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What is Beacons Technology Marketing?
Before learning about Bluetooth Beacons, Google Beacons, Proximity Beacons, and Beacons Technologies, we do know a little bit of what their work really is.
Are you a small initiative? Do you have a little food shop? Or you own a salon, Beauty Parlor or a small business owner. You want to know about your business to those who are near your business location. But you do not want to spend too much money to pay for advertising. You are trying to get your shop offers to the nearest customer one at a low cost. Then you read this article very carefully. Here I am going to tell you how to spend $ 100 and at the cost of your business advertise. And this is possible only by Beacons Technology and Proximity marketing.
What is Beacons?
Beacons are a small device that allows you to send some information to someone near you. There are many types of Beacons goods available in the market. With this help, your nearest customer will get a push notification on his mobile phone so that you can have your offers or your business details. You can fix this description yourself. This method of marketing is called Proximity beacons technology marketing.
Type of Beacons:
Various types of Beacons are available in the current market. They can be divided into several categories based on a few types, such as the type of Beacon protocol, power solution, and location beacons technology.
1. Type of beacons protocol:
iBeacon (Apple):
Apple’s beacons protocol first came into the market in 2013. iBeacon works with Apple’s iOS and Google Android platforms. The reference point utilizing the iBeacon convention transmits a supposed UUID. The UUID is a string of 24 numbers, which communicate with an introduced Mobile App.
Advantages:
• Used everywhere.
• Its implementation is very simple.
• Uses performance is very nice.
Eddystone (Google):
Google releases Eddystone beacons technology in July 2015. Eddystone beacon technology A Bluetooth low energy beacons technology. Eddystone Beacons technology is used in many types of frame types, for example- Eddystone-UID, Eddystone-URL, Eddystone-EID, and Eddystone-TLM.
Eddystone-URL works with the help of the Physical Web. The Physical Web is a web that allows any URL to be broadcasted with the surrounding people. With the physical web, you can send the necessary website or data anywhere. It’s a lot like ‘Pokemon’s Go’ games, where you can find your Pokemon without giving all your information. Eddystone-URL can broadcast a maximum of 18 characters of URL and is notably protected by SSL.
Eddystone-UID communicates a distinguishing code that permits applications to recover data from application servers. These can be utilized for an indoor area, recognizable proof of physical objects, and to associate with applications in any capacity the engineer chooses.
Eddystone-EID broadcasts an encoded turning identifier so as to build the security of the protocol, however, it generally acts comparatively to the UID frame.
Eddystone-TLM broadcasts data about the beacon. This can incorporate battery level, sensor data, or other significant information to beacons technology administrators. It must be joined by another frame type to be usable as a beacon.
Advantages:
• It can handle data without installing any type of apps and it does not require telemetry information and needs.
• Open arrangement and adaptability;
• Mix with Google Products.
GeoBeacon (Tecno-World):
Tecno-World announced GeoBeacon in July 2017. This open-source beacon protocol was intended for utilization in GeoCaching applications due to the plain reduced sort of data storage.
Advantages:
• Open source
• Compatibility with other mobile operating platforms
• High-resolution coordinates
• TLM-Data support (Battery life)
• 8 Bytes of user data
AltBeacon (Radius Networks):
Radius Networks reported AltBeacon in July 2014. This open-source beacons technology protocol was intended to beat the issue of conventions favoring one merchant over the other.
Advantages:
• Open source;
• Compatibility with other mobile operating platforms;
• More flexibility with customizable source code.
2. Power solution:
Generally, the beacons can be divided into three parts by power solution.
• Beacons powered by Battery.
• Beacons charged by electricity.
• USB powered beacons.
3. Location beacons technology:
Most beacons use Bluetooth technology to send information. There are also some other beacons that use other types of location beacons technology. These are the following:
Bluetooth low energy (BLE):
The greater part of beacons location gadgets depends on Bluetooth low energy (BLE) innovation. Contrasted with ‘great’ Bluetooth innovation, BLE devours less power, has a lower range, and transmits less information. BLE is intended for occasional exchanges of little measures of information.
Wi-Fi Aware:
In July 2015, the Wi-Fi Alliance reported Wi-Fi Aware. Like BLE, Wi-Fi Aware has a lower control utilization than normal Wi-Fi and is intended for indoor area purposes.
Ultrasound:
Combined technologies:
By now you will know how many the beacons are and how many its use is. Now we’ll know how to set a Beacons technologies setting. And how it will be used. We will know how to use Eddystone’s beacons technology. Eddystone’s beacons technology can be set in four stages.
1. Get some beacons
2. Configure your beacons
3. Register your beacons with Google
4. Add an attachment
1. Get some beacons:
Buy good Eddystone beacons from the market.
2. Configure your beacons:
Before using the beacons, you must set its frame type, broadcast intervals, and power levels. Or you can use the software provided by the company that you have purchased the device and to set the settings. We have already learned about the types of Eddystone beacons technology such as Eddystone-UID, Eddystone-URL, Eddystone-EID, and Eddystone-TLM. If you set the Eddystone-URL on the device, it will broadcast the URL to the nearest mobile phone. I would like to suggest that you shorten your URL by providing a URL shortcut. Because the number of 18 will not support more. If you are setting up Eddystone-URL on the device, it does not support app intent or app install URLs. And when you make this setting, there is no need to do anything else. But if you want to set Eddystone-UID or Eddystone-EID on the device then you have to do the following things which I’m going to say now.
3. Register your beacons with Google:
Now register your device on Google Beacon Registry and as a result, you will receive the title of your beacons. To do this, you will need to use the Beacon Tools app. This app will be available on Android and iOS everywhere. Now in a few steps, we will discuss the whole process.
• Launch the app and use your favorite Google Developer project.
• Take your device to Beacon.
• Please select your preferred beacons. Then press on the Register Beacon option. As a result, the beacons will appear in the registered tab. You could use Proximity Beacon API or Python sample scripts to complete this process.
4. Add an attachment:
The methods of using attachment are as follows –
• Use the Google Beacon Dashboard
• Use the beacons tools app.
• Use the proximity beacon API
Use the Google Beacon Dashboard
The Google Beacon Dashboard is the most effortless approach to connect connections with your beacons.
Pursue these steps to include an attachment using the Google Beacon Dashboard:
1. Go to the Google Beacon Dashboard.
2. Select your project from the list of Google Developers Console projects.
3. Select your beacon from the list.
4. Enter details for your beacon in the provided form.
To add an attachment:
1. Click the down-arrow next to View beacon details and select attachments.
2. Enter the Type, and Value for the attachment. The value for Namespace is fixed, depending on the Google Developers Console project that you selected.
3. Click the plus sign (+) to add the attachment.
To add a Nearby Notification attachment:
1. Click View beacon details and select Nearby Notifications.
2. Enter a Title and two-letter language code.
3. Select either Production mode or Debug mode.
4. Click Web URL and choose the type of URL to add (Web URL, App intent, or Free-form App Intent).
5. Fill in the corresponding fields for the selected URL type.
6. (Optional) Add targeting rules to limit visibility based on the device context.
7. Click Create to add the attachment.
Note that you can add multiple attachments to a beacon.
Use the Beacon Tools app:
You can utilize the Beacon Tools application to connect connections with beacons by following these steps-
1. Install the Beacon Tools app (Android, iOS).
2. Launch the app. You’ll see a list of beacons near you. If your beacon has been registered with Google, it will appear under the registered tab. If not, you’ll need to register your beacon.
3. Tap your beacon in the list to select it.
4. To add a new attachment, click the plus sign (+) next to Attachments, and enter the attachment data.
5. Under Namespaced Type enter a two-letter language code. Currently, the namespace value is fixed to the Google Developers Console project that the beacon was registered under. The ability to edit the namespace is coming soon.
6. Under Data enter an attachment. For example:
7. Beacon edd1ebeac04e5defa023 at your service!8. Tap the checkmark icon to save your changes.
Use the Proximity Beacons technology API
You can likewise utilize the Proximity Beacon API to connect connections with beacons. Note that this will expect you to base64 encode your demand body.
The Python sample scripts make adding attachments from the command line much easier.
You can also add attachments by hand by making a POST request to:
https://proximitybeacon.googleapis.com/v1beta1/beacons/BEACON_NAME/attachmentswhere
BEACON_NAME is a string of the form:3!EDDYSTONE_UIDand the request body includes the namespaced type and base64 encoded data as shown in the following example:
{ "namespacedType":"com.google.nearby/en", "data":"ew0KICAidGl0bGUiOiAiR29vZ2xlIiwNCiAgImRlc2NyaXB0aW9uIjogIlNlYXJjaCBmb3IgdGhpbmdzISIsDQogICJ1cmwiOiAiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbSINCn0="}If the request succeeds, you’ll receive a 200 OK status code, and the attachment body.
And in this way, you can set up beacons to market your daily business.
Price of Beacons:
The price of the Beacons is different in the market. The price of any beacons is determined according to the signal range. If the signal quality of Beacons is higher than its price will be higher. Through a table below I mentioned the possible prices of beacons.
Type of Beacon | Range (in meters) | Range (in feet) | Price |
Indoor Beacon | 0.15-80 | 0.49-262 | $78 |
Outdoor Beacon | 0.15-80 | 0.49-262 | $108 |
Long Range Beacon | 0.15-300 | 0.49-984 | $129 |
Pocket Beacon | 0.15-50 | 0.49-164 | $69 |
Keychain Beacon | 0.15-25 | 0.49-82 | $69 |
