Beacon and your business

Marketers can use Beacons in a variety of different ways to communicate with their target audience efficiently. They can leverage the power of this small Bluetooth enabled devices to reach their present and potential customers who are within a short range of their transmitting devices. But before we delve deeper into the ways and means through which businesses can gain from these wireless communication devices, it is important first to understand what beacons are and how they work.

Beacons—a brief introduction

Beacons are a class of Bluetooth low energy devices (BLE) that emit a continuous signal, which could be read by your phone if it has the right app installed. It can then initiate certain actions and deliver information to you based on where you are.

These beacons transmit a continuous signal which is picked up by devices near them.  Now for these devices to pick up these signals, they need to have a particular app installed. There are two types of apps that pick up the signals transmitted by these small Bluetooth enabled devices.  One is iBeacon, Apple’s technology standards, which allows mobile apps to listen to the signals emanating from the beacons and then respond accordingly.

The other communication protocol is designed by Google and goes by the name of Eddystone. There are two to three very important differences between these two communication protocols developed by Apple and Google respectively. Whereas iBeacon is officially supported only by devices running iOS Eddystone offers official support for both iOS and Android. Also, Eddystone is an open protocol, meaning its specifications are open to all.

How can businesses benefit from beacons?

Bluetooth presents the marketers with a simple and efficient strategy to communicate with their customers in physical locations. These small devices operating using Bluetooth low energy communication technology allow marketers gain deeper and detailed customer insights. For example, shop owners can get a better idea about the customers spending how much time on specific products while inside their store. It offers the retailers an opportunity to retarget them through an app or a better advertisement.

Build customer loyalty

Beacons can also help shopkeepers generate loyalty towards their store. They can reward them for their physical presence as well with quick services.


Heatmapper is a free Wi-Fi mapping tool which can help you deal more efficiently with your Wi-Fi signals, security issues, etc. It is an ideal choice for your home or small offices.