Selling IoT is complex because it includes so many stakeholders. From operations to business executives, each stakeholder needs to understand how an IoT investment impacts their department or job function. IoT is quite transformational for companies, and there are individual value points and pain points that an IoT provider needs to address for each buyer.
The most successful IoT providers market aggressively to their target buyers. They use a combination of advertising, content marketing, email nurturing, and landing pages. Landing pages provide value points, and the prospect converts for a specific reason. For example, the prospect may want to receive a product demo, have an exploratory call, receive a custom quote, or read educational materials.
Optimizing landing pages is one IoT marketing strategy to improve the rate of conversion. You'll close more deals and earn greater buy-in from stakeholders if you aim to be an educator with your landing pages, so prospects understand the value of IoT. Here are four "quick wins" for your IoT landing page.
1. Identify the IoT buyer clearly
On an IoT landing page, never assume that the reader on the page is your exact target market. Strong language is mutually identifying. So instead of saying "You" or "Your business," be more specific. For example, "Are you an IoT startup or a software company?" Identify the right buyers in your headlines and paragraph text and the questions you ask on your conversion form. To gather data for lead generation, ask for mandatory job titles or functions. In an advanced strategy, you can create unique landing pages for different buyers, with more tailored messaging and questions.
Ask a qualifying question to help you tailor your sales outreach, such as naming a pain point or an operational goal. Use preset questions and answers to measure and quantify your lead pool, and report comprehensively if your leads are the right fit for your IoT solution.
Read more: Internet of Things Market Analysis: 20+ Statistics on the IoT Opportunity
2. Be buyer-centric, not autobiographical
Any description of your IoT service shouldn't be autobiographical. Web-users only have a fraction of time to make a judgment call on your value. Go beyond self-describing terms like "innovative," "simple," or "experienced." Instead, say something substantive of tangible value. What will you help buyers achieve? Don't just list your services — say something profound. When you do speak to services, they should be in the buyers' perspective — "become more nimble," "increase year-over-year efficiency by 200%," "get better data for safer operations," etc.
There are pain points unique to your buyers' size of business and manner of operations, so speak to those intricacies. Don't create filler content: If the buyer you've identified already knows what IoT is, get straight to value and quit explaining what they already know. Better content includes answering questions such as: How does this reduce cost? How does it reduce cost at scale? Speak to your sales team to identify concerns, pain points, or differentiators.
Read more: The Importance of Defining a Value Proposition for IoT
3. Be visually descriptive
Visually, add more descriptive and eye-catching subheadings. Use bolding, italics, and different font sizes to convey important information quickly. Consider what falls "above the fold" in your web design — everything critical should be there, including your key search term. And consider replacing any unhelpful, bland stock photos with product mockups, videos, or information graphics that add meaning.
Always include a clear next step or a call-to-action. Avoid competing buttons and links and try to streamline the user experience. What is the next step, specifically? Don't use a generic CTA like "Get started" or "Submit form," which are extremely unhelpful. Your conversion offer should be obvious: Will sales reach out? Will I watch a video? Download a solution sheet? Your CTA might be "Get the eBook!" or "Download your free IoT solutions sheet." Both are more exciting and relevant than "Submit."
At all costs, avoid generic Contact Us landing pages, which do not identify any particular buyer needs and do not compel or provide any value.
To improve conversion rates, add realistic texture on your landing pages such as:
- Outcome metrics
- Unique IoT methods
- Information graphics
- Proof points
- Stats
- Quotes and testimonials
A few sentences won't do the trick to be genuinely compelling. So liberally include the above ideas to build resonance and trust.
4. Run simple, iterative tests
Run simple, iterative tests on landing pages to understand how they're working. Immediately remove long sentences and reduce them to a shorter sentence structure that says more. For example, "Scale your enterprise with expertise from a trusted business partner" could become "Scale your small enterprise." Your changes don't need to be perfect; create one small evolutionary leap at a time. Other ideas could be to develop short infographics, ordered lists, and concise sentences. Perhaps add a video or a photo of your IoT solution/software in action.
If possible, create an entirely new version of your landing page to A/B test against the original. Define a time-based test with a clear start and end date. Be iterative, and remove or add elements to see if you can drive a clear impact. Try things, observe the results, and look at the data. For example, spend a few days with a different call-to-action and then see how your conversion analytics changes. Use those learnings on other pages.
Reach out to developers to update your layout structure so a landing page can be a testable space. Set up user-friendly WYSIWYG editors and rich-text editing boxes wherever possible. Marketers should be able to make updates to text, headlines, forms, videos, and font styling to make essential elements "pop" without consulting a developer. Otherwise, your test period will take too long to run through development.
Now take one last look at your landing pages: Are you documenting IoT market forces, your specialization within the IoT stack, and/or unique methodology? Are you descriptive or just fluffy? Strip out any hyperbole, identify your buyer clearly, and simplify. Then test in the market to see how language changes make an impact.
In Conclusion
Your landing page is launched and optimized to drive value. Test frequently and measure your analytics. Create a constant stream of blog posts related to landing page keywords. For example, if "agriculture sensors" or "retail technology" is your keyword target, create blog posts around this topic and link back to your landing page. New content boosts SEO, adds context, shows thought leadership, and makes another entry point to that conversion funnel.
With time and tests, you'll have a high-performing set of landing pages that convert and educate IoT buyers into leads and sales.
Image source: Pixabay
