Google’s Project Beacon
A package arrived today from Google, imagine our excitement. Opening the box, we were presented with something that resembled a paperweight – why have we been sent this?
Confused we dug out the rest of the contents of the box and quickly discovered that we were sent one of Google’s latest beacons.
What is a beacon you may ask?
Beacons are small transmitters that connect to Bluetooth-enabled devices like smartphones. They’re commonly used in marketing to send messages to an app based on proximity to the beacon, but they’re also used in asset tracking, indoor navigation, and other use cases (Kontakt.io)
Project Beacon
Google is piloting a program where they are sending selected businesses with physical locations their beacons (Google).
The beacon provides a one-way code that is unique to your venue. If a visitor’s smartphone has location services turned on their phone can use the beacon’s signal to understand that they are visiting your dental practice.
Now this only may not sound exciting, and in all honesty it does sound pretty boring, but it’s the additional features that this device provides which we are excited about.
Benefits
The beacon itself does not collect or store any information, it acts to identify that a user is at your location.
Once a user has been identified as a visitor of your practice, the beacon can help you gather photos, reviews and other user-generated content for your Google My Business listing – pretty cool huh.
Also, when enough visitors’ phones have detected visits to your store, Google can turn on additional features such as popular times for your business (Google).
We are still trialling the features ourselves to get a better understanding of how it all works.
How Do I Apply For One?
Project Beacon is currently free. However, only stores with active location extensions are eligible to receive a beacon. In other words, if you currently have a Google Ad campaign live, and you are using location extensions, you should be able to apply for a beacon.
Project Beacon Application – click here.
Should You Apply For One?
One of the claimed benefits of the beacon is that it helps your business gain Google reviews, which we know is incredibly tough to do. However, if this device helps to increase the amount of user-generated content, especially reviews for your business listing, it would have indirectly helped to improve your SEO, which is even more reason to join the project.
If you are looking for help with your online marketing, please feel free to contact one of the team at Dental Design and we will gladly help.
More posts from our team
Five Star
Reviewed Marketing
"Would definitely recommend to a friend"
"I cannot recommend Dental Design highly enough"
"Really great company to deal with"
"Very professional, efficient & adaptive to new situations"
"I cannot recommend them highly enough"
"Has been invaluable and gone out of her way to help us"
"We love the look of our practice website. Very professional!"
"Dental Design stood out both in their knowledge of the industry and their professionalism"
"The team and package offered at dental design was unrivalled"
"absolutely fantastic and are always on hand to help"
"Dental Design are fantastic to work with"
"always met with a swift and professional response"
