THE BEACON MARKETING PLAYBOOK

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1 WHITE PAPER THE BEACON MARKETING PLAYBOOK A Guide to Launching Your Beacon Marketing Program

2 The Beacon Marketing Playbook: A Guide to Launching Your Beacon Marketing Program Beacon-powered in-store mobile marketing offers retailers and brands a valuable opportunity to engage with shoppers at the precise moment and place they are making a purchase decision. Being able to deliver highly relevant content and offers to a shopper s smartphone based on his or her shopping activities and in-aisle location provides an unprecedented ability to engage shoppers and influence their purchasing behaviors. But successfully implementing this new capability requires a well thought out plan and careful execution. This Playbook provides a guide to help marketers design effective beacon marketing programs that enhance the consumer shopping experience while also driving measurable business results. 1 Define Your Goals Before launching a beacon marketing program or deploying the first beacon, marketers need to define a clear set of business goals. In-store mobile marketing is great at influencing consumer behavior, but in order to drive meaningful business results, marketers need to target behaviors with specific business goals in mind. Examples of business goals that can be used to guide beacon marketing efforts include: Cross-sell products/services Drive repeat store traffic Increase sell-through of specific products Increase mobile engagement Increase overall purchase rate Increase average basket size Increase brand loyalty Enhance shopping experience & customer satisfaction Increase department-specific traffic Increase category purchase rates Introduce new products/categories 84% of smartphone users consult their mobile phones while shopping - Google Shopper Marketing Council

3 2 Start Small While retailers may be tempted to cover every square foot of their retail space with beacon signals, they would be better served by taking a more measured approach to beacon deployment. With beacons, more is not necessarily better. Too many beacontriggered messages run the risk of annoying shoppers, and more beacons means more complexity for retailers to manage. In general, beacons should be deployed only in those areas of the store where meaningful digital experiences would be valuable for shoppers. For retailers who are new to the technology, it s a good idea to start with a small number of beacons in each store in order to gain practical experience and learning that can be applied to larger-scale rollouts. Specialty retailers with small store footprints may only need one beacon per store, while larger multi-brand retailers typically start with beacons in 3-5 different areas/departments. 3 Optimize Beacon Placements Now that you ve defined your business goals and determined the number of beacons for initial deployment, you need to decide where to place the beacons within the stores. Common beacon placements include store entrances (where you can deliver welcome messages with offers or prompts to visit specific departments), checkout areas (to trigger loyalty card usage and to help you measure purchase rates), and major merchandising areas within the store (where you can deliver category-relevant content and offers). 73% of shoppers said that beacontriggered content and offers increased their likelihood to purchase during their store visit - Swirl shopper survey 2014 Once you ve decided on the areas of the store where you want beacons, it s time to install the devices. Beacons should be placed in such a way that they are unobtrusive, out of the reach of shoppers and have an unobstructed broadcast path. Retailers typically install beacons on ceilings, above doorways or at the back/underside of the highest aisle display shelf. Before installing beacons, you should test the cellular reception in the desired area to ensure that shoppers will have reliable and consistent mobile experiences. For ease of maintenance, retailers should take a photo of each installed beacon and save the photos and beacon information in a safe place for future access. Swirl s beacon marketing platform allows retailers to monitor and manage their entire beacon network remotely, with easy access to beacon photos and placement information, as well as battery levels and beacon performance reports. 3

4 4 Remember the Consumer Consumer smartphones are inherently personal devices, and marketing to them carries potential risks. While the delivery of highly relevant, location-specific mobile content has the ability to create unheard of levels of shopper engagement, irresponsible or irrelevant beacon messaging can be a source of dissatisfaction for shoppers. Marketers would be wise to heed the warning penned by Spider-Man creator Stan Lee, With great power comes great responsibility. To ensure you re staying on the right side of the value vs. annoyance line, keep these three rules in mind: a) Be transparent. Beacon marketing requires the use of a smartphone s location. In order to ensure a positive experience for consumers, marketers should develop clear opt-in processes that allow users to control permission for beacon-triggered messages. If you re adding a beacon marketing program to your own existing location-enabled mobile app, initiating the opt-in process for in-store beacon marketing at a store entrance provides a contextually-relevant opportunity to introduce in-store marketing to your users. Give them a sneak peek of the value they ll receive from beacons (e.g. Welcome to XYC Store. Optin now to receive valuable content and offers while you shop. ) If you re using a third-party app to deliver beacon messages, you should demonstrate how the app relates to the shopping experience so that the consumer isn t left questioning why that app is pinging them while they are in the store. (e.g. ABC app has partnered with your favorite retailers to bring you relevant content and offers while you shop. Opt-in now to see what we ve got for you. ) b) Be relevant. Smartphones are inherently personal devices and consumers have little tolerance for marketers who invade their private space with unwanted messages and interruptions. A shopper s in-store location provides incredibly valuable insight into a person s interests, but in order to create a truly positive instore mobile experience, marketers need to carefully leverage the opportunity to deliver valuable, relevant and timely content. Sending hair and makeup trends to a male shopper who is only quickly passing through the cosmetics department on his way to the electronics department is a sure fire way to get your app deleted from a shopper s phone. With advanced beacon marketing platform capabilities such as dwell time triggers, marketers can fine-tune their message targeting to ensure relevance. c) Create value for shoppers. A study by ResearchNow found that 77 percent of smartphone users would be willing to share their location information as long as they received enough value in return. A good rule of thumb is to evaluate each of your beacon marketing campaigns against the following set of questions. If you can t answer yes to at least one of them, then you should rethink your campaign. Will it help the consumer make a buying decision? Will it save the consumer time or money? Will it inspire the consumer? Will it improve the overall shopping experience? In addition to requesting permission with an explicit opt-in process, marketers should also make it easy for shoppers to opt out of receiving in-store mobile messages. For example, with the Swirl Proximity Marketing Platform, app publishers can add a Why am I seeing this? button to each content screen that explains why the content is being delivered and provides them with the ability to opt out of future messages if they so choose. 4

5 5 Create Glanceable Media 6 Involve Store Sales Associates When designing beacon-triggered campaigns, keep in mind that the consumer s primary goal is shopping. Marketing efforts should enhance that experience, not detract from it. In-store mobile marketing campaigns should leverage glanceable media to provide easily digestible content and immediate value for shoppers. General guidelines for designing glanceable media include: One message per screen Visual design Limited text Large font size Links for more detailed information Limit content files to <300MB While delivering special offers or highlighting existing sales provide clear value for shoppers, beacon-triggered messages do not have to focus exclusively on discounts. Sharing timely advice on style trends, delivering buying tips or offering access to product reviews are also ways to create value and enhance the in-store shopping experience. In-store employees play an important role in your beacon marketing efforts. In addition to answering questions that shoppers may have about the in-store mobile experience and the technology behind it, sales associates can also play a key role in promoting mobile app engagement and loyalty program participation. Communication and education of store employees is critical to securing their support and advocacy for your in-store mobile marketing efforts. Remember to communicate beacon locations and share campaign content with them ahead of time, so that they understand the technology, the mobile experience, and what they need to do to support the program. 7 Promote the Mobile Experience If you are a retailer adding beacon-triggered experiences to your own mobile app, you ll want to create awareness and educate shoppers on the program. In addition to driving higher app engagement, promoting in-store mobile experiences is a great way to stimulate mobile app downloads for shoppers who don t yet have your app. Use in-store signage and bag inserts to encourage app downloads and updates. Exclusive offers can be used as an additional incentive to encourage first-time use. And don t forget to encourage sales associates to promote the app at checkout while they re ringing up customers. In addition to in-store merchandising opportunities, you should also tap into other existing customer communication channels to promote app downloads and in-store mobile usage. Your website, customer s and social media channels are all places where you can let customers know about how your mobile app is enhancing the in-store shopping experience. As you probably know, beacon marketing is a hot topic in the press right now. Business, technology, advertising, retail, and consumer press outlets are regularly writing about beacons and in-store mobile marketing. Issuing a press release and/ or reaching out to select editorial targets about your beacon marketing efforts is a great way to generate earned media attention. Press coverage can drive awareness and stimulate consumer usage of your mobile app, as well as position you as an innovator to investors and brand partners. 5

6 8 Test, Measure and Test Again Marketers launching their first beacon marketing campaign should focus on generating rapid learning. Once initial performance benchmarks have been established, campaign variations can be developed and tested. In addition to offer, messaging frequency and content testing, marketers should also begin planning for more sophisticated and targeted campaigns based on factors such as: 60% of shoppers open and engage with beacon-triggered content while shopping in-store - Swirl customer results 2014 Shopper profile (self-reported and/or derived) Shopper behavior (e.g. - recency/frequency of store visit) Store region/location Daypart What are you waiting for? Live beacon marketing programs are already generating positive feedback from consumers and meaningful business results for leading brands such as Lord & Taylor, Hudson s Bay, Urban Outfitters, Alex and Ani, Timberland and Marriott. In-store mobile marketing is poised to forever change the retail shopping experience. Getting started is easy. What are you waiting for? Contact us for a demo of the industry s leading Proximity Marketing Platform Swirl Networks, Inc. 420 Boylston Street Boston MA Swirl Networks facebook.com/swirl sales@swirl.com About Swirl Swirl is the leading proximity-based mobile marketing platform provider helping large-scale retailers and brands leverage the power of mobile to engage consumers while they shop in stores. Top companies such as Lord & Taylor, Hudson s Bay, Marriott, Alex and Ani, Timberland and Kenneth Cole use Swirl s patent-pending technology to increase foot traffic, customer engagement and sales conversion. The company is led by an accomplished entrepreneurial team and backed by top-tier investors including Hearst Ventures, SoftBank Capital, Longworth Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners. 6