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10 facts about beacons

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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.

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10 facts about proximity marketing beacons
Full-service app and mobile solutions agency Proximity marketing solutions
1 Beacons are also known as iBeacons or BLE beacons. In fact their full title is Bluetooth Low Energy beacons.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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10 facts about beacons

  • 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.