How Can IoT Help Your Small Business?
No matter what industry you are in, the difference between successful businesses and those that find themselves falling behind is the ability to predict and adapt to consumer demands.
After all, marketing boils down to understanding what your market wants and giving it to them. However, this is easier said than done.
With so many sources of data to draw from, it is easy to fall prey to information overwhelm — spreading your team too thin and failing to focus on those aspects that will really drive your business forward.
In this article, we will discuss the emerging trends of IoT.
We will explain how you can use the IoT to help your small business create new opportunities to serve your customers at a higher level, resulting in greater growth, revenue, and success.
Let’s get into it!
Reducing Energy Costs
The IoT can help your small business with energy costs in a number of ways. That’s good news, because office appliances, utilities, and other devices add up quickly, creating expenses that put your business budget in jeopardy.
Automated temperature management via smart thermostats is just one example of how IoT devices can help.
For a small investment, you can install smart devices that regulate the temperature within your office so that it remains comfortable during working hours without wasting energy when no one is there.
Smart security systems are another option.
If you operate a home services business that installs home security or other home divides, you can pass on these benefits to customers and use them as a selling point to create more sales and loyal customers.
Every customer wants to have the best features and the lowest price.
If you can stand out in your market by providing this combination, you can be miles ahead of the competition that fails to adapt to the technology.
Monitoring and Event Recording
Consumer IoT is everywhere, although it is not yet mainstream. It is emerging in the form of wearables such as smartwatches, phones, and monitoring devices.
In fact, leading world corporations are leveraging such technology to glean more information about productivity, assets, and energy consumption.
As a general rule, if it’s good enough for a large corporation to invest in, it is a good idea for small businesses to follow suit.
After all, a large corporation typically has more layers of decision-makers and a longer implementation cycle with greater costs, so they typically invest only in what works.
Use IoT devices to monitor employee activity, device usage, and overall effectiveness of collecting information to make smarter decisions about investing your resources.
Workforce Management
Your workforce is the lifeblood of your business. If you don’t properly manage your staff, you will face unpredictable mistakes, non-sustainable processes, disgruntled employees, and more.
Failing to tackle these issues will result in lost talent, as your best employees will seek better opportunities with your competition.
Luckily, the IoT allows businesses to enhance the efficiency, happiness, and productivity of their workforce.
For instance, there are innovative IoT solutions that monitor your employees’ safety and performance, leading to lower fatigue levels and fewer injuries.
Others contribute to fairer scheduling or more effective inventory management.
Utilizing these benefits will help you better your relationships with the people you work with.
With everything running smoothly in your team, you will be able to focus more on marketing and sales, giving you a major competitive edge over others in the industry.
Predict Consumer Trends
There is a treasure trove of information about potential customers out there, though you might be unaware of it at the moment.
As consumers begin to adopt smart devices in greater numbers, these devices collect information about their behavior.
Over time, by collecting and organizing the collected data, your marketing experts will create campaigns that align with these emerging trends.
That way, you will be able to get ahead of competitors and capture market share based on what you know your customers respond to.
SEO Optimization
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a powerful way to drive traffic from relevant customers to your app or landing page website.
However, the trend will move away from text-based queries to voice search due to the convenience enjoyed by the consumer.
In general, people will take the path of least resistance.
If you haven’t already, ensure that your website content aligns with voice search queries generated by searching databases and the aggregations of collected data.
One small change in how a customer phrases their query can provide you with a path forward on adapting your content to speak their language in their own words and build rapport to increase conversions.
That’s the way your business will grow.
Wrapping Up
Small businesses are facing more competition than ever.
No matter what line of business you are in, or your budget, you need to be smart about how you approach new technologies such as IoT and how they play into your online marketing strategy.
Uncovering emerging trends and determining which technologies are really going to be effective for your particular business can seem daunting—regardless of whether you offer B2B, B2C, services, or consumable.
So review the points above and strive to implement each one step-by-step.
While overnight success is a myth, you will eventually gain an advantage over the market and understand how to meet your customers’ needs on a deeper level, leading to greater profits and peace of mind.
Author Bio —
Ashley Wilson is a digital nomad and writer for hire, specialized in business and tech topics. In her self-care time, she practices yoga via Youtube.
She has been known to reference movies in casual conversation and enjoys trying out new food. You can get in touch with Ashley via Twitter.