Marketing is many things, but never boring. Just when you think you have it nailed – something comes out of nowhere and changes the rules. Just consider Social Media and the impact that has had on the way we interact with our customers. When looking at the IT Channel specifically, one of the biggest changes in recent years is who is shaping the IT strategy in a company.
IT Marketing used to be simple(r). When deciding who to wow with our marketing campaigns, we would consider vertical, company size, no of seats, geography etc. But there was always one constant in the targeting matrix – the IT Decision Maker. Mr or Ms ITDM ideally with Budget Authority was our clear, no 1 target.
Not any longer – as times and technology has changed, so have the people whose attention we need to grab, interest we need to trigger. Of course you still need to engage with the ITDM, but increasingly frequently they are no longer your first target.
Who to target? Technology has come out of the server room. With the growth of IOE/IOT , the business benefits of technology resonate across the boardroom. For example a collaboration strategy can interest finance because of the time and money saved on international travel for their execs. For HR it could mean that they keep their key staff happy as they offer a better work/life balance. For the CEO it can mean that he has face to face access to his key team members instantaneously wherever they are in the World. Sometimes a key benefit will fit across an entire vertical, or company type, so once you have done your research you can build a campaign that will grab the interest of your target.
How do I find them? So you’ve spent years building up your company database, to be told you now need to target a whole different group of people. So don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and head off to spend your hard-earned cash with a data supplier. Examine your current database – you can often be surprised just how many different contacts are listed there, ignored as they are not marked as the no 1 sales contact. If you still have holes, then turn to your sales team. The majority of your sales peoples will have extensive contacts within their accounts which they have not input on your CRM system, or they will be able to use their relationships to find this out. Incentive programs to motivate your sales team to do some investigative work on their accounts and broaden the contact data can be a quick and effective way to achieve this – with the added benefits that the information will be accurate and up to date. If you have exhausted these avenues, and still do not feel you have the right data, then the data supplier is your next logical step. But make sure you ask them to compare your data to their records, and only pay for data you do not already have. Many people waste money buying off the shelf lists, only to discover they already had a significant proportion of the data supplied.
Tailor your message: So you have decided on your targets, have the data ready – now all you need is to get the message right! Remember these people are interested in the business benefits your solution can offer them, not how the solution works. Keep the techy speak for the ITDM, and remember you are speaking to humans! Focus on the challenges you know they face, and the solution you can supply. A good idea is to run a two tier campaign, keeping your ITDM contacts updated, so that when the CxO calls them upstairs to discuss this interesting new solution they have heard about, your ITDM is fully briefed, and grateful to you for keeping them up to date.
Although this can seem challenging, in the end we are doing what we have always done – taking the good news of the latest technological breakthroughs to our customers, and using our expertise to help them address their business challenges.
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