In a world of digital distractions, customers across the real estate sector expect to experience the convenience of transactions made through online portals and smartphones. And as an agent, developer, or landlord, it’s important for you to target your prospects at the right time. There is no doubt that machine learning, AI, and predictive analytics in real estate have been used for quite a number of applications. These include assessing market trends, predicting price appreciations, and finding the right location for a new project. However, in order to facilitate location-based property marketing, beacon technology (a subset of proximity marketing) is slowly gaining popularity. Let’s see why.
What is Proximity Marketing?
As the name suggests, proximity marketing is a technique of directly communicating with customers through location-based technologies. These range from bluetooth and near-field communications (NFC) to GPS, Geofencing, QR Codes and public Wi-Fi. Once in range and connected, the products and services are marketed by sending fine-grained personalized ads and notifications. Tabulated below are some of the features of the technologies used in proximity, or what is also known as hyper-local marketing.
| Location Based Technology | Highlights |
| Bluetooth (Beacon Technology) | Beacons are placed within a given location. Information is shared through short-range signals (Bluetooth) to authorized phones loaded with designated apps. |
| NFC/RFID | NFC and radio-frequency identification (RFID) are used to disseminate information related to various products. These products have small transmitters attached to them. It doesn’t require a WiFi connection. Once the user is near a particular product, information is shared on the phone. |
| Geofencing | Text messaging marketing system that sends a message the moment an authorized device enters a specific geographic region. This boundary is established around a specified location in GPS/RFID-enabled software. |
What is Beacon Technology?
To understand the technical definition of Beacon technology, it is important to know what beacons are. These are small, wireless devices that operate with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) transmitters. Once connected, these devices send out signals and transmit information to other smart devices in proximity.
This technology can also work through GPS. In such cases, a beacon is attached on the properties, the service provider tags the location, and all the details pertaining to the property are displayed when someone views it on a handheld device.
Let’s understand the concept with the help of an example.
The Singh family was desperately looking for a new house in one of the prominent localities of Pune. From brokers to online property listings, the parents explored every avenue to find a property that suited their requirements. However, to no avail.
During the search process, they came across a product that would help them locate all the nearby projects and properties. For this, they were supposed to install an app on their smartphones. With GPS switched on and the app installed and running, a beacon network was created. Through this, the most appropriate set of listings flashed on their smartphones.
So whenever the parents opened the notification, they were directed to a landing page or the concerned property’s webpage via a URL. Along with images and property videos, the previous transaction records, price, society maintenance charges, neighbourhood description, and other important details were displayed. After zoning down to one property, they scheduled a meeting with the agent through an in-built feature of the app, negotiated the price, signed the property documents, and voila! They were finally able to purchase a new property without touring multiple sites.
How Does Beacon Technology Function?
In order to use beacon technology to its absolute potential, there are a few must-haves that have to be considered. Firstly, beacons have to be installed in the area where prospective clients are located. This can either be on the property, complex entrance, or a nearby road. Second, the consumer should be using a Bluetooth-enabled mobile device with the required app and should be located in the ‘maximum range’ area.
How is Beacon Technology Being Used in Real Estate?
Whether it is to attract a large footfall to an open house or to simply offer property details, beacon technology offers myriad opportunities for the real estate industry. Enlisted are some of the major applications or advantages of incorporating this technology in the sector.
1. Offering Property Details
As seen in the example of the Singh family, deploying beacons in the house or around it will trigger notification on the smartphone of the prospects who pass by the property. The only condition being, their bluetooth/Wi-Fi is switched on. Once connected, details regarding the property are sent and one can even schedule a tour directly from the app. While beacon technology helps clients experience an enhanced user-experience, it assists agents in offering customized content to a prospect.
2. Triggering Automated Check-ins
Another advantage of incorporating beacon technology in real estate dealings is that it prompts the visitor to register via the app the moment they enter the property. As an agent or a landlord, you can get a list of the interested buyers and formulate a strategy for the next steps that have to be taken for showing the property.
3. Improving Marketing Strategy
Beacon technology offers details of a property by sending the URL on a prospect’s smartphone. So when the client accesses the URL, you will understand which channel is being used more frequently by the visitors. Based on the assessment, you can revamp your digital real estate strategy to leverage the benefits of social media and website development. Driving engagement by embedding creative videos or writing compelling copies is an excellent way to get started.
4. Sending Event Notifications
Let’s assume that you are planning an open house as an agent or a new project launch as a developer. In such scenarios, beacons can be leveraged to attract maximum footfall. Few weeks or days before the event, you can start sending out customized notifications and important details related to the launch to prospects in the neighbourhood. Enticing media coupled with compelling content will attract more viewers to see the project or the house.
5. Enhancing Customer Experience
You can offer a great customer experience to prospective buyers through informational brochures and welcome messages. In addition to this, you can also send notifications to the visitors about nearby retail outlets, academic institutes, public transport facilities, etc while they take a tour of the property. This will not only provide an enriching experience to the customers but will give you a competitive edge in the industry.
What are the Major Challenges Associated with Technology?
When it comes to assessing the challenges of incorporating beacon technology in real estate, data privacy and data security go hand in hand. Although collecting and analyzing consumer data can reap benefits, in terms of identifying the preferred property type, decor, location, etc. It also comes with privacy concerns. Primarily because an individual’s location is controlled by network operators and mobile devices. This can leave the personal information susceptible to privacy breaches or third-party sales.
Secondly, the maximum range offered by beacon technology is limited. Although this consumes less energy and is therefore cost-effective, in order to cover a wide neighbourhood, the broadcasting power has to be increased. In this process, range increases; however, at the cost of becoming less energy efficient.
Third, for well-established real estate companies, spending resources on developing a separate app is usually less of a problem. However, for small and midsize companies, the expenses associated with developing an app and then installing and maintaining beacons makes beacon technology a non-starter.
What is Fuelling the Demand for Beacon Technology Across the World?
Although the technology comes with its own set of disadvantages, the global beacon technology market value is poised to reach USD 14.7 billion by 2025 (Vynz Research Report) This comes at a compound annual growth rate of 44% (2020-2025). The industry is expected to witness substantial growth due to the following reasons-
- Apart from real estate, the technology has applications across industry verticals such as education, retail, healthcare, banking, and hospitality.
- The increasing penetration of the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI in real estate has further fueled the demand for technologies that are easy to deploy and are cost-effective.
- Beacon technology has made it possible for agents and developers to understand consumer demographics, property choice, neighbourhood preferences, etc. The data can then be used promptly to send customized messages for the promotion of a new project or display offers on old assets.
Hence, it is clear from the aforementioned pointers that when knowledge and experience is powered by technology, you will reap maximum benefits. Although privacy and data security remain a cause for concern, the provision of push notifications offers users a safety net as they get to decide whether they want to receive notifications or not. Beacon technology or proximity marketing, therefore, is a powerful tool for landlords, developers, customers, and agents alike. Not only is the technology relatively simple to deploy but also saves resources that you would otherwise invest in billboard marketing.
