IoT is the next big thing in marketing

Anastasiia Kanarska
15th May |

Introduction

These days, IoT is everywhere – from smart devices we use at home daily to QR codes in restaurants we scan to make an order. Emerging technology is revolutionizing every aspect of our lives and changing numerous routine processes. IoT is transforming business operations as well as interaction with customers. 

There’s barely any industry left that hasn’t been affected by IoT. The technology is expected to bring significant changes across quite a number of areas. As for now, there’s large scope for studying and investigating. 

In this article, we will figure out how IoT is connected to marketing. ​​In fact, there’s so much untouched terrain about IoT marketing. However, we already can clearly see its great prospects. Let’s talk in detail!

How IoT works in marketing

It makes sense, to begin with a brief outline of the concept of IoT. In layman’s words, it is a system of ubiquitous products like cars, alarm clocks, and lights connected to computing devices via the Internet. This allows for exchanging valuable customer data, providing marketers with more context about their product usage, customers’ preferences, shopping patterns, etc. With this in hand, marketers can deliver more relevant and highly personalized messages, therefore, leading to greater customer engagement throughout every phase of the customer journey.

See how intelligent devices contribute to seamless communication between processes, people, and things and bring vast possibilities and a brand new paradigm for customer relations and marketing management. 

Customers satisfaction and better engagement

IoT takes the whole process of business-customer interaction to the next level. Engaging customers continuously in real-time and creating product value throughout the company’s lifetime is essential, and this is where IoT comes into play. 

Wireless connectivity is reframing how businesses are run and changing customers’ behavior and expectations. 

With the IoT, businesses can focus on the four priority areas that are all crucial in terms of better customer experience:

  • Relevant offers at the right time
  • Satisfying store experiences
  • Quick and effective problem solving
  • Compelling products and services to increase customer loyalty

Personalized services

Tough competition in the market forces businesses to use various tactics to get on the top. How do you stand out from dozens or even hundreds of competitors and make people choose your services? You should give them what they want and what they value most. We’re talking about personalization here. Taking care of your customers, giving them attention, and making them feel special is a new standard for retailers. IoT helps companies to offer enhanced services and meet their customer’s demands. The ability to personalize effectively takes your business ahead of the game. 

Sending notifications and announcements, making personal offers based on a customer’s previous purchases or shopping patterns, providing discounts for loyal customers, etc. – all these actions add up to overall success and make you an industry leader with a large (and ever-growing) customer base.  

Market research

Data is the most precious treasure for market research. The emergence of big data analytics has rewarded market researchers with the power to granularly analyze data sets and extract real-world insights and informational value from day-to-day things. These days market researchers can leverage IoT for their own benefits!

Fast transactions

Time is money so customers expect services to be not only high-quality yet fast. Since many hyper-speed transactions require more customer information, marketers benefit from gathering valuable data.

So, hyper-speed transactions are one more way to obtain more customer information as well as understand customer behavior. This is how brands are shaped as per customers’ needs. 

SEO

IoT has something to do with SEO (search engine optimization). When we say technology changes everything, we do mean it. IoT changes the way we search for something online. An IoT-driven future is coming, so we better get ready for it. How? Here are some strategies to follow:

  • Voice search optimization – search engines for IoT are expected to be voice-based.
  • Evolve with SERP – as long as featured snippets and knowledge graphs provide answers, they are taken as a bridge between IoT and SEO.
  • Watch IoT-based search media – Google does it well now but remember that things are evolving. We are very likely to meet new search media soon so customizing SEO for IoT needs becomes a necessity. Following your target customer group’s reaction to emerging IoT technologies is essential.
  • Focus on personalization – should SEO experts use the personal data of online customers properly, they’ll be on their way to creating content that hits the target.
  • Synthesize offline and online data – SEO until now has relied on data from online sources, but IoT devices open the door to real-world offline data. Smart devices provide data that can be more effective for understanding user intent than traditional data from the web.
  • Adapt content – make sure the content you generate can be displayed in various forms (e.g. video messages and ads for 3D). IoT technology is evolving so should marketing opportunities. Keeping up with advancements does pay off! 

Advanced advertising

IoT systems can make any object a channel to engage customers. IoT devices collect real-time data and this is an advertiser’s dream come true – it’s a goldmine of limitless information. Marketing specialists can now contextualize and tailor personalized ads for their customers. They can harness touchpoints through IoT interactions and connections to advertise the right product to the right customer at the right time. 

The 5 key applications of IoT in advertising that have the potential to revolutionize marketing are as follows:

  • Contextual segmentation
  • In-store advertising
  • Location-based advertising
  • Intent-based advertising
  • Interactive advertising  

Grow your business with IoT marketing

Every business is looking to grow and develop. This process starts with upgrading marketing strategies through IoT. IoT opens up plentiful opportunities for customer base expansion and revenue increase, and this list is constantly being updated. In this section, you can check out some of the most common current ways IoT is used to market businesses.

Brand promotion

IoT branding is low-cost yet highly efficient. This way brands can cover the widest audience possible since there is hardly anyone without a smartphone and an online social media profile. 

Using social media and advertising websites for promotion seems simple but always makes sense. Sharing photos on social media, sending personalized and automated text messages about sales and discounts, and interacting with customers closer – these are usual things that significantly add up to brand awareness. If used correctly, IoT devices can beneficially highlight the features that set certain products or services apart.  

Targeted strategies

Proper targeting is essential for a successful marketing campaign. However, this requires thorough analysis and a deep understanding of customers’ needs, preferences, and expectations. Marketers are supposed to tailor services to each shopper based on their shopping habits, previous purchases, and tastes. This is a marketer’s fantasy brought to reality – with IoT a lot of manipulations are possible. IoT devices gather valuable data that is used in a variety of ways. For example, making use of the data from subscribers who have opened marketing emails for retargeting them with adverts on social media platforms. 

Geofencing, which is a form of location intelligence, informs about a prospective buyer being in the perfect spot so you can send them relevant messages about a sale, or provide them with a coupon to redeem in-store. Targeting consumers based on their location is another great example of IoT for marketing.

Improved CX

Customer experience always provides a wide scope for improvements and upgrades. As industries evolve, customers’ demands rise too. People tend to get pickier when it comes to choosing products or services. Connected Internet of Things devices allow for quick issues detection and elimination, insights gathering, and boosting profits. 

Cut operating costs

IoT-powered sensors are helpful in terms of optimizing resources in the most appropriate way. For instance, a company with multiple locations can easily monitor inventory levels in each area and place orders as per requirements with the help of connected sensors. This way you get inventory only when needed and still ensure on-time goods delivery. Such an approach helps to avoid overspending. 

Customer satisfaction

Smooth and continuous communication between a brand and its customers is a must-have. Make your customers feel appreciated and bring the brand closer to them. Take advantage of the Internet of Things to notify your audience about upcoming products or services, make special offers, or even send automated messages thanking them for their loyalty.

Content marketing

In simple terms, IoT can be applied to anything that has NFC embedded in it, so the data collected through interactions is used by marketers to better understand their consumers’ needs. This allows them to generate even more personal and precise content for the individual consumer, build loyalty in return, and eliminate the guesswork of creating hit-or-miss content.

Smooth journey 

Customers want their interaction with a brand to be a smooth ride. So why not simplify it as much as possible? Utilize IoT systems to help buyers make orders based on their preferences. It just takes adjusting some IoT settings and moving the rest with automation. Besides, IoT systems inform about product status, whether it’s out of stock or back in stock.

Conversational commerce

Conversational commerce is gaining momentum and it’s definitely worth attention. It is anticipated that many transactions will be completed via chat in the near future. That is why, brands should quickly respond to the changing rules and be ready to provide the most relevant services. It must be a priority to deliver personalized assistance, not simply push promotional content. Once again, the point we mention throughout the whole article – highly personalized services are the main priority. Marketers must create channels where customers can come to them with questions and get answers asap (e.g. live chats and social messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger and Slack).

Everything indicates that this trend will grow rapidly in the coming years so embracing this shift now ensures long-term success later on. IoT is predicted to change the way marketers interact with their audiences with personalized messages.  

Data-driven marketing automation

In 2023, it’s impossible to imagine marketing without automation. And we’re sure this trend will stick around for years. 

Check out a little marketing automation statistics:

  • Marketing automation is the number one most effective digital marketing technique after content marketing according to global marketing professionals. (Statista)
  • The biggest benefits of marketing automation are saving time on repetitive tasks and facilitating personalized customer communications, according to 49% of companies. (Pendalix)
  • 79% of companies use automation for marketing, compared to 45% for sales, and 33% for finance. (HubSpot)
  • Marketers that make use of data-driven strategies deliver five to eight times as much ROI as those who don’t. (Invesp)

But first things first. What is meant by marketing automation? Marketing automation helps to quickly and easily complete repetitive tasks like email marketing, social media posting, and ad campaigns. Basically, the software does the heavy lifting while still providing customers with a more personalized experience. No matter how large a user database is, marketing automation ensures reaching every single one of your contacts.

It goes without saying that marketing automation is extremely advantageous. But we don’t make you just take our word for it. We invite you to take a look at some of the key benefits of marketing automation to convince you. 

  • More output with less input. You can do less busy work and still get significant perks.
  • 100% following up with leads. The software sends follow-up emails instantly making sure an inquirer isn’t left wondering if their message went to nowhere.
  • Hit the target. You can divide your contacts into powerful segments through behavior tracking. This allows for identifying people ready to make purchases here and now and targeting them successfully.
  • Lead nurturing. This is an effective way to establish trust with potential customers and make them eager to place an order. Nurtured leads buy more by 47% as compared to non-nurtured leads. 
  • Leads reactivation. To cut a long story short, marketing automation continuously nurtures leads until they turn into customers. 
  • Reaching customers in the right place and at the right time. Use omnichannel marketing automation software with the main focus on the context. Think about the way your customers want to be reached and make appropriate offers.
  • Upsell and cross-sell. Set up automatic campaigns based on your customer’s previous purchases.
  • Boost loyalty. Analyze your customers’ actions and preferences, and value their opinions so you will be able to turn them into your brand’s dedicated fans and promoters. 
  • Prioritize personalization. If you think that one-size-fits-all marketing messages will do, we will disappoint you. This will sooner turn people off. What customers want is to feel cared about and appreciated. Personalization is the key. This allows appealing to people’s sense of individuality, therefore, growing the likelihood of engagement. Marketing automation is an effective means of providing personalized experience at scale.

According to Leading marketing automation benefits according to marketers worldwide 2022 (survey prepared by Statista), the main benefits of marketing automation in percent are as follows:

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/430513/marketing-automation-benefits-worldwide/

Automation can scale up your marketing provided you implement it correctly. Otherwise, you may face serious issues. Well, forewarned is forearmed. We’ve prepared a checklist of the most common marketing automation mistakes businesses make. Look through them to make sure you will avoid them when bringing technology to your next marketing campaign.

  • Spamming
  • Sending typical emails like a robot instead of speaking human-to-human 
  • Focusing on the wrong metrics
  • Neglecting to do testing
  • Your customer data isn’t updated
  • Overpaying
  • Taking retention for granted
  • Buying customers instead of attracting them organically
  • Relying on batch and blast
  • Automation is limited to emails creation 

IoT Is Disrupting Marketing As We Know It

Well, “disrupting” may sound a bit sharp so we’d rather say that IoT is completely reshaping the marketing we’ve used to. Are these changes for the better? Definitely yes! However, it’s crucial to quickly adapt and start playing by the new rules. 

Interaction with the audience across multiple channels simultaneously is different now. Marketers do their best to build strong relationships with their consumers based on trust and mutual respect. They prioritize similar values. IoT-based marketing is the next big trend while pushing promotional content repeatedly is already outdated and ineffective. Social messaging platforms come into play and allow marketers to share interesting and useful information instead of generic ads. Embracing this shift is the right way to get ahead of your competitors.

IoT upgrades shopping by bringing forth conversational commerce. What earlier seemed a fantasy is a reality now. People can buy items from any brand worldwide at the touch of a button via chatbots. Moreover, marketers start utilizing the Internet of Things solutions to provide deeper insights into their brands.

Conclusion

A new technology boom is here and it is anticipated to cause a revolution across numerous industries, including retail and marketing. 

Marketing automation is on the rise right now, as more and more businesses move online. As long as you want your business to succeed and grow, there’s no other option but to adjust and start marketing automation. 

But remember that technology is not a cure-all for bad marketing. Simply put, bad marketing scales as well as good marketing. With marketing automation, the customer journey you’ve created will be enhanced. That is why it is required to craft an outstanding customer journey and then magnify it through technology.