Digital twin technology can be an incredible boon to any online marketer. You may have heard of the term before, but you might not be sure what the technology entails or how you can use it to your marketing benefit.
So, what exactly is a digital twin? It's essentially a near-real-time replica of an item or a person's online entity. This is data that can be applied to a digital product profile so you can monitor how your customers choose, use and accept (or reject) your product as you update or tweak it to better meet their needs.
Quite simply, digital twin technology can provide a wealth of crucial info that can help you boost your sales, anticipate trends and determine consumer preferences, so you can adjust your approach to those adjust your approach to serve those preferences.
Here's what you need to know about the technology and how to utilize it.
According to data from Forbes, digital twin technology employs sensors to collect info about a physical item. That info encompasses key facts, including what is happening with the item in real-time and how it works. Then, the components that use these sensors are hooked up to a cloud-based analytical system to process the info. The info is then analyzed for business applications and other crucial contexts.
Digital twin technology is exploding in terms of its benefits for marketing. A study from Grand View Research projects that the digital twin marketing dollar is expected to hit $26.07 billion by 2025. You can create a digital twin of nearly anything and use it for study, innovation or to develop changes or improvements to that twin.
For instance, creating a digital twin of the software you sell means you can be as creative intellectually and technically as you wish when it comes to testing changes. You can truly gauge, without guesstimating, how the new ideas you're developing will appear and function in the real world. It's as hands-on as virtual reality gets.
How to use digital twin technology to your marketing advantage
Per Challenge Advisory, because a digital twin is an exact copy of the product you're selling, you can use a twin as a precise template for the entire life of that product.
For example, as you monitor your product's evolution to usage, you can immediately recognize what aspects of the product are wasteful and quickly cut the fat so the product is less expensive to produce. This, in turn, makes the time needed for processing the product on a large-scale basis shorter.
This is especially key if you are manufacturing mass-market packaged goods. Then, you can also track your product through its stages of development, at the factory stage, and as it moves through the supply chain.
Your managers can instantly have an accurate bird’s-eye view of your product's progress both physically and from a technologically. Lastly, retailers receiving your product to sell it can tap into the same digital twin technology you use for data on product availability and pricing, immediately passing that info on to the consumers who buy what you've got to sell.
Digital twin technology can also give you a "customer replica," an avatar, if you will, of your consumer. Using the technology to assemble a twin from the data your customers provide online to you — while scrupulously respecting and protecting their privacy — gives you perfect insight into their desires, needs and requirements when it comes to product features and what they want your product to do for them specifically.
Some of the immediate marketing advantages a digital twin has when it comes to consumer preference include:
- tracking your customers' buying histories;
- tracking their specific preferences for sizing and color choice;
- tracking sales dips when a customer abandons a product for your competing brand, and finding out why they abandoned it; and
- helping your staff do a better and more efficient job in identifying and responding to consumer complaints and suggestions.
All of this is just the tip of the iceberg! With digital twin technology, if you can dream it, you can do it. A digital twin is the ultimate editing tool — the technology is available at a wide variety of price points and innovative application specifics to fit your needs. Let your imagination lead your innovation — and watch your sales soar!
