What is Proximity Marketing

The Proximity Marketing or Marketing di Prossimità is a marketing strategy that allows the creation and delivery of personalized messages directly to specific targets on their mobile devices. This service is enabled only when the customer is in a certain area, such as inside a store, hotel, or exhibition.

Proximity Marketing includes all those promotional activities of a determined company, through the use of visual or mobile technologies, with the purpose of sending messages to users who are in a specific geographical area and thus tracking potential buyers in that zone.

Commercial businesses often use this marketing strategy to send informational and commercial messages, influence purchasing behavior, or increase brand presence in a territory.

Thanks to Proximity Marketing, companies have the opportunity to convey promotional messages to customers who are in the vicinity of their business.
The purpose of this marketing procedure is to persuade the user tracked in the chosen geographic area to move close to a specific area (physical store, restaurant, cinema, event) in order to benefit from certain promotions.

In other words, Proximity Marketing is configured as an interactive and attractive method for the customer when they are near or inside a retail environment.

Practical Applications of Proximity Marketing

To use Proximity Marketing, there are various technological devices:

• wifi;
• Bluetooth Proximity Marketing;
• Beacon;
• QR code.

The interventions that can be implemented thanks to these devices are varied, including:

• geolocation;
• mapping.

How Wifi Works

Thanks to Wi-Fi, local businesses can provide a public Wi-Fi hotspot located near their premises. This process has two benefits:

• it allows for online visibility, encouraging consumers to enter the store;
• it enables the use of the Wi-Fi connection as a means to communicate with the end user.

How Beacon Works

Beacons are devices that allow sending specific messages to users who are nearby the business. The main advantages of using Beacon:

• customers can be contacted, suggesting products, special promotions while they are in line to pay;
• users can be reached through notifications based on their geographical location.

How Bluetooth Proximity Marketing (BPM) Works

Through Bluetooth Proximity Marketing, there is the opportunity to send any type of promotional content to the mobile phone of a potential customer who is within a certain area, by exploiting the Bluetooth protocol.
Among the various positive aspects of adopting this type of methodology:

• it is possible to communicate with multiple devices simultaneously, that is, to reach several users at the same moment;
• the costs are lower compared to traditional paper flyer campaigns.

How QRcode Works

It is one of the first devices used in proximity marketing.
The QRcode behaves like product barcodes. Therefore, the customer, through an app installed on their smartphone, scans the product code and views the content.

The advantage of this device is that it's instantaneous and free.

The Advantages of Proximity Marketing

The advantages of Proximity Marketing for a business is the ability to send customers who are in a specific geographic area, offers and promotions in a personalized and fast manner.
This allows for the creation of an exclusive relationship between the company and each customer.

Characteristics of Proximity Marketing

The main characteristics of Proximity Marketing:

• Individual: through this procedure, companies can send a personalized message directly to the customer's mobile phone;
• Mobile: through the device, the user has the opportunity to save and take advantage of the offers at a later time;
• Lack of environmental impact: reduction in paper flyers or brochures;

Immediate: local businesses can view feedback instantly and, if necessary, make immediate changes to their communication;

Multimedia: the messages that are forwarded can be of various types; text only, images, high-definition videos, PDFs, etc;

Innovative: this type of marketing strategy is different from others because it allows communicating with the user in a specific place and at a specific time.

Proximity Marketing, a strategy that is gaining more and more relevance in the world, thanks to the evolution of mobile technologies and their applications.