Beacons are Bluetooth Low Energy devices that use unique IDs to allow smartphone apps to precisely locate users within 0.5 meters. While beacons have a range of up to 70 meters, their signals typically only travel 50 meters and do not pass through people well. Beacons require a smartphone app in order to provide location-based messages and content to users, even if the app is not open. Beacons are reusable, movable devices that can enhance customer engagement when paired with a beacon management platform that allows customization of messages, frequency, and analytics.

1. 10 facts about proximity marketing beacons

2. Full-service app and mobile solutions agency
Proximity marketing solutions

3. 1
Beacons are also known as iBeacons or
BLE beacons. In fact their full title is
Bluetooth Low Energy beacons.

4. 2
You need an app for beacons to be
utilised by smartphone users.
That’s because only apps have access
to the core features that beacons use.

5. 3
An app doesn’t have to be in use for
beacons to work.
Beacons in close proximity can be used
to ‘wake up’ an app so that it can
display messages on the user’s home
screen and message centre. This can
happen even if the user hasn’t open the
app for six months.

6. 4
Beacons don’t actually do much.
It’s the app that does the hard work. All
the very simplest beacons do is
broadcast their unique ID. If the app
knows where that beacon has been
placed, it knows exactly where the
smartphone is, down to less than 0.5m.

7. 5
Some beacons can actually do a lot.
The smartest beacons can broadcast
not just a signal but other data, like
ambient room temperature or even a
person’s heart rate.

8. 6
Beacons work up to 70m away*.
* Huge caveat here… Some beacons
can indeed work up to 70m away and
we have even seen them work over
100m away. But most of the time it’s
safer to assume that beacons will be
good only up to 50m. And that’s if
nothing gets in the way of the signal.

9. 7
Beacon signals don’t pass through
people very well.
In fact, lot’s of things can get in the way
of a signal, so you need to place them
carefully for maximum coverage in an
area.

10. 8
Beacons are movable and reusable.
If you use a beacon management
platform like Geemo, you can change
the location of your beacons as many
times as you want and do different
things with them, like change the
messages associated with the beacons.

11. 9
Beacons aren’t magic, they are just
another channel.
Like SMS. Or email.
And like both, if you use beacons to annoy
your customers they won’t like you
anymore. But if you are using a beacon
management system like Geemo you can
set the frequency and range of when
messages are sent to a user.

12. 10
There are 100’s of beacons vendors now.
Which beacon you use isn’t so important.
What is important is to use a beacon
management platform that has a rich
range of features so that you can create
engaging offers and content, serve it via
your beacons and then analyse what
works and what doesn’t to optimise your
investment in the technology.