How can augmented reality increase revenue, accelerate sales cycles, and energize customer engagement? Companies around the world are watching it accelerate time-to-market, improve product ROI, and enhance customer loyalty. IDC has identified an AR market value of over $20B in 2019, reaching as high as $120B by 2022—and that’s excluding consumer spending on AR. Also, Global Market Insights has similar projections, predicting the lion’s share of AR investment to be driven by industrial usage; with industrial spending on AR more than double any other sector by 2024.
Augmented reality offers a revolutionary way to discover, create and experience products. AR overlays physical assets with digital information—including schematics, instructions, annotations, and performance/condition status. While augmented reality offers benefits across the value chain, there are specific applications of AR that are particularly well suited for driving marketing and sales activities. Depending on your organization and whether it’s modeled towards business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), there are countless compelling benefits to AR.
A direct benefit for B2B is that AR models are significantly easier to fabricate, transport, and customize than an asset or physical model. In these settings, marketing or sales associates are involved in the customization and delivery of AR experiences to potential customers.
AR also cuts through crowded markets with brand and product differentiation – offering greater customer engagement throughout the buying process. AR experiences are often tailored to be self-guided by the customer – providing a range of customization and features unavailable via traditional media. Key value drivers for consumers include personalizing their own product experiences, viewing them in a real-life context, and exciting new virtual accessories.
Augmented reality has also been proven to eliminate marketing and sales constraints. Industrial product sellers can face inherent constraints due to the fact their products are likely too large, heavy, or expensive to bring to trade shows, customer facilities, etc. By using realistic, customizable digital counterparts, you can easily engage prospects with interactive product demonstrations at physical events, provide unlimited customization options, configure products to contextually fit at a customer location, and more.
With the right AR authoring platform, companies can fabricate unlimited “digital twins” using existing product data. Customers can experience these digital twins via wearable headsets, mobile devices, and more. The results are extremely immersive, without the spatial or cost restraints of physical product demonstrations. Using AR, companies can scale up marketing efforts and accelerate the resulting sales pipeline. Customization is quick and efficient. Customers can confidently visualize and preview customizable products without the need for fabrication before purchase.