How IoT Ushers Change in Content Marketing
We live in a world driven by progress, innovation, and technology – the common, the normal. Everything grows at an explosive rate, and at an incessant pace. The Internet of Things is no exception to the rule. Take Gartner’s 2020 prediction, for example – the numerical growth of IoT devices, expected to hit a total value of 20.4 billion. The number matters, at least in a comparative context. In 2016, global spending on IoT across markets totaled to USD 737 billion; in 2020, IDC expects this value to rocket to USD 1.29 trillion.
But technology – especially those with the potential for large scale impact – encroaches; it seeps into everything almost. All it needs is a little time and exploration. Marketing is one such area. With the right implementation, content marketers too can harness the power of an IoT ecosystem, the power of connected devices, and the data available overall. It’s a recipe for contextual and robust campaigns.
The timing couldn’t have been better, given the saturation of content in the digital era. In 2019, nearly 88% of B2B companies in the US invested in digital content marketing; with the volume of content pushed on an almost daily basis, it becomes important to cut through the noise.
Opportunities for Content Marketers via IoT
With an increasingly data-driven culture around content and other forms of marketing such as digital marketing, email marketing and others; IoT represents massive impact. It’s simple math; consumer data is a value proportional to the increase in connected devices. When devices collect customer or buyer information, marketers become empowered – enough to understand their consumers with accuracy, thereby enabling the creation of stellar experiences.
A connected pillow, for example, with its sensors is often able to track sleep data; the information then enables the brand to effectively understand the different patterns associated with sleep. To marketers, this ranks as a goldmine to personalized campaigns – more experience led than content led. If a user snores, the data will indicate for marketers to campaign around solutions that mitigates the issue. The process creates a new, different type of engagement between consumers and brands – an engagement that offers experience more than content, known as experiential marketing.
In a way, connected devices offer marketers the chance to send content to the consumer without distractions, eliminating noise and competition. For instance, if a buyer purchases a connected pillow, he or she receives content based on data from said pillow on their mobile devices. With a little experimentation, it is possible to make the experience more nuanced, sophisticated even. Marketers can target a campaign for hard pillows as a category, and for soft pillows as another category. At the same time, brands could even cross-pollinate content between different categories, providing customers the opportunity for a new experience.
In fact, the approach allows for real-time communication as well. If a smart bulb fuses, the company could react to the situation almost immediately, maybe even generate a coupon with a discount for replacement. IoT helps marketers understand their buyers – the how, when and where of product usage. But more than personalized campaigns, the data also offers insight on product improvements.
Challenges Involved with IoT-Marketing Implementations
IoT implementations offer several exciting opportunities for marketers worldwide; but there are more things to keep in mind when developing a content strategy.
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Targeting with Context
Delivering relevant content at the right time is amongst the most difficult of challenges for content marketers worldwide. Consumers have a low tolerance to content they don’t find relevant, which is why it becomes important for marketers to identify with contextual forms of content; that is, providing the right information at the right place and at the right time.
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Data Proficiency
In time, it will become increasingly important for even content marketers to process, analyze, and interpret data for the sake of content optimization. It might even be a required skill for content marketers in the future, an expertise in data and analytics. At the same time, marketers ought to also make sure that they have the necessary tools for data interpretation. As content marketers upskill in this manner, we’re also likely to find data scientists join marketing teams to harness the potential of IoT.
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The Revolution of Voice Search
By 2020, an estimated 50% of consumers will interact with voice-activated technology; this points to a change in online search behavior.
Furthermore, it urges marketers to optimize content for voice searches and virtual assistants. Voice searches are unique and differ quite a bit from online searches; the former is often longer and more question-like in its construct. Content creators are expected to change their approach and upgrade existing SEO tactics even. This will be an important step in ensuring that consumers have a higher chance of finding the right content.
Summary: IoT in Content Marketing
As described, 2020 stands as the year for a potential breakthrough in the realm of marketing. With an increase in connected devices, marketers will soon be able to harness consumer data in the creation of personalized and contextual content. But this benefit doesn’t come without its share of challenges; the effort to overcome said barriers begins with marketers upskilling to grasp and utilize data-driven concepts, and more so – in the ability to account for voice-based searches as well.
But towards the end of those challenges, well, that’s where you’ll find an increase in trust and loyalty from your customers. It’s the new-age way to build and strengthen relationships between brands and consumers. Having said that, all that remains is to ask if you’ll be joining the game.
