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Take a look at the Google Trend data below and you will see there’s been a meteoric rise in public searches around “IoT” and “Internet of Things” since mid-2013. Given this, I thought I’d take a deeper look into the who, what and where of the opportunity. And, perhaps more importantly, how marketers like you in the IoT space can use data to funnel more (and stickier) website clicks and qualified leads in the door.

 

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Google Trends data on “IoT” and “Internet of Things”

One interesting observation is that the majority of people are still searching for “what is IoT.” It appears that despite the hype, people still don’t quite understand exactly what the term encompasses. That means there is education to be done and an opportunity for your company to create content that dissects the landscape, provides best practices and helps customers understand its implications for business. This insight is also echoed in our recent post looking at media coverage trends.

Reconcile Search with Company Messaging

To give an example, looking at Google Trend data again, there are a number of high-volume search terms identified including “machine to machine,” “Internet of Things – Industry,” “IoT security,” “hospitals”and “IoT devices.” Putting the pieces together, you can begin to see a picture that shows secure IoT applications for the healthcare industry are “hot” right now.

Similarly, knowing that a large volume of individuals are searching for other terms, such as “raspberry pi,” for example, can be an important consideration for your messaging if that’s an area of significance for your company or the story you want to tell the market. The deeper you dig into popular search terms, the more you can understand the needs and demographics of your potential buyers and better target your marketing language and activities.

Spend Marketing Resources Wisely

Search data is also critical for helping you refine your content marketing approach and gain an edge versus competitors. For example, keywords such as “IoT” have an high organic search difficulty (about 85%) and a $38 CPC cost, according to SEMrush. That means it’s in high demand by others and you have to be smart about your paid and unpaid strategies. Is it worth paying for a targeted ad, or will competitors with deep pockets outspend per keyword? Are you better served focusing your efforts on fixing web and content issues that are impacting your organic search results? These are all questions that can be guided by search data and various other web analytics tools. And don’t forget to set up your site’s own Google Analytics. The more intel you can gather about your visitors, their navigation behaviors, site referrers and more, the better you can hone and prioritize your efforts.

Focus on the Right Analytics for You

The last thing you want to do is “fly blind” when it comes to your marketing campaigns. So, as you embark on your marketing journey, take a deeper look under the data hood to see what web analytics insights you can glean to make your campaign more focused, relevant and powerful for those you’re looking to reach. According to ITDatabase, there was upward of 32K articles written about IoT in the last year, so there’s room for your story – if you learn how to identify the trends and adjust your online strategies to rise above the chatter.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your data or not sure where to start, feel free to reach out to me at chadwick@merrittgroup. For more on how to gain marketing momentum in the IoT market, check out our eBook on 7 Marketing Strategies for Cutting Through the IoT Noise.

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