The Internet of Things is forecast to double in size—from 15.4 billion Internet-connected devices in 2015 to 30.7 billion in 2020. Here are four ways to dominate the massive IoT marketing boom that's headed our way.
1. Get familiar with the idea of zettabytes
You may not know this term yet; it's not a data size that marketers are used to. A zettabyte is 1,000 exabytes. Or one million petabytes. That's one billion terabytes and one trillion gigabytes.
According to telecommunications giant Ericcson, IoT sensors and devices will produce 400 zettabytes of data in the next year.
2. Find an IoT marketing strategist
Knowing what to do with all that information will be a major factor in determining the success of marketing campaigns. Agencies and brands are going to need a person (or team) to understand the different signals coming from IoT devices and how to harness insights to fine-tune marketing efforts.
Qualified candidates need to have the expertise to work with data onboarding software solutions while possessing a broad vision to connect data to known identities. Expect savvy engineers who think like marketers to be among your most coveted human capital—very soon.
3. Keep up with new IoT channels and tools
The amount of data IoT devices are about to produce is second only to the new opportunities to engage in real-time with consumers. Think about a connected refrigerator that knows when a carton of milk is about to become empty. There are countless ways the refrigerator can alert the owner or buy more milk—displaying information on its screen, reorderinf automatic, using Alexa, or even sending a signal to the owner's car when driving near a grocery store. And that is just one example. There's no telling how far and how quickly these channels could expand.
4. Embrace change
The ability to adapt in light of new information has been a pillar of business success since the beginning. The response to the IoT shift needs to be the same, but the acceleration level is unprecedented. Are you equipped to calculate and respond to the real-time demands of the consumers you or your clients hope to reach?
IoT revolutionizes contextual marketing in ways never thought possible outside the world of science fiction. If you thought Big Data changed things, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Stay ahead of the game, embrace change and make sure you have marketers or an agency that can help you dominate the IoT marketing world.
