IoT in Marketing – How Marketers Need to Be Ready For non-Human Customers Very Soon

    B2B marketers
    IoT in Marketing – How Marketers Need to Be Ready For non- Human Customers Very Soon

    The impact of IoT in marketing is evolving rapidly and is playing a vital role in delivering dynamic experiences.

    3 Ways in Which Account-based Marketing Can be Successful in 2020

    With the advancement of technology, marketing is now a data-driven discipline and a more complicated process. With the proliferation of data and the shift in customer preferences, it has become competitive and in 2020, B2B marketers are set to experience many innovations and thus increasing their budget for tech-powered marketing.

    But, what if the customers soon aren’t just only humans? How are marketers supposed to act and respond?

    With the time ahead, it is expected that smart-devices will not only influence their owners (humans), they could make the buying decisions too. As more smart-devices are entering the frame, B2B marketers are analyzing and responding to ever-changing consumer behaviors. Today, marketers are getting an in-depth understanding of their buyers at every level of their customer journey in real-time.

    Also Read: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Marketing Trends in 2023

    As predicted by IHS Technology four years ago, there would be over 30 billion IoT devices in households and businesses across the globe by 2020. IoT is revolutionizing the business functionalities, and that is real and tangible for marketing. According to the Ericsson Mobility Report, the usage of IoT devices and sensors will exceed mobile phones, generating over 400 zettabytes of data in the journey.

    Simply put, Big Data is going to get bigger, giving brands access to more data at an unrivaled level. It will also provide them with insights that may go beyond human data. Big enterprises are potentially collecting data for a better understanding of their targeted audiences and the marketplace. CMO quotes Cynthia Baker, Principal of IoT Marketing, saying, “This allows them to improve their company’s business model and product offerings…It enables brands to leverage it to market back to consumers with personalized, data-driven marketing, improved customer service, and targeted advertising.” However, privacy regulations, like GDPR, are regulating many brands in how they plan to utilize data, to generate customer interactions. Two years ago, Gartner shared estimation that more than 2 billion people used conversational AI to communicate with digital assistants. Besides, by 2021, there will be nearly 25 billion IoT devices – thus, it is expected to experience a significant move from humans to ‘things’. Don Scheibenreif, VP analyst from Gartner, as reported to CMO from IDG, “People, rightly or wrongly, will often make purchasing decisions based on emotion. And their timing and behavior may be unpredictable…The evidence is there that more and more things, backed up by intelligent systems are taking up the behaviors of us as customers. The question then becomes: How do you market to a thing?”

    Also Read: How Intent Data Will Alter B2B Marketing Trends Through 2023

    It has been often seen that humans make purchasing decisions based on emotions, but ‘things’ work on logic and algorithms. Thus brands would require more insights to align with the preferences and usage patterns, which then need to be translated into algorithms to succeed in the near future.