In the last few years, we saw significant growth in the number of new IoT products and companies.
By the IoT Analytics, the number of connected devices that are in use worldwide now exceeds 17 billion, with the number of IoT devices at 7 billion (that number does not include smartphones, tablets, laptops or fixed line phones).
But, just like in every other industry, the percentage of the startups who fail is very high. By Cisco, the reasons why a lot of IoT products aren't successful are lack of experience and security.
When we say "lack of experience", we very often think about selling and marketing your IoT products.
In this article, we will see what are the 6 best practices to sell and market your IoT Product.
1. Understand your unique value propositions
Understanding your unique value propositions will not just help you to do better marketing and offer more value, it will also help you sell more and better.
If your IoT product is in the B2B industry, then you must understand where your solution fits within the corporate value chain. If you are in the B2C industry, then understanding your potential customers' needs and problems is crucial in order to create a better sales cycle.
Do your marketing research very carefully.
2. Your competition can save or destroy your business
Competition is everywhere. If you don't know what to do with your competition, then you will probably fail. But if you use your competitors to your advantage - you will save your business and maybe even gain a monopoly over the market.
A lot of people and entrepreneurs think that doing an analysis of their competitors is everything they need to. But that's not true. Carefully monitoring your competitors is one of the most crucial things in every business.
Monitoring your competitors will help you to:
- Find out their new strategies first
- Always be one step ahead of them always.
- Create killer competitive advantages.
Competitors App is a good tool for monitoring your competition. It allows you to track all their social media pages, newsletters, website changes, SEO and PPC campaigns.
3. Be Available
Customer support is one of the best ways to engage and build a strong relationship with your potential customers.
Being available 24/7 will help you build your brand presence and get more customers.
Customers love it when you take care of them. For example, the hosting company I'm using, it's my number one favourite only because they are doing everything for me - even if I know how to do it.
Their chat support is available all the time, and they respond in a matter of seconds.
For the IoT particularly, technical assistance and support is a must.
If you are at the beginning of your startup journey, it would be best for you as a CEO or CMO to take care of your support. Constant interaction and conversation with your potential customers will help you understand them better and find out what are their needs and problems.
4. Use Data in your advantage.
Gather as much data as possible about your customers. But only use data your customers are comfortable sharing.
Your database can be used to target most ideal buyer personas and improve your marketing campaigns and conversions. You can also use your data to provide value to your customers when they need it. For example, when they have some technical problems with their device, make sure that your device sends them an appropriate message or advice.
This is a new way of a real-time marketing for IoT products. It will help you to build your relationships with your customers and improve mouth to mouth marketing.
Gathering data can also help personalize your websites and shops. Using the right headlines and Call-to-Actions is crucial in today marketing.
5. Tell Stories
Telling stories is a new generation of Marketing. Stories will never be too odd or outdated.
Tell stories with which your potential customers can associate with.
If you're selling a smart dog feeder which will feed your dog automatically, then put yourself in shoes of your ideal buyers. They are probably some kind of businessmen who are not home very often.
Tell stories suitable for them.
6. Be Better
Having a better product was always the best way for marketing. But for ordinary customers, the technical aspects of your product doesn't mean anything. The only thing they need is to be simple to use - with no troubles.
It’s the same as SaaS tools or web apps - better User-Interface will always beat better functionality.
Look at the Trello and Asana examples. Asana was a giant in a project tools market, but Trello focused itself only on one thing - making easier for its' users to use KanBan methodology. Asana supported KanBan too, but it was too complicated. The secret of Trellos' massive growth is simplicity and better User-Interface.
It's the same for IoT products too.
Good knowledge of your competition strategies, great stories, using actionable data about your customers for your marketing campaigns and great customer support are almost everything you will need to create powerful marketing campaigns for your IoT tool and to grow your business.
