As part of ARworks continued commitment to assisting brands and businesses deliver exceptional customer experience through strategic Mobile App solutions and creative technology, over the next few weeks we’re going to be sharing a series of posts that list some top-line reasons why Beacon technology (and Location Based Marketing) should become a regular addition to specific industries and venues.

For this first post we’re focussing on Museums and Art Galleries. Other than retail, arguably one the most verdant environments for the many benefits Beacons bring to the table.

What are Beacons?

In the simplest terms, Beacon is a technology that enhances location services for mobile devices.  Created to enable customers to receive hyper-relevant information on their mobiles, when they’re close to a (very) specific location. How relevant, and commercially aligned that information is, is dependent entirely on the level of data a company has about a customer, and how intelligently they use it according to where the customer is and what he’s doing.

Good example: as a member of a hotel loyalty club, I’d very much like the hotel to know when I am in the bar at one of their properties, and send me a personal message to my mobile offering me a free bottle of something fabulous, as a thank you for my continued business.

Bad example: I’d find it very frustrating, if I’d taken the time to share some of my shopping preference information with the Duty Free of my local airport, only to be pushed a message about a new make-offer for teenagers when perusing after shave, whilst shopping before my next flight.

The difference is smart personalised experiences vs. push notification nightmare.

So, here are 5 reasons why we believe Museums & Galleries should be strongly embracing Beacons:

1. Feeds Visitor passion: (Most) visitors that visit one these places are in a very high state of awareness. They are primed to be moved. Educated. Inspired. Challenged. By using Beacons to deliver extra-layers of context and multi-media, interactive content for different parts of different exhibits or artists, the experience of the visitors it taken to an entirely new level. Rendering it more profound, memorable and shareable with their friends and colleagues, and across social platforms.

2. Optimise layout and flow: By using Beacons to track visitor movement and flow around the venues, curators can make critical changes to how certain parts of exhibits are laid out. Optimising the flow and set up to match what their visitors’ behaviour is telling them.

3. Drive up Social distribution: Aside from the more highbrow, private exhibitions, having visitors share content across their social channels direct from their experience, is extremely valuable to a museum or gallery.  Adding social share buttons in a tasteful, clever and relevant way to the extra layers of multi-media content you’re gifting them via Beacons, suddenly makes that process a lot more simple and desirable for your visitors. Isn’t it very much in our human nature to seek validation and kudos by sharing genuinely exclusive things?

4. Up-selling in the souvenir shop: Usually positioned as the last port of call in such venues  (and for good reason), Beacons provide a powerful means to driving revenue from the souvenir shop. It can be as simple as drawing visitors attention to special offers. Or gifts pertaining to whatever they exhibit they have just seen. Better still, we can turn up the smarts a little and use the real-time visitor behavioural data gathered during his visit, to create custom offers based on the artists or pieces in front of which they spent the most time. The opportunities are endless.

5. Cultivating a long-term relationship: Beacons need an App to work. That can be an App created specifically for the Beacon initiative, or they can be integrated into exiting Apps Either way, the venue has real estate on their visitors phone. And that creates an opportunity to use their behavioural and preference data to cultivate a long-term relationship that has repeat-visits, peer recommendations and valuable social distribution as its end game.

From fanning the flames of curiosity and passion with exclusive layers of content, to triggering incremental spend by creating real-time offers that are unique to individual visitors. The agility and versatility embedded in Beacon technology is the main driving force behind their meteoric rise to fame in the word of direct and mobile marketing.

But it’s essential to keep in mind; there’s a fine line between smart personalised experiences, and push notification nightmare. Enhancing your customers experience by understanding their behaviour – as a human being as well as a consumer - anticipating their needs and serving them as hyper-relevant information and content as possible is Beacon-success-critical.

Written by Christian Burne. Communications Director at ARworks Middle East.

 ARworks is a leading Mobile App development company. Specializing in mainstream, strategic App development across mobile and wearable devices, and the commercial application of creation technologies such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and iBeacons.

Now when it comes to apps that businesses use, there’s really a bounty of them and an enterprise can even have a special app developed solely for its brand’s operations. An app developer Dubai retail businesses turn to claims that an augmented reality application that provides customers information and automatically makes that information more relevant to the customers’ desire is growing in popularity.

What the smart phone or tablet PC app does is it provides a 3D image in the online or paper catalogue of a retail business, and at the same time, the app activates the camera. Then, with augmented reality technology, the user can drag the products’ picture into the “shot” (be it a still or moving one) to see how it would “function” or appear in the real world. Big furniture stores around the world already use such an app and customers claim that it has totally upgraded their online shopping experience; they no longer have to worry so much about making the wrong purchase because, for some reason, the image they had in their heads did not effectively translate into real life. The great thing about using this app is that it even implements the actual proportions of the product for a completely “realistic” application in a real-life setting.

Other apps, meanwhile, allow users to just pass their smart phone over a product in a magazine, TV, or a product in a store and all the information they need about the products is immediately provided. Again, this is very helpful to customers who want to make really quick and effective purchase decisions.

Businesses can definitely harness a lot of benefits from smart phone and tablet PC apps, so for enterprises that wish to secure these benefits, it’s a great investment for their operations to have a functional app enhancing their customers’ experience.

This data is particularly relevant to developers and business owners who want to further enhance their online and mobile presence through mobile apps. Dubai developers and business owners may have this trend of consumer appetite by their side, but consumers also have their own complaints about apps available in both iTunes and Google Play. Here are a few of the most common glitches encountered with these apps that lead users to delete them from their devices.

One of the most common pet peeves consumers have about mobile apps is the unnecessary notifications they get, from emails to push notifications. While many apps provide for a way configure the delivery of these notifications, most consumers simply do not want to go to the settings page and go through the hassles of tweaking app settings.

Another common woe faced by consumers is the lack of updates on the part of the developer. Even great apps need a little tweak and update here and there from time to time to fix bugs. However, when the developer fails to deliver much needed updates, this prompts consumers to abandon the app.

Customer ratings can help push the rankings of a mobile app in iTunes and Google Play. However, if consumers are frequently bombarded by requests to rate an app, such requests can misfire (i.e., negative reviews). Some apps also bombard users to like their page on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. While some apps offer rewards or incentives to users who do follow them on social media, for many consumers, this can be viewed as an inconvenience on their part.

One way that free mobile apps gain revenue is through pop up and full-screen ads. While to many this may be a minor inconvenience, some apps are unresponsive to tapping such that instead of closing the ad, the user is inadvertently directed to another app or mobile page. In turn, this frustrates the user who simply wants to use and enjoy the app.

One of the most notable advancements in mobile app technology is geo-targeted push notifications. This can mean a number of things for businesses. For example, a recent store visitor can be enticed to come back to the retail outlet through the use of a special customer offer. Brands with a national presence can select which consumers receive special offers based on their location.

For many people, their smartphones have become an indispensible part of their personal and professional lives. What this means for marketers and business owners is that consumers are opening more doors for them in terms of opportunities to make a pitch. In lieu of reading or other activities, many consumers turn to their smart devices during their down time. With a simple push notification, businesses can reconnect with customers.

Businesses looking to give slow-moving products a big push can send timely push notifications to consumers nearby. For example, bake shops with products that are highly perishable can notify consumers near a particular branch about a special offer.

Mobile apps also allow business owners to monitor consumer behaviour. For online retailers, in particular, this means finding out which features engaged customers and which did not.

But having an app developed for your business and having an app that is downloaded and retained by customers is an entirely different thing. There are several strategies which can be implemented to become constantly relevant to customers but mobile app design remains on top of these priorities. Here are a few notable trends in app design.

More and more apps are moving towards app designs that are less obtrusive, which in turn allows users to access various parts of the app with more screen space. This is typically done with the use of an expandable menu where users can access various sections, settings and account information. Many app developers and designers are also trading in highly stylized interfaces for cleaner, minimalist designs. In turn, the focus is redirected towards content. This also allows apps to become snappier and more responsive.

But apart from design, building and launching an app is continuous work. Businesses should market and position their app, provide updates and tweaks to customers and get feedback to help them make the necessary changes to their app.

Initially developed for the military, augmented reality, companies ought to know, is seen to make a great impact in a variety of sectors including medicine, retail, tourism, education and more.

With the development of technology pushing through faster, many tech and business experts say that AR would definitely be an integral part of how people would live, if not now, in the near future. Here is how some of these experts weigh in on this technology vis-a-vis current developments.

Tech and research advisory firm Gartner expects the sales of smart devices to breach the one billion mark by the end of 2013. This trend is expected to continue as the company predicts sales figure to double. On the other hand, another research firm, Juniper Research, is predicting that mobile apps offering augmented reality will generate revenue of $300 million by the year’s end. The company has even boldly predicted that revenue from downloads of such apps will reach $5 billion in four years’ time.

In a study conducted by Hidden Creative, researchers found out that consumers were 135% more likely to purchase a product when they were shown items through AR as compared to being shown products using types of other media.

While the technology is virtually in its early stage, many developers of apps using augmented reality, companies and consumers have caught a glimpse of what the future looks like. AR can be used to bring print advertisements to life through videos. It can also help shoppers to purchase goods by scanning a catalogue instead of going online. The list of possibilities can go on and on.

Businesses can utilise AR for a variety of purposes. For example, with the use of AR and other location-based technologies, a business can offer discounts and other promotions that are relevant to where they currently are. Other businesses have upgraded their display windows and product packaging with the use of AR which has enabled them to share more information with prospective buyers.

As with other technologies, those who adapt AR early on can gain first mover advantage, allowing them to reap the benefits early on while being recognised as a pioneer and innovator.

For business owners, these facts bolster the case for iPhone application development in Dubai. Whatever business you are engaged in, mobile marketing should be an integral part of your overall marketing strategy.

While you should make sure that their website is viewed optimally on both smartphones and tablets, you should know that mobile apps can be a valuable tool to boost brand awareness and even generate additional income for your business.

Of course, this would depend greatly on your goals. Many other businesses have found great success in launching apps for information, coupons and gaming. But whatever the goal in your mind is, you need to be aware of your target audience and what best appeals to them. Also, whether you are having the mobile app done in-house or outsourced to a specialist company, you have to make sure that the app is both functional and offers customers real value — unless you want customers to delete the app a few days after downloading it. Take cues from other apps available on iTunes.

If you are keen on launching a gaming app, consider developing two versions: a free and a paid version. A free version allows customers to sample your game and if they like it, they can purchase a premium version which offers features not available in the free version.

Or perhaps, you might want to develop an app that functions as a mobile coupon. As any seasoned retailer knows, offering great discounts and offers is one of the best ways to entice customers. On the other hand, do not forget that apps can also be used by your internal customers – your mobile workforce. One good example of this is having an app developed for your sales team, one which allows them to easily share valuable information, anywhere they are, just before meeting with a prospective client.

As smart devices become more and more a part of the daily lives of consumers, businesses should learn to seize such an opportunity toward their own advantage.

Businesses utilise apps in several ways, depending on their needs. Among the most popular uses of mobile apps for business are customer engagement, customer support and promotion. Some online merchants and service providers have benefitted from app development by utilising apps as another platform to bring their products and services closer to consumers. Also, there are businesses which have found great success in utilising apps internally, allowing them to boost the productivity of their employees.

But despite the ready availability of developers to help businesses create and launch their apps, business owners should know that there are several tasks to perform before, during and after the creation of the app. Here’s a brief rundown.

The goal of every business in app development is to deliver value to those who download it. It does not matter if your business is going to use it for marketing and promotion or if you want to generate profit directly from it. As such, it is the task of the business to listen to feedback, both positive and negative, from consumers until your app has been tweaked to a point where it truly provides value to them.

One of the most common errors of businesses that have apps developed for them is to go with the notion that “more is more.” As with a lot of things, the opposite is true. In the design and the development of the app, remain steadfast to your goal and eliminate bells and whistles that may look and sound good initially but add no real value. Design is also integral to the success of an app. Beyond appearance, the interface of your app should make it easier for those who download the app to navigate and explore the features.

Developing an app and putting it on iTunes or Google Play may seem like a simple and straightforward endeavour. But having your app downloaded is very much like having one foot in the door. Unsatisfied customers can easily delete your app with a couple of flicks on their smart device. As such, make sure that prior to launch, your app has undergone extensive testing and tweaking to minimise bugs and problems consumers may encounter once they download it.

Many business owners, especially start-ups, will immediately know that the app market can be quite competitive. As such, it is imperative to utilise various tools to promote their apps through press releases, social media and through the creation of microsites.

And while businesses can now have mobile apps built for them by specialists in mobile application development, companies in Dubai should not forget that app development is just one step in a long process. Even before your app is launched on iTunes, Google Play or on both app stores, you need to craft a marketing strategy that will allow your mobile app to get noticed by customers. Here are a few ideas to consider.

Whatever channels you are considering to use to promote your new app, you should take your time to make an informative press kit. Apart from crafting a clear and compelling copy, you should also include in your press kit your company logo, a screen capture of the app, the app icon, and even links to a microsite or video channel. As much as possible, your press release should concisely tell how your app can benefit your target audience. You might also consider delving into keyword research to enable your app to be easily found in app stores.

Another good way to promote is to build a microsite which customers can view when they want to know more about your new app. While many users go directly to app stores, a significant portion of consumers are driven by the Web. You can utilise videos to provide customers with a short glimpse of what the app can do for them. You can also ask customers to give their email address to stay informed about the release of the app.

Of course, you should make sure that the content of your microsite is updated with fresh content to help it become more visible online. It also helps to share the content of this microsite on social networking platforms to build more hype and enable your social media followers and fans to share your posts about the launching of your app to their friends.

After submitting your app to an app store, it is now time for you to determine a launch date and generate buzz for the release of your app. You might want to contact tech and trade blogs for write ups and reviews.

Once you’ve launched your app, you still have much work to do. Chief of these is getting feedback from customers who have downloaded your app. With feedback in hand, you can use this information to tweak your app and even to reach out to customers and answer issues they have with your mobile app.