Beacons tend to be a pretty big investment – both financially and time-wise, especially with them being physical object that you need to install and maintain. To help you make the decision of whether or not they are the solution for you, we’ve put together a list of common beacons myths that you absolutely need to know about before you put your beacons up all over town 🙂
Have a look at this blog post “Can Geofencing and Beacons Work Together for my App?” if you want to have a complete overview of beacon’s capabilities, learn about its differences to geofencing and understand what the best practices are for both of these technologies.
Myth #1: I Can Use Beacons without an App
With beacons having been so popularized by the press and often referred to as small computers, it’s no wonder that a lot of people are under the impression that all they need to do is buy and install beacons around their business locations and beacons would magically start targeting their customers.
The truth is that beacons are just bluetooth signal transmitters. They need to work in conjunction with an app to trigger an action, such as a push notification or something else. The main workload is handled by the software program implemented into an app.
Tip: So, if you decide to invest into beacons, we would advise you to pay more attention to the capabilities of the software program that they comes with. In case its capabilities are limited, assess whether or not you would be capable of making something useful for your app users out of this software program by yourself.
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Cheat Sheet: The Do’s & Don’ts of Proximity MarketingThe Plot Projects rescue team has assembled a cheat sheet for you with essential best practices to follow and nail your proximity marketing for a relevant mobile app experience that drives engagement. |
Myth #2: I Need to Use Software from My Beacon Provider
You certainly can use the software program from your beacon provider if you want to, but if you are not happy with the software they provide, for instance you find its capabilities limited, you absolutely can “take” your beacons and go to a different software provider. The Plot Plugin is compatible with beacons from all the different vendors.
Tip: Before you decide to invest into beacons, it would probably be a good idea to think about the long-term plans for your app. If you are planning to implement some other SDK’s into your app, maybe in-app messaging, or push notifications or geofencing push notifications, and not solely use beacons in the future, it would be a better idea to look for a software provider who can accommodate for a wider variety of services.
Myth #3: It is Hard to Manage so Many Physical Beacons
It is hard to manage a lot of beacons if they come with a software program with limited capabilities. With Plot Projects, Beacons can be managed in a similar way to your geofences. Once you have your beacons on a map, they are very easy manage. For example with Plot Projects you can add opening hours to your Beacons because otherwise you don’t always know which time zone it is in!
You can also manage sets of beacons to make it easier to create, analyze and optimize large beacon campaigns. This reduces a lot of the management work when running campaigns.
Tip: You must have noticed by now that, when it comes to investing into beacons our biggest advice to you would be to spend more time learning about the software program that these beacons come with. If you want to be able to manage beacons at scale, you will probably need a provider that offers a convenient online dashboard and a straightforward API.
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Get the Rest of the MythsFor The final 3 myths, download the Ultimate Guide to Geofencing for Mobile Marketing. Along with that, you will get a simple explanation of how beacons & geofencing work, tips and handy examples on how to use them.
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