Deciding on Your IT Marketing Strategy
Having a proper plan in place is essential if you are going to take your IT or tech company’s marketing department from costing money to making money. Strategy is defined by having a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a specific objective. In a marketing context, this should include setting goals, and agreeing on a plan with the sales team on how the marketing division will help them to reach their revenue objectives. Having committee meetings between marketing and sales will ensure that this culture is adopted within the company. It is only through this marriage of the two most crucial segments of business that true optimization of marketing efforts can be achieved.
Tailor the Strategy to Include your Goals
It is also critical to recognize that the strategy needs to coincide with an organization’s specific goals in order to be effective. These goals, will of course, vary widely from one business to the next. One very common marketing objective for IT or tech related businesses is to increase overall sales, but this is often expanded to include other goals, such as establishing better brand awareness, or to position oneself as a subject matter expert in a particular market. By defining these marketing targets more clearly, you can easily integrate them into your overall strategy.
Dealing With Informed Buyers
Buyers today want to complete 70 percent of their transaction before they even speak to a sales representative. In other words, they want to complete all of their preliminary research, and take full advantage of all the available information before they talk to a salesperson. Think about the time you purchased your last vehicle: you likely went into the dealer knowing all of the relevant information provided by the manufacturer. You didn’t just stroll into the dealership expecting the sales rep to fill you in on the details and educate you about the products. You were already something of an expert because you had researched to some extent – likely on the Internet – beforehand. Maybe you read consumer reports or even watched some videos online. This is exactly what you can expect buyers in your market to be doing today. This fundamental change in the way that we buy is shifting the manner in which we generate our revenue.