Have you ever imagined what shall be the face of the modern retail market? Has it ever crossed your mind, what beacons apps, smartphones and Bluetooth - the three defining pillars of mobile technology are doing together in the field of retail marketing? Together, they are reshaping the future of customer experience. Proximity marketing solutions are the newest connection between the brands and their customers and it is proving to be an effective tool to generate repetitive sales, drive better engagement and deliver the message of their brand to the customers.
The eminent concept of the 4Ps driven by McCarthy has been the very foundation of a successful business. Product, Price, Promotion and Place have been the governing pillars for retailers for decades now. These pillars allowed the businessmen to respond to changes in the market equilibrium. However, in the era of smartphones, the pace of growth has reached to another level. This pace may be a bit difficult for the 4Ps to handle. To cope up with this fast-lane market, a new phenomenon, a new strategy was required. Luckily, the fifth P came to the rescue - PROXIMITY.
Hello…What’s Proximity?
According to Wikipedia, proximity can be defined as "the localized wireless distribution of advertising content associated with a particular place”. However, the mere definition is not enough to understand the vastness of the term. It can be quite difficult to confine proximity to advertising purposes as it is not limited to the retail industry.
For a long time, most of the marketing efforts were focused on reaching maximum number of customers, irrespective of their preferences. The approach was one-fits-all-content with no specific customer-centric aim for marketing. Back then, due to technological limitations, attaining results through proximity was quite an invincible mountain to climb.
However, today we live in a world where personalized content can be easily delivered to the customer right on their smartphones. This helps retailers to provide an enhanced shopping experience to the customer and make it easy for them to make faster purchase decisions. You might be thinking that what made retail giants to walk on this un-ploughed road? Well, the main objective is to get-in-touch and connect with the customers who usually spend their majority of time in the digital space of their handsets or mobile devices. Keeping this idea at the center, proximity is amalgamated with business strategies and models of retailers.
How to Engage with Proximity?
Let's look at it this way; proximity marketing is not just a tool, but a set of technologies and machines that work together, rebuilding the way we interact with the market and our preferential products. The three major pillars which hold the very key of the future of retail customers experience are:
- Beacons (Geo-fencing).
- Push notifications.
- The Internet of Things.
Exciting, isn’t it? All this stuff looks so simple and easy going. However, to achieve the best result through proximity marketing, retailers have to walk on the road not taken. There are certain challenges waiting to be overcome and open some new doors for opportunities.
Challenges:
One can simply not deny that the use of technology is attracting potential customers. However, there are some challenges that every retailer has to face while incorporating proximity marketing solutions in his marketing strategies.
The most common of them is the requirement of an application. There must be an app downloaded in the smartphone of their prospects so that the retailers can extend their reach to them. According to an independent survey, the stats show that there are only a handful of people who actually download and use the app. Another challenge lies in the alternatives for the apps. It is suggested that tablets shall be provided to the customers along with the basket, but again, the cost factor comes into the play.
So, what can we do to get the maximum outcome through this still evolving business strategy?
Let’s have a look at the solutions that can facilitate proximity marketing in doing wonders for retailers.
Solutions:
- Know Your Customer: We all have a story to tell, what matters is how we present it to our audience. Similarly, the story of attracting customers also varies from the behavior of the customers. In order to attract more customers, the best practice would be to deliver content as per the nature and choices made by the customers. Identify what the customers care about the most in your store and where they are more inclined. This may help you in achieving the desired result you are expecting.
Before delivering the content to your customers, try to ask these questions to yourself:
- Who is my primary audience?
- What do they care about most?
- How could my product/service make their job easier?
- Try to Maintain Transparency: Creditability through online media is one of the most crucial challenges to overcome for retailers. Opinions may vary from perspective to perspective of various customers. So it is essential for retailers to build the trust for their brand amongst the prospects. Being open about the success and the road to success provides an edge to your marketing strategies and makes an impact over the prospective customers.
- Make Customer Feel Special: There might be some customers who would be loyal to your brand, so you should try to make them feel that you do care for them. This increases the brand loyalty amongst them and helps you to get better ROI.
Role of Proximity Marketing in your Business:
We have seen the evolution in marketing strategies in recent years. From individual marketing by setting up booths and selling your products to reaching the masses by the now-present media, companies have increased the quality of marketing by advertising through print, electronic and now digital media.
By now you might have got an idea of what actually proximity marketing is all about. The consumer is already on-site and starts receiving tailored messages regarding the deals and offers for his preferred brands. This helps brands to increase the conversion rate of prospects to customers.
Use of beacons is one of the most cost effective methods to incorporate proximity in your store. Beacons are local area transmitters which can push notifications to mobile devices in their vicinity, linking to everything from website URLs to coupons and daily specials.
So, what are you waiting for? If you want your business to get higher profits, try to incorporate proximity marketing solutions in your business module and strategy, and you will see the results.
Softweb Smart Retail, a beacon proximity marketing platform for retailers and brand owners helps you to attract, engage and acquire your pin-pointed audience. You can classify your customers on basis of their preference, loyalty demographics and can initiate contextual campaigns to interact directly with them.
Geo-fencing allows the users to create Virtual Zones in areas of your choosing. These Virtual Zones deliver message and/or offers to a customer who passes by. The utilization of beacons and mobile apps enhance the in-store experience of the customers. This in-turn helps the business owners to generate brand loyalty among their customers which results in better sale and higher profit.
