Isn’t it nice to receive services from businesses without asking for it? Isn’t it amazing that we are in an age where brands can deliver services without human interaction? IoT is a concept that greatly contributes to these scenarios and anyone who identifies as a marketer should be talking about it. IoT is important and powerful enough to shape the way technology is used.
Internet of things (IoT) is simply a system of web-enabled devices that collect, send and analyze data gotten from the environment. An IoT device can be a smart home appliance that alerts the owner when electrical consumption is high or a car with sensors that alerts the driver when the tire pressure is low or a watch that alerts the wearer when he/she needs cholesterol. These devices use Hi-Tech sensors that can communicate with the environment through the internet. By 2020, there will be 24 billion connected devices in the world, and they will continue to drive the investment and embracing of IoT.
In today’s world of Marketing, knowing your market is everything. With IoT, Devices brands will be presented with an opportunity to listen and react to the needs and wants of their customers and predict what their customers are interested in based on customer behavior. This will be made possible with data generated from these devices and understanding the importance of this will help brands stay ahead of the pack
Getting to know what customers like, how they like it and how much they are willing to spend for a product/service will provide brands with a better understanding of the expectations of their consumers. This will now go further to translate the products/services to what fits the consumer’s needs.
IoT is the future of technology and it will constantly bring changes in the world of Marketing. Here’s how;
Rise of Marketing Technology Tools
Since anything connected to the internet could be a means of engaging consumers, marketing strategists will move beyond today’s digital devices to enhanced devices that are specific to the needs of consumers.
For instance, Amazon already leveraged IoT with their dash buttons, this allows consumers to order a product with the push of a Wi-Fi-connected button.
Just like these brands more and more brands will use IoT in creating new devices that will satisfy the specific needs of a consumer. Technology platforms will achieve this by collecting and analyzing IoT data similarly to how cookies are used where the tiniest information about a consumer is collected and analyzed.
Another good example is Schneider electric’s PowerTag which accurately monitors energy consumption in real-time for small buildings and large facilities. The device enables you use energy more efficiently and economically.
With the help of AI and machine learning applications, Devices that are capable of ingesting, analyzing and acting on vast data sets in real-time will be introduced into the market.
Businesses will be Flooded with IoT Ideas (Big Data)
Companies will change the whole way of doing business, the majority of the businesses will become digital. Talk about the future of Work!
With IoT comes a new flood of data for brands. After proper analysis of the data, the influence of this information from will enable brands to provide a range of products that fit their customer’s specific needs and make the products available to them.
Marketing personnel and production engineers working together to provide consumers with specific services.
For example, a fitness watch that tracks everything from food intake to sleep habits of an individual. With all this information from the consumer, the watch can generate a daily routine for the wearer, an overview of the wearer’s health and connect the user to a nearby hospital in cases of emergency.
Apart from using the information to improve business strategy, sales processes will also utilize this data to create maintenance schedules that prevent shortages, An example is a refrigerator that alerts the nearest supermarket when supplies in the refrigerator are finished or almost finish. This will increase the production time up and improve customer service.
A fusion of Marketing into “Digital Marketing”
A few years from now, there will no longer be a digital team on one end and a marketing team on the other end, although it still exists now. Digital will be a part of every form and type of Marketing, the two will have to be fully integrated.
Every business will gradually become digital businesses and the focus will be on chasing the customers’ expectations. More marketing teams can participate in a strategy meeting/brainstorming in real-time from anywhere without the need to use meeting rooms.
Data is the foundation of competitive differentiation for every business so agencies will develop a more technical approach to managing campaigns, marketing initiatives, prices, and product development digitally.
Because almost anything will be connected to the internet, marketing agencies will begin to play increasingly technical and data-centric roles in the Industry as their technology partners.
Collaboration of companies
The increased use of IoT Devices will see more collaboration of companies. Companies that coordinate themselves and catch up with the trend will land themselves huge opportunity for marketing products between companies.
An example is a smart fridge that alerts the nearest supermarket when there is a shortage of food, the fridge company will be in business. This simple act will open new opportunities for both parties because of the referral made by the fridge.
This kind of joint marketing will transform the way products are being marketed to people, making each alert from any IoT device more specific and personalized.
SEO Industry Will Be Influenced
Digital Marketers specializing in SEO will experience a major change in their process, owing to advanced IoT devices.
IoT is gradually changing how human language is being processed by devices as people frequently ask questions more naturally when spoken as compared to typing the questions on google.
With the increasing use of AI Technology like Apple’s Siri and Alexa shows that search engines will start to understand the exact intention of the user (based on machine learning) as opposed to just focusing on keywords.
Web applications that rank pages will see that pages are ranked based on the exact information that is in the content and not how amazing their keyword search results are. So, the idea is to figure out what types of queries should point a user to your website and then optimize your site content according to the query. Keywords are still important for website content, but conversational queries are increasing gradually.
Of course, the question of security comes to question whenever IoT is mentioned. IoT is still in its early stage and important security questions need to be answered. If the Marketers can successfully bypass the obstacles of security issues and privacy laws that will arise, and Companies also take steps to ensure consumer’s data security then the face of marketing is ready for a facelift.
Conclusion
The basic principles of building a brand and extending your market remain the same, the principles have only been improved by technology. IoT gives off an amazing opportunity for improved business processes and increased effectiveness for marketers. This future trend needs to be embraced by everyone, those that do not heed will fall behind. IoT is set to change the Marketing process globally. But the question remains, are we prepared for it?
