Does the marketing of a technology update?
Some data from the latest Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007-08 by MarketingSherpa, which focused on the B2B market of hardware, software and technology services in the U.S., give much food for thought:
* While technology companies spend on marketing something less than 4% of their income (compared to over 11% spent on sales), the marketing department is responsible for providing 60% of new business leads.
* What most worries the marketing department is, first, get to the growing number of people involved in purchasing processes, and second, the competition in generating leads through multiple means.
* This concern arises from the tendency to school purchasing decisions in the supply of more than $ 25,000 the number of participants in the committee purchases range from 6.8 in enterprises with up to 500 employees to over 21 companies 1000.
* Customers are more owners of the process of application: 80% of decision makers at client companies Cree that it was they who found the supplier, compared with 20% who believed that he was the supplier who found them. For the remainder of participants (contributors) in the purchasing process, these percentages are respectively 75% and 25%.
We Found Them
* With regard to sources of information used by clients when they are in the early stages of their research process on technology products, Google (not other browsers) appears first, followed by the order of the websites of suppliers, online publications, directories and online communities of IT buyers and users.
And all this in an increasingly complex scenario in which
* In addition to more traditional means, a typical campaign now includes listings in search engines, vertical search engines in appearance, blogs, podcasts, feeds, search engine optimization, content syndication, viral marketing, websites, communities and social networks, etc. .
* Not enough to generate leads, but the marketing department should conduct all activities in contact with the prospect until he is ready for transfer to sales: skilled, trained in the products we offer, nurturing, and so on.
This not only confirmed the tremendous influence that the Internet is having in the process of buying and marketing and in the supplier / customer, with some buyers who take the initiative and begin your search for information in the Google box and suppliers for it is essential to participate in the conversation with clients (both individually and collectively) through the new online media. In this scenario it is not surprising that technology marketing professionals are coming to conclusions as the following (listed in the report from MarketingSherpa).
In order to reach more members of the (increasingly lengthy) committees purchases, suppliers have to expand its exploration activities within each client company. Evangelistic campaigns and viral marketing to a limited account can be extremely useful tactic.
Where are the buyers who are the suppliers, the key to marketing is to put the company where the prospects are going to look for when they have a problem to be solved. This means that the following tactics become critical:
* Syndication whitepapers on sites that use when prospects are searching for information.
* Optimization of the website and search engine marketing fee, so that prospects will find it easily.
* Public relations (including technical articles, conferences, blogs, awards ...), to appear in the media that the prospects consulted.
* Advertising for consistent brand visibility.
* Campaigns of satisfaction of current customers, to encourage referense by the word of mouth.
For some, this new state of affairs means that marketing techniques based on the interruption no longer work (and that we must focus on techniques based care), the supplier must make the role of the hunter to become the dam of buyers who seek information.
Perhaps it is an exaggerated view, given the good results according to the report from MarketingSherpa continued to be a direct marketing techniques (including the cold-calling) well-designed and executed. But no doubt the debate will continue.
Related posts: