Augmented reality (AR) has been around for some time now, used mostly for entertainment purposes. It uses your smartphone’s camera to overlay computer-generated content onto the “real world” as viewed through the camera. The Snapchat filters that place flowers in your hair or a dog nose on your face are a form of augmented reality. Another great example is the Pokemon Go! game, which allows you to hunt and collect cartoon characters in your real neighborhood. The massive success of this game shows how immersive and fun AR can be when done well.
With Apple including augmented reality capabilities in the recently released iOS 11 as well as releasing a developer’s toolkit that lets people make their own augmented reality apps, we are about to see an explosion in the use of AR in all kinds of applications, and it’s a great time to start thinking about how you can use AR functionality to help market your business.
Show and Tell
Any creative business is a natural fit for AR marketing. A hair stylist can market her skills with an app that lets potential customers try on new hairdos, while including direct contact information to set up an appointment if they find one they like. Similarly, designers, interior decorators, artists and others can allow customers see how a piece of art or furniture will fit in their actual space. IKEA already has an AR app that lets you try out pieces of their furniture in your house to see how they look and whether they will fit in the space you have in mind.
Go Deeper
Realtors will love using AR. Right now there are customers that look for their next home on the web, accessing photo slideshows and 360-degree videos, and there are customers that see a house with a sale sign while out and about and pick up a flyer. With AR, you will be able to set up functionality that allows the potential customer to point their camera at the home or the flyer and trigger immediate access to the online photos and videos. For landlords or apartment complexes, AR can be linked to floor plans or views of an empty apartment to show how it will look furnished and decorated.
Help Customers Find and Contact You
How often do you see something that you want to check out online later, but then forget the location or the business name? Virtually any business can use augmented reality to add ways to contact them to their advertising or even their physical location. This way if someone is searching for your product online, you can link to a GPS route from their current location to your business location that they can use right then, or save for a future visit. Or if someone passes your bakery and thinks about ordering cupcakes for a party in a couple of weeks, they can point their camera at your storefront and be able to call, email, text, or use your website’s chat function right then and there.
Create AR Contests and Coupons
Augmented reality will allow you to hide special deals in your print advertising so that a coupon will pop up on their phone when they look at your ad through their camera. Moreover, you can change the coupon or deal as often as you like without having to re-do the print ad. You can also offer a coupon or special deal when the customer points their phone at your store that can entice them to enter your business immediately. A restaurant could automatically bring up a menu or specials of the day, or offer an early-bird coupon that only appears at certain hours of the day. The uses are endless, and just as loyal customers enjoy special “secret” deals they get by email or by using your business’s app, they will love the hunt for fun deals via AR.
Do you get great results from contests on social media like Facebook and Instagram? Imagine setting up contests where you post a clue to a location, and the customer taking their camera to that location, like a local statue, landmark, or historical marker, triggers an entry into a raffle drawing, the way posting a comment does now. Marketing associations and chambers of commerce for a town or area could recruit multiple businesses into doing a full-on AR scavenger hunt, which would work like Pokemon Go! — instead of collecting virtual critters, people could collect tokens for prizes, discount codes, or coupons for the various businesses.
This is just scratching the surface of the ways augmented reality will be offering new marketing opportunities in the very near future. Start learning about AR capabilities now to be the first business in your sector or niche to take advantage and attract customers in creative new ways.
