Are You Considering IoT and Smart Home Devices in Your Marketing Strategy?

In the next four years, smart home devices are predicted to grow at 16.9% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), indicating massive investments and rapid adoption. Read on to understand:

• Which three ecosystems should be at the center of your marketing strategy?
• Useful tips to enhance engagement with IoT device users
• A critical challenge to address on this journey
   

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) and the smart home devices market has grown exponentially in the last few years. Investments reached an all-time high in 2016, with companies putting in approximately USD 2 billion in a wide variety of IoT devices for home use — safety and security systems, audio-visual platforms, software, energy savers, kitchen appliances, and the like. And this number is only going to increase going forward.

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So, what does this mean for marketers? An increasing focus on voice search and localization, combined with a new approach towards SEO, is on the cards.

Learn more: 3 Examples of IoT Marketing Strategies You Can Implement in 2019

Top 3 Smart Home Devices and IoT Devices to Watch Out For

The market has witnessed an undeniable boom and the big players are already evident. Here are three IoT devices that should be part of your marketing strategy if you are looking to engage with wider audiences.

1. Creating Content for an Entire IoT Ecosystem, Like the Samsung SmartThings Hub
 

Digital marketing has even more potential when it is incorporated seamlessly into a customer’s regular interaction points. Samsung SmartThings Hub unites multiple IoT devices that constitute Samsung’s smart-home family, from thermostats to lightbulbs. These can be connected to a smartphone through an iOS or Android app.

As a marketer, you can leverage the data gathered from these devices to cross-sell/up-sell products. For example, frequent outages of a lightbulb can be linked to automated triggers for a new, more advanced variant.

2. Optimizing Branding for Smart Speakers, Like the Amazon Echo
 

The recently launched second gen Amazon echo has found immense traction due to its affordable price and attractive feature set. Using the Echo, a customer can create a shopping list, order a snack/beverage of their choice, tune in to their favorite news channel, and more.

When targeting smart-home owners and IoT device users, your brand presence should be aligned to voice accessibility. Is your F&B; outlet visible through voice search to users in the vicinity? Does your brand include Alexa support? These are the type of questions to ask when reimagining your marketing strategy for the IoT era.

3. Engaging Customers Continually Through a Smart Thermostat, Like the Ecobee4
 

Ecobee4 is a useful IoT device for homeowners, enabling temperature control by voice commands. Its Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is that it works as an independent Amazon speaker as well — with full functionalities expected from Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa. This provides marketers an excellent opportunity to interact with customers wherever they are.

Since the thermostat is non-intrusive and integrates with different smartphone apps/home systems, such as Apple HomeKit, there will be a mine of data pouring in. You can use this to send out relevant messaging at regular intervals whenever the Ecobee4 detects human presence inside a room.

Learn more: 3 Creative Applications of IoT in B2B Marketing

Tips for Enhancing Your Engaging IoT Device Users

It’s important to understand that smart home and IoT technology will not affect your existing marketing stack. Like the internet once revolutionized marketing by offering a new way to reach out to customers, IoT is the next channel to explore as the marketing landscape evolves. The central messaging, your brand’s identity, and the target audience will largely remain the same — you simply have another channel to connect with and engage customers.

Voice search is possibly the first step towards IoT-led marketing optimization. Instead of keyword search, your customers will have natural language conversations with the device. Therefore, all digital assets should focus on natural language processing and voice search optimization instead of looking at keyword density. Localization is also a critical area, and a regularly updated Google My Business page will help your brand stand out in localized search.

Another interesting method — despite being slightly more cost-intensive — is app development for IoT devices. If your product resonates with IoT users (including smart appliances and wearables), consider creating a dedicated mobile app that lets customers track metrics and gain useful insights into usage.

Finally, marketers must forge a network of strategic partners to succeed in IoT-led marketing. For example, a footwear company could work together with a wearable manufacturer, while healthcare brands can make in-roads into the smart medical devices segment.

Learn more:  Top 15 Digital Marketing Strategies for 2020

A Key Challenge to Overcome on This Journey

Despite the immense potential of smart home and IoT devices for marketers, fragmentation remains a key concern. Amazon devices will always push brands hosted by the Amazon platform, and customers are yet to adopt multiple devices for a single space. This is why strategic partnerships will prove essential as you start reinforcing your presence in the IoT space.

According to the IDC’s 2019 report, smart devices will grow at 16.9% CAGR in the next four years. This opens a sizeable market for your brand if you can identify the right partners, take small steps towards IoT-first optimization, and align your messaging to this soon-to-be ubiquitous presence.

How are you rethinking your marketing strategy for IoT devices? Tell us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.