7 things to consider for your IoT marketing campaign

A report summary from Business Insider puts the IoT market at the forefront, with the number of IoT devices growing from 9 billion in 2017 to 55 billion by 2025. With many products and services flooding the market to give a spin on a “smarter approach” to do things, what are the marketing approaches an IoT can take to separate itself from competitors?

We’ve had the opportunity and pleasure to work with clients who despite facing stiff competition out of the gate, had managed to hit their campaign goals. Through these experiences, we picked up a few lessons along the way that we want to share with you to make your IoT marketing campaign smoother. If you’re at the infant stage get these 4 items sorted before reading any further.

Done?

Good.

I present to you, the IoT marketing campaign cheat sheet.

The steady, projected growth of IoT connected devices from 2015 - 2025

1) Define your customers

Despite the obviousness, this always bears mentioning and repeating. In the context of an IoT campaign, are your customers in the B2B or B2C space, or do you see the possibility to go both ways? Knowing the customer base will determine the channels that you focus your campaign on. If the product falls in both boxes, focus on one space, take the success that spills to the other space as chances and opportunities to act upon, not a priority.

2) Functional and sexy

Establish the functionality of your product. Be honest with yourself, if it's all fluff, or not up to scratch, don’t start. Sexy comes after being functional. What is sexy could be the product or the founder/team members. Remember, sexy comes second in this case and could be a selling point and lend itself to better content creation. Nothing kills a bad product faster than good marketing.

3) Do your homework before showing up

Who are your competitors? Are there bigger, better, more established players offering what you have as well? Do your due diligence, when conversations begin, it is inevitable that the competition will be mentioned, and not being aware of them won’t put you in a good light. Having basic knowledge for your product is also essential. Tie-down with your technical team to cover and be educated about some of the key concerns, terminologies, and technologies that you should be familiar with.

4) Same same but different

So you know what makes your baby so special, you can begin creating the necessary collateral on the right foot. Your websites, pitch decks for investors and potential customers, social media channels, you know the drill. Content maps for your campaign can be looked into greater detail at this point in time with any press releases, or events that you’re ready to rock up to.

5) Online to offline and getting ready for the big show

I always believe, small wins to big wins. List out the offline events that you would want your campaign to be part of, be it a tech show or conference. These big events where you’ll want to be at serve as checkpoints or milestones for your campaign. Done well, these events give a clear view of the effectiveness of your campaign efforts. Did you manage to get your CEO a speaking slot? Record that down, its ammunition for your campaign. Also, don’t be shy to plan your events to supplement your offline presence in a setting where you will have greater direction and control.

6) Offline to online and keeping the momentum going

Think of the marketing process where visibility, exposure, and being in the limelight working along as a sine curve. With the peaks being your events, a pick up of a press release, or the big day of a launch. The hype and momentum won’t be going 100 miles per hour all the time and needs to be sustained. The ambers burning with enough life, just waiting to light up once more at the next peak. Are some of your content having good traction? Consider repurposing successful content pieces to make your job easier.

7) Have an honest review at the end

You’ve reached the finish line for your campaign! Congratulations! Did you hit your campaign goals? Gather your team and have a detailed, honest breakdown of the campaign. What were the highlights? Were there any parts that could be done better? Was the link between your online and offline efforts smooth? What are the new challenges that you need to get ready for moving forward? Understanding what works will give you better material for your next campaign outing, it's not unheard of to have highlights of previous campaigns become pillars of subsequent ones. Remember, even if the approach and direction changes, the execution should become more familiar each time. Take a well-deserved break, tomorrow, we plan for the next campaign.

We hope that this has helped give you a better understanding to cover your bases before you embark on your IoT marketing campaign, though it bears similarities to other kinds of campaigns, there are other nuances that you’ll find out along the way. Hit us up if you’d like to have a chat to find out more ways to get the desired results for your campaign goals.