While a sole-proprietor operates his or her business without a website, a big brand retailer is installing beacons to better track store-visits and in-store behaviors. This is representative of the wide gap in local marketing sophistication, with technology being a driver of this separation.
A variety of “new” technologies are starting to permeate the local marketing discussion. Beacons, artificial intelligence (A.I.), virtual assistants (VA), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and even connected cars are transforming what is possible for local marketers and consumers alike.
But what is the local angle of these technologies and where do they stand today? This is precisely what was explored earlier this month at LSA16 in San Francisco March 7-9. Experts from around the space gave insight into how these technologies work, with demos and commentary on the local angle for businesses big and small.
Beacons
Beacons broadcast short-range signals that can be detected by apps on mobile devices in close proximity to a beacon. Brick and mortar locations are using beacons to offer an enhanced or more personalized user experience. The technology is inexpensive, simple to deploy and supported by most mobile operating systems (i.e., Apple, Android, Microsoft).
Raj Nijjer of Yext and John Mazur of Belly talked about how beacons can impact the small business (SMB) market. They discussed a variety of ways businesses can utilize this tech, but felt some tactics are proving more beneficial than others. Tracking in-store visits to better understand customers, retargeting these store visitors and building customer loyalty were the three ways they felt beacons are ready to support SMBs today.
Virtual & Augmented Reality
VR brings the real world online while AR looks to enhance real world experiences. Christine Cline of Retale and Nathan Pettyjohn of Aisle411 gave an interesting look into the VR and AR space and how it applies to brick-and-mortar businesses. The technology is here they said and some studies say that VR in particular will be a $30 billion market by 2020.
Christine gave a sense of some industries that are already embracing VR in a meaningful way. In the retail space, Merrell allows customers to try hiking boots on a virtual hike. In real estate, potential buyers are taking virtual tour of properties. For auto dealers, VR is helping them offer virtual experiences of new products.
Nathan showed how AR works, providing the demo below. Enhancing in-store experiences with product data such as where to find a specific product in a store, is just one of the potential use cases of AR. This tech has powerful implications on how our phones and devices could change the way we interact with physical locations.
Virtual Assistants & Artificial Intelligence
In 2015 search on virtual assistants like GoogleNow, Siri and Cortana jumped from statistical zero to 10% of overall search volume globally. What was once an interesting but widely unused technology, voice search now makes up the equivalent of 50 billion searches a month.
Panelists from MindMeld, Microsoft, TalkLocal and Pingup discussed the impact VA and AI are having on the market, specifically on local search. Machine-learning is helping these technologies understand, think and respond more like humans. On the consumer side, there is a definite learning curve to using voice search, and as adoption grows, so are the number of more sophisticated queries.
One interesting implication the panelists pointed out as a result of this growth in voice search is a potential decrease in the importance of keywords. VA and AI are expected to learn and figure out what consumers are trying to accomplish in order to execute that task with the least amount of steps. Should this experience become the norm, the impact on keywords and paid search would be huge.
Connected Cars
When radio was introduced into cars around the 1930s, advertising quickly followed. Given the integration of Wi-Fi and digital displays in cars today, some believe connected cars may be the next great marketing platform.
Loren Hillberg, President of Thinknear is one of those believers. He talked about how consumers in cars present a unique marketing opportunity – they are on the go, can travel fast, make immediate decisions and are particularly sensitive to location contextual information.
For consumers, connected cars make it easier for drivers to not just get to their destination but to explore and discover the area around them resulting in a better user experience. Car manufacturers are interested in the potential of this technology as well because it allows them to monetize the tech and data associated with it for advertisers.
