative feature most marketers are running after. This is an instant business boost that would help the business to spring up in no time. To understand this feature you would need to take the example of a physical billboard or advertisement board. When people would pass across the board they would spot the information given on the billboard about a newly launched store, deals and offers, etc. However, if you add a long-range Bluetooth BLE beacon on the advertisement board, the customers would immediately receive push-up notifications on their smartphones about the direction and details of the store. If they are willing, they would be able to follow the instructions immediately and head to your store. So, isn’t it a great method to hype up your business?

Indoor location tracking using Bluetooth proximity beacons

Imagine asking for a helper about every single detail about the products you’d need to pick. But what if you receive all those information beforehand on your smartphone? Won’t that be great? If you deploy proximity beacons in your store, all your customers would receive special assistance in in-store navigation thus enhancing the overall shopping experience.

Stores business card info

Another great advantage of using beacons is their capacity to store information about the business cards being used once on the mobile. So, these cards can be used numerous times without any hassle as their information had already been stored in the beacon star.

Enhancing campaigns

If you can gather information about the in-service experience of the customers, undoubtedly you would be able to develop better campaigns. The beacons would assist you in gathering necessary information related to customer experience, reviews, favorite products, issues, complaints, etc.

How do Beacons connect the online and offline worlds?

 Undoubtedly, beacons can merge both the online and offline worlds to enhance your marketing strategy. For instance, if you create an app for your shop, you would want people to download it right? The Bluetooth BLE beacon would assist you in doing that through the help of push-up notifications. This is an exclusive feature only associated with the beacons and no other adversity tool. Eliminating the gap between the two worlds would be highly beneficial for both you and your customers as the interaction would now be even easier, swifter, and smoother.

What are the BLE devices?

Read further to learn about the Bluetooth low-energy devices list

Mainly there are two kinds of devices:

• Peripheral devices

Peripheral devices consist of a sensor that transmits information to a mobile phone connected to it. Some common examples of peripheral devices are thermometers, heart rate sensors, weighing scales, etc.

• Central devices

Central devices are paired up with peripheral devices to complete the entire process of information transfer. The most common examples of central devices are smartphones, pc, laptops, etc.

4 types of beacon protocols

• GeoBeacon (Tecno-World)

It has 8 bytes of data and is high resolution. This is an open-source BLE protocol that is seamlessly compatible with other mobile platforms and runs on a battery life supported by TLM data.

• Eddystone (Google)

This protocol is popular for transmitting URL sources and can easily integrate with various Google devices or products. Also, it has a clear, open, and flexible format.

• AltBeacon (Radius Networks)

It is an open source that can be easily personalized. Also, other mobile platforms are seamlessly compatible with it.

• iBeacon (Apple)

It is a highly reliable easy and simple protocol and is immensely supported by iOS.

Terms you need to learn

TX power

The range of a beacon is termed TX power which typically ranges from -30dBm to +4dBm.

Advertising interval

It refers to the interval of advertisements done by beacons.

Battery life

The more the TX the less the battery life and vice versa.

What are the popular myths associated with beacons?

Using beacons hampers the privacy

Beacons are never an obstacle to privacy as they cannot access any information from smartphones other than the contextual message assigned to them. In other words, beacons only transmit contextual messages to people within definite proximity.

A developer is essential to create a beacon campaign

Hiring a developer is undoubtedly costly and this is a great reason why many people don’t opt for this marketing strategy but this is entirely false due to the super simple process of the beaconstac. Creating campaigns has turned into an effortless task that can be carried out even by newbie users.

Beacon campaigns require a new app to work

This is another popular myth that is preventing marketers to choose this strategy. Almost all the beacon campaigns can be operated with the help of the Nearbee app.

Closing notes

This was all about Bluetooth BLE beacon, its uses, activation process, types, terms, protocols, etc. Go through this article to clear all your doubts right now!

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