Advances in beacon and IoT technology are helping personalized marketing campaigns take a giant step forward – making them smarter and more effective. And, they are becoming more accessible to marketers across all industries, helping them reach an increasingly savvy group of consumers.
Targeting the “Always-on” Consumer
Today’s customers are always connected – a trend that forced the creation of the “always-on” enterprise just to keep pace with their evolved buying habits. As consumers become increasingly savvy from a tech perspective, they are slowly but surely becoming harder to reach with traditional marketing techniques.
That’s where IoT and beacons come into play – helping to transform that smartphone that people can’t put down into a tool that savvy tech marketers can leverage to reach consumers in new and engaging ways.
Pushing Buyers from Information Gathering to Action
Now that eCommerce sites have put extensive information into the hands of consumers 24/7, many shoppers research their purchases in advance. Though most of the actual purchases are still made in physical stores, many shoppers have pretty much made up their minds about what they want before they even walk in.
When a consumer steps foot into the retail store, marketers have one last chance to move consumers. Using beacons, geo-fences, tags, or audio signals, they can craft and send targeted messages based on where they are in the store.
Make no mistake – turning a one-time shopper into a lifelong consumer is not just about that first welcome message. The entire shopping experience can be transformed by a growing number of sensors and mobile technologies all over the store. Driving sales is all about the when, where, and how of engaging with the customer. Marketers that collect in-store and match it with historical information to craft innovative offers that will motivate consumers to act.
Taking Your Messages to the Street
The IoT will soon allow marketers to connect with consumers no matter where they go. Advertisers will soon be able to use beacon technology deployed on buses in London to push targeted offers and content to commuters as they travel. Savvy marketers can even create location-based campaigns for stores that the bus passes along the way.
This personalized approach bridges the ever-smaller gap between the consumer’s digital world and the tangible world: It extends the “always-on” consumer to include her commute trips, it leverages consumer insight to personally communicate with him at physical locations such as chain stores, restaurants, and movie theaters, and it connects consumers’ buying intent and online research with an actual purchase transaction at a physical store.
Bypassing Digital Overload
In this content-saturated world, the most pressing issue for marketers is getting consumers’ attention in the first place and keeping them engaged. Brands need to be mindful of the forms of communication they are using to push this highly personalized content. Video is an extremely effective channel as it creates excitement and enthusiasm from the start. According to research, Internet users spend 88% more time on websites that use video. Better yet, those same pages are 53 times more likely to end up on the first page of a Google search than websites without video.
In a world where consumers are constantly being bombarded with messages – marketers can no longer rely on sending a blast of generic offers if they hope to capture the attention of a tech savvy group of consumers. Personalization is the first step toward engaging more closely with customers – and encapsulating those offers in video messages is the best way to ensure that those messages get the attention they deserve. Companies that take full advantage of technology to individualize their campaigns will realize substantial gains in the long run.
