Consider for a moment how famous celebrities like the Kardashians obtained their success. They promoted themselves as a brand on social sites like Instagram. The social media giant has over a billion subscribers. This has propelled them to mega stardom. They used effective Marketing strategies and paired it with social media. A digital platform to be exact. Most people understand the term “digital marketing,” to mean marketing efforts on social media accounts only.

However, digital marketing can be done anywhere on the Net. Here’s a quick example. When you search on Google for something, it gives you a list of results. At the very top of that list are sponsored advertisements that align with what you were searching for. They’re called Google Adwords. Digital marketing can be a beast if you use it right. It’s one of the most effective types of marketing, and it yields the highest ROI. Visit digitalspotlight.com.au for more information.

In 2014, investment companies sent their subscribers a host of emails about the latest investment craze! It was IoT! Nobody paid attention. The concept was too foreign to grasp for most people. The hype was around sensors. Investment companies like The Motley Fool predicted that if you invested in the companies that produced the sensors that would capture data, you’d be part of the trillion-dollar industry by the mid-2020s. Their predictions were spot on!

The Marriage of IoT and Digital Marketing

Fast forward to the present, and we’re at the wedding reception of IoT and digital marketing. IoT is transforming the landscape of various industries, and one of those industries is digital marketing. The Motley Fool stated that IoT needed to start by capturing data about anything and everything. It could do this by placing sensors on all devices, roads, cars, and homes. Just about anything, really. At the time, humans were the only ones inputting data onto the Net. For IoT to be effective, large-scale data would have to be uploaded onto the Net by connected devices. The company predicted that by the time 2024 rolled around, over a billion devices would be connected. Again, they were spot on.

Today, many appliances and other devices are fitted with sensors and are connected to the Net. These devices automatically capture data about their users. For example, health watches that capture how many steps a user takes in a day. How often the user visits the gym and how serious users are about fitness. This data can be used to customize marketing efforts for the user.

Let’s say, for example, digital marketers got their hands on this type of data. They could use it to market promotions to the person wearing the device through their device, email, or social media pages. And that’s what they are doing. Now that’s what you call a powerful marketing strategy! Or a targeted marketing strategy. But that’s not all! Imagine your refrigerator could communicate with the local grocery store and order milk if you run low. It could set the order to deliver it to your work or home while you are home.

Keep in mind, that if all devices were capturing data and storing it on the Net, there would be information overload. For IoT to work, it would need to work through all that data and ensure the relevant data got to the appropriate party at the right time. Let’s look at that milk example again. Imagine a billion refrigerators all capturing data about their owners on the Net. Imagine it capturing user information such as milk preference, milk usage, and purchasing frequency. The data would need to be directed to the local supermarkets running specials on milk. The refrigerator would need to be set to communicate with those stores only. Thanks to intuitive programs and machine learning, IoT devices can capture data and improve the information it stores and shares.

Concerns about IoT

One of the biggest concerns about IoT and the transfer of information is that sensitive data can be accessed or shared over the Internet. It would open an entire world of possibilities for hackers and thieves to steal and use user data. To fight this scourge, developers must develop security measures faster than IoT can progress. The biggest concern right now is that it isn’t happening. The opposite is happening. IoT devices and software are developing at a staggering rate, while security measures can’t keep up.

All concerns about IoT revolve around the fact that hackers can access sensitive data from various sources. One example is file systems that don’t get updated frequently enough. While the idea of IoT and what it can do is brilliant, the question remains: Are we ready for this new wave of technology? Will we control it, or will it control us?

And, how many people want that much of their personal information to be captured and saved on the Net? If managed right, it could give us a spectacular future. If mismanaged, it could lead to potential disaster.

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