Top tips on creating a compelling health and wellness proposition for your tech brand

Dale Carnegie famously said,
<blockquote>People don&#8217;t want to be sold to &#8212; they want to feel as if they&#8217;re buying.</blockquote>
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This quote is more true now than ever and it’s our job as marketeers to help provide an amazing buying experience that delights our potential new customers and sets them up on what we hope is a long and happy relationship with our business. We’re no longer selling to our customers, we’re empowering and educating them.
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At Beacon we are big advocates of Inbound marketing, a strategy which <a href="https://www.beaconagency.co.uk/post/how-a-shift-in-your-marketing-mindset-could-supercharge-your-strategy">advocates this way of viewing the world</a>. More than ever consumers are spending a lot of time online researching before making a purchase and we need to give them everything they need to buy from us before they’ve made that first contact.
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Inbound Marketing is not a new concept  with<a href="https://www.beaconagency.co.uk/post/5-reasons-we-love-hubspot-and-you-should-too"> HubSpot championing the phrase for a while</a>, however we’ve decided to go back to the fundamentals with our next blog series and look at how this type of marketing strategy could and should be used for new technology. Our opinion is that it&#8217;s the best strategy to see you through the post COVID-19 lockdown business landscape and will help you grow even when times are challenging. 
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This leaves us with one question to start with..
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<h4>What is Inbound Marketing?</h4>
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<blockquote>Inbound Marketing is the process of attracting the attention of prospects, via content creation, before they are even ready to buy; it&#8217;s one of the best and most cost-effective ways to convert strangers into customers and advocates of your business.
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To put it simply, Inbound marketing is a way of gaining the trust of would-be customers by giving them helpful advice and insights for free. By always providing them with value throughout the entire buying journey it cements the relationship early on and can significantly increase the likelihood of conversion. 
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How does this compare with Outbound strategy? Outbound marketing is the active pushing of your product or services on a wide audience, potentially without knowing much about them. Outbound might revolve around cold calling, trade shows, etc., and due to the change in buyers attitudes has become costly, with a much lower ROI than inbound marketing. That being said, it still has it&#8217;s place in your overall marketing strategy so we wouldn&#8217;t advise ignoring it completely. Later in the series we are going to dive into the differences a bit more and talk more around why it’s worth investing in a good Inbound strategy for long term success. 
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Inbound doesn’t only revitalise marketing but also creates a sound supporting structure for Sales and Support. Creating a process that is there to delight your potential customer from when they first touch your brand to when they are long term happy customers.  It helps us be more proactive to unknown customers, spend our time relevantly and knits the Sales and Marketing team together. 
<h4>Inbound is global</h4>
Don&#8217;t just take our word for the benefits of Inbound: it&#8217;s global! HubSpot conducted a  survey and found 74 % of marketeers across the global market were focusing on their Inbound strategies.
Join us along our Inbound Marketing journey where we&#8217;ll regularly be posting content all about the benefits of Inbound, how to hone your buyers persona&#8217;s and journeys and how to continually be improving  your Inbound strategy. If you&#8217;d like to get it into your email inbox every fortnight sign up to the Beacon Briefing <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1Ku9h3NpPQUeRBb6lRV8f4Q3igcr">here, </a>or <a href="mailto:hello@beaconagency.co.uk">get in touch with us</a> to have a chat!

What is Inbound Marketing? And how can it help your business grow?

We recently saw this article from AD Week talking about the <a href="https://www.adweek.com/partner-articles/3-ways-small-and-big-businesses-can-band-together-to-lift-up-communities/">3 ways small businesses can band together with big businesses to make a difference. </a> 
In it, they talk about Kepler’s Books and Magazines, a small business that has been around since 1955 and is a cultural hub for the neighbourhood. When COVID-19 shut down their local library earlier this year, Kepler’s sprang into action to loan over 500 books to library members at no extra cost.
We look at this as a fantastic way to build brand trust and loyalty. So simple, but also such a positive, meaningful and impactful idea.
A lot of businesses have been worried about how to thrive in the currently challenging environment and we&#8217;ve spoken before about how <a href="https://www.beaconagency.co.uk/post/what-will-the-smart-home-industry-look-like-in-a-post-covid19-world">COVID-19 has rapidly accelerated changes </a>that we were expecting to have a few years to implement. But how do we pivot in a way that&#8217;s not only good for our business but also make a difference and promote our values better?
Look to communities, find a problem, and fix it.
If you&#8217;re a larger business look around how you can partner with local initiatives and provide them with support and information. Spend time on researching and building out relevant case studies of the <a href="https://www.beaconagency.co.uk/post/smart-home-as-a-solution-the-key-to-attracting-more-customers">work you&#8217;ve done in this space.</a> Then think about how you can scale this into other communities. 
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If you&#8217;re a smaller business, reach out to larger ones to support your local initiatives; you have the benefit of local knowledge that can be of help to them. Create and offer up digital live events talking about this new area you&#8217;re looking to pivot your business into, or ask customers for their feedback on an idea. In a time where people are looking for a connection, you can build better and stronger relationships with your current and potential customers by giving them digital ways to interact with you.
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<a href="https://neconnected.co.uk/uk-consumers-call-for-more-opportunities-to-support-independent-local-businesses-during-the-covid-19-crisis/">With over 93% of UK consumers saying how important it is to support Local businesses post COVID</a> it&#8217;s never been more relevant to focus on your community support strategy. 
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<a href="http://beaconagency-co-uk-5899851.hs-sites.com/beaconbriefingsignup">According to our recently released report, </a>50% of respondents felt that smart home businesses could make a difference to the problems they were now facing due to COVID-19. The good news for our industry is there is lots that can be done out there to make a difference, and we already have the technology that we need. We just need to connect the dots and make a big push to build trust and <a href="https://www.beaconagency.co.uk/post/smart-home-for-beginners-educating-the-consumer-in-the-way-they-want-to-be-educated">educate communities on how to get the benefits.</a>
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While it is challenging out there economically and it can feel a little scary to try something new and focus purely on helping, we believe that not only will it make a massive difference to your business in the long run, it&#8217;s good for the soul too.
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Get in touch if you&#8217;d like to discuss pivoting your business, we&#8217;d be more than happy to share any advice we can give. You can use our chat functionality,<a href="http://hello@beaconagency.co.uk"> email us</a> or book a <a href="https://meetings.hubspot.com/jesshadleigh">video call here</a>
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Want to respond better to the effects COVID-19 has had on businesses? Think about how to lift up communities.

What is an actual smart home, and what does that mean to the end consumer? The actual possibilities are endless and it&#8217;s those possibilities that pose such a challenge to our industry.
A smart home is not about the devices we bring into our home but rather what all the devices can do together to solve a problem we have, to make our lives better or easier, or to improve how we interact with the world around us. To prevent consumers from seeing the many features that smart devices can deliver as simple gadgetry we need to think of our product range as more than technology in a box.
It is a solution for the home.
How do you create solutions and how do you educate the consumer on the value that the solution can bring to their lives.
<h3>Case Studies</h3>
Creating well researched, well thought out, and if possible real-life examples of practical use cases, enables you to position your devices in the solution space. Look to current or newly released regulations, news, or information, and craft a response where your products might help consumers tackle that issue. While it&#8217;s tempting to think of a million and one possible case studies for your devices (there is so much they can deliver) we suggest keeping your customers in mind, <a href="https://www.beaconagency.co.uk/post/creating-content-for-every-stage-of-the-buyers-journey">looking at your buyer personas, and creating case studies that apply to them first</a>. Starting in one area and positioning yourself as &#8220;The&#8221; brand to solve that problem is a much better investment of your marketing budget than to try and be all things to everyone.
<h3>Tailored Education</h3>
<a href="https://www.beaconagency.co.uk/post/smart-home-for-beginners-educating-the-consumer-in-the-way-they-want-to-be-educated">Create interactive learning experiences</a>, explainer videos, and fact sheets around the above case studies. For example say your solution enables users to become energy efficient and show potential customers how they can achieve this not only with your device but in other ways. Include how the devices will interact with other things in the home and how potential customers can use these interactions to their benefit.
<h4><img class="aligncenter wp-image-646" src="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/brooke-lark-W1B2LpQOBxA-unsplash-scaled-e1594806196210.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="400" /></h4>
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<h3>Blogs, Articles, and Reports</h3>
Once you have your buyer personas set, a solution that works for them and brings them true value, and case studies to back that up, you then need to provide them with information around that subject matter and not just about how your product can help. One of the biggest things we need to do when convincing potential customers to pick our brand is to build trust. The best way to do this is to feed their interest in a particular subject matter and provide them with additional value before they have even become a customer. It also a great way to showcase your expertise and give them confidence that you will be maintaining your offering to be best in class in that field.
<h3>Interactive Experiences</h3>
Creating interactive experiences, particularly in a post COVID-19 world, could be the key to connecting with your potential customers in a new way. Providing digital experiences customers can utilise at home can be a great way of showcasing how your product solution could work in situ. Employing AR is both an efficient and exciting way of letting customers try before they buy digitally, and we have seen <a href="https://www.theengineer.co.uk/covid-19-ar-augmented-reality-ptc/">that the use of AR by businesses has accelerated since the lockdown</a>.
You can also provide &#8216;gamified&#8217; digital interactions which are particularly effective at building engagement with your brand. This can be anything from app/browser-based games to competitions asking the user to post their results on social media. The sky&#8217;s the limit in terms of the mechanics you can use, what&#8217;s important is building an interesting, fun, and if possible a useful interactive experience with your customer.
By focusing on a few important problems for your customers, providing them with the resources to find your product as a way that solves that larger problem, and then bringing that to life in an interactive way that builds their trust, you can create a compelling solution that they can buy into. As an added bonus this encourages that customer to make repeat purchases from you: you&#8217;re no longer just a device in a box, you&#8217;re their gateway to an improved life.

Smart Home as a Solution: the key to attracting more customers

It&#8217;s a very subtle shift in mindset but it can make a massive change to the success of your marketing strategy. Stop focusing on selling your product or service, and instead focus on how to help your potential customer to buy. 
Now this doesn&#8217;t mean ignoring your results or not having targets to achieve. Linked up KPIs is important, particularly when aligned with other teams within your business, and for a help-to-buy strategy data is key to its success. You need to constantly reevaluate what you know about your key customers. 
It comes down to the modern buyer. A lot of the time when they&#8217;re in the <a href="https://www.beaconagency.co.uk/post/creating-content-for-every-stage-of-the-buyers-journey">awareness </a>and consideration stage of the buyer&#8217;s journey they&#8217;re a lot more unknown to us than before. With so much information out there, they are much more used to doing their research themselves before even getting in contact with a brand. 
There is also an education issue when it comes to smart home devices; a lot of consumers who identify that they have a particular problem or goal don&#8217;t necessarily connect that with a smart device being the best solution. 
By shifting our focus to helping these potential customers buy, we&#8217;re better placed to providing them with everything they need. Not only does it help them get the best solution but also gives them all the materials to get buy-in from family members or other stakeholders. 
<img class="aligncenter wp-image-639" src="https://api.beaconagency.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/clay-banks-Ox6SW103KtM-unsplash-scaled-e1594115211448.jpg" alt="Make the Buying Experience More Enjoyable " width="600" height="400" />
Being actively sold to is not something we associate with enjoyment, however buying a product is. Focusing on how you can make it more enjoyable for someone to buy your product or service means you&#8217;re making them happy and providing value, from the first touch of your brand to hopefully when they become a loyal repeating customer of yours.
It&#8217;s also important to think about providing the right solution, at the right time, to the right person. By working out your <a class="_e75a791d-denali-editor-page-rtfLink" href="https://www.beaconagency.co.uk/post/smart-home-for-beginners-educating-the-consumer-in-the-way-they-want-to-be-educated" target="_blank" rel="noopener">buyer personas</a> and their journey to being your best customers you&#8217;re ensuring that you&#8217;re working together in the right way. By not pushing your solutions without knowing it&#8217;s right for the customer, you&#8217;re ensuring success post-sale and are more likely to have a positive advocate of your brand that is interested in repeated custom.
We always approach everything with a &#8220;how can we help&#8221; philosophy and are keen to add value to whatever we do way before someone becomes a client of ours. If you&#8217;d like to talk through more about pivoting to a buyer&#8217;s mindset or are interested in further information, tips, or free tools to support your new journey<a href="hello@beaconagency.co.uk"> please get in touch. </a>

How a shift in your marketing mindset could supercharge your strategy

Security is a hurdle a lot of smart technology brands need to get over when convincing potential customers to purchase smart home products. Technology has advanced so rapidly in the last few years and in years to come we can expect to take the same rapid trajectory. However many homes are lagging way behind on the education they need to have a safe, happy, and secure, smarter home. In fact, the likelihood is that a lot of homes of the future will need to operate their network like a small business, particularly if a lot of us are going to be working from home more.
But who&#8217;s job is it to educate the consumer on how to be more secure, and isn&#8217;t talking about security with a consumer opening a can of worms? Certainly, it is a topic that needs to be handled with care but taking responsibility for educating potential consumers on the best ways to secure their homes may give your brand the added trust factor over another if you do it in a positive and informative way. 
Most of the recent high profile hacks in our industry were down to consumers having poor passwords on their routers. However, the presiding impression for consumers is that Smart Home isn&#8217;t safe. By taking control of that messaging we believe you can gain trust with consumers and improve their overall experience with Smart Home. 
How do we do this positively? Well there are a few options
<h4>Free Access to Learning Portals- Before Purchase</h4>
Create interactive learning modules and place them on your websites. Keep them short but talk customers through the common tips and tricks that can ensure they have a more secure home, regardless of if they buy your product or not. You can use <a href="https://www.beaconagency.co.uk/video-gallery">videos</a>, small quizzes, or downloadable cheat sheets. By making it fun, engaging, and in particular free before purchase, you&#8217;re just providing value to consumers who are worried about security and maybe looking for information around your product to allay their fears.
You could also offer this content to retail partners to display in stores as an interactive experience for customers.
<h4>Make it part of your App</h4>
Add security suggestions as part of the install process and host it in your app. Just make it another part of the installation process that ensures customers are informed and take the right steps from the start.
<h4>Create educational content around it</h4>
By making it a regular part of your updates or online content and talking about home data security in a wider context you provide more value to the consumer. Making it less about how they can make smart products secure and more about making their home secure.
<h4>Partner with security products to offer customer freebies</h4>
From firewall and antivirus to secure password managers, you can point your customers in the direction of tag-on products that could improve their experience with your products, protect your brand from negative reviews, and become a trusted business in the smart home space. A lot of these products will at the very minimum offer a level of protection but more importantly encourage the user to follow better security etiquette. By offering it as free trials or versions of security products you&#8217;re offering them extra value in addition to the product or service you provide. 
Security can seem like a <a href="https://www.beaconagency.co.uk/post/why-privacy-by-design-could-unlock-the-smart-home-market">scary topic to broach</a> with consumers and yes we would recommend that it&#8217;s approached in a thorough and well-researched way. However, by looking at how we can apply value to a customer by offering tools to help them be more secure, we&#8217;re taking responsibility and bringing the customer along with us on the innovation ride. 
We&#8217;d love to hear what you think about Smart security, you can get in touch with us on chat or <a href="hello@beaconagency.co.uk">email us.</a>
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Top tips on creating a compelling health and wellness proposition for your tech brand

What is Inbound Marketing? And how can it help your business grow?

Want to respond better to the effects COVID-19 has had on businesses? Think about how to lift up communities.

Smart Home as a Solution: the key to attracting more customers

How a shift in your marketing mindset could supercharge your strategy

How to Educate on Security for Smart Homes in a positive way