The Marketing of Things
There’s no doubting the recent boom in the use of the term IoT and at Halston Marketing we’re no strangers to the implications and endless possibilities the new world of connectivity can bring to our future.
With clients in health tech, environmental monitoring, smart buildings and cities we’re at the forefront of some of the most interesting industries of our time. With that, we’re breaking new ground every day on the marketing of this emerging behemoth of an industry.
When shaping the messaging for companies operating within bleeding edge industries, authority is key. You need to identify any potential pain points your audience will be facing and highlight solutions within your marketing, here are a few we identified and the messaging we created to counteract them and pique the interest of the audience we were targeting:
Don’t Mess Things Up!
Out of the various companies you’re targeting you are more than likely going to come across clients who have their infrastructure running just the way they like it. If you’re installing your own hardware as part of your offering, you have to acknowledge there may be worries about risk to the existing system. To counteract this, lead with a message that reassures your tech is retrofittable to any environment.
An All in One Solution
Clients always feel a lot more at ease if they believe they are investing in a product, service or system that’s a one stop shop. Outlining everything your offering covers is hard to do in every piece of marketing you create, but the headline should be: ‘you won’t have to go anywhere else’.
Scalability
In B2B marketing you should always assume that the companies you’re aiming to work with have high aspirations for themselves, especially if they’re in a new, constantly changing market. Therefore scalability can be a concern, you should create messaging around how your tech product or service is future-proof, how it can and will grow with the company no matter what their ambition.
Internal Buy-in
Making connections with people is the key to B2B sales and marketing success but, while you may have the ear of one, slightly more progressive member of staff at a company you will need to secure buy-in from decision makers at the top.
Many businesses in your target audience work within archaic industries, some of the IIoT (Industrial IoT) clients you’re targeting, for example heavy industry, mining, shipping and logistics etc. can be limited by particularly antiquated systems. You must remain patient with the fact that the new, connected world can be a daunting place for a company that has been doing things the same way for decades.
To combat this, arm your contact with as much ammo as possible for them to gain buy-in from their own bosses. Ask your contact what barriers they think will be blocking the acceptance of new tech and create brand and product literature that counteracts concerns or questions, before they’re asked.
Cloud Storage
As we know cloud storage is far safer and far more scalable than a lot of on-premises alternatives but we have found that there can still be trust issues when you mention anything to do with the cloud. Keep this in mind when creating any IoT brand marketing or content to make your audience feel at ease at the thought of the implementation of your service.
Keeping Up with The Jones’
One of the biggest hooks you can use with an IoT product is how cool it is. This point is the final word of advice because this message should by no means be at the crux of your marketing strategy. Banging this drum too often can feed into the scepticism of the industry in general and the growing concern that IoT is a flash in the pan term and anything associated with it is just as ephemeral.
By all means use cool videos images and words to bring your audience in but ensure you have a lot of brand substance and market viability to your product to back up your claims.
If you’re looking for any more advice on the marketing of your IoT product or service, contact us.