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Now that I’ve been a lot more active in the marketing field and have some measurable experience under my belt, I couldn’t help but notice the marketing strategy of tech companies. They seem to have marketing/PR campaigns that are all similar to each other. Normally, this would not be a problem seeing that usually whenever multiple companies copy each other, the strategy must be working. However, I want to be the first to say that tech companies need to completely overhaul their marketing strategy. Currently, tech companies are content to market through the use of online seminars, conference appearances, and white papers, among other strategies.

Unfortunately, these strategies are only great when it comes to marketing to people within the company, marketing to others in the industry, or marketing to other competitors. What makes this problem even more vexing is the fact that when it comes to marketing, an individual or company can tell if their strategies are effective pretty instantaneously. The best indicator of success or failure is lead generation and an increased customer base. What many tech companies fail to accomplish in their marketing campaigns is taking the time to be honest with themselves and see how visible they truly are. Marketing success cannot be determined by the amount of YouTube video hits or the amount of people that tuned in to a web-based seminar. Tech companies should take the route of their counterparts in retail. In other words, they should focus on increasing their visibility and popularity. To be quite honest, it doesn’t matter how good the quality of the product is if the people you are trying to reach don’t know about it or are completely bored out of their mind in regards to learning about the product.

There is hope though. Tech marketing can be saved. Even better, the tech industry can achieve the level of popularity that consumer goods have enjoyed. Once the tech industry decides to venture out of their comfort zone, they can achieve a level of success that has never been attained before. The first step technology companies have to take to improve their marketing campaigns is to simply make their products more popular. Technology is always around us and is now an essential to people’s livelihoods. With technology being such an essential aspect of life, why are top technology companies not taking the initiative to prove why their products are essential? That is where the problem lies. I will use the example of cloud computing. Cloud computing has been around for nearly a decade, yet it was strictly used primarily for business-to-business transactions. It should be noted that cloud computing did not pick up in popularity and companies did not experience success until Microsoft’s widely viewed “To the Cloud” campaign. After that pivotal commercial, cloud computing became a form of technology that was embraced by mainstream consumers. Now even Apple is in the process of moving most of their transactions to a cloud based system named iCloud. Cloud computing is only one of many examples of why tech marketing needs to present itself to a broader customer base. Yes, when technology firms market to businesses, they have a better chance of getting the “big catch”. But, the question we should really ask as marketing professionals is what is more important, the occasional and often rare “big catch”, or a larger, ever-growing, and more sustainable customer base that lies in the average consumer? Please feel free to share your thoughts.

@rich-brooks

I do agree that while these companies have not been small businesses in a while, one aspect of the marketing strategy that small tech companies can emulate is the way they bring in customers. For example, when Apple markets a product, they don’t advertise all of the exceptional components that are present in Apple products. Instead they appeal to how it looks and what it can help you do. Conversely, many small tech businesses tend to focus their advertising primarily on the practicality of their product. There is nothing wrong with this approach. However, it is my personal belief that if the quality of your product is already good, you want to bring customers in through an appeal as to why they need it and/or how “cool” it is

A good webinar or online video is a good tool to generate leads. However, it should not be a company’s primary method of attracting customers. I personally believe it should be a tiered process in which a company should focus on low budget advertising methods to generate interest in the product, then webinars and online videos would build on the initial interest by appealing to the practical side of a customer.

@sgsrecording

I feel your idea has potential, both for you and other companies. Of course, your comic needs to appeal to the same type of people that would be interested in your app.

It seems like some very clever, engaging advertising.

Maybe you could create comics for other companies and tell their story in your app (or in other apps you create.)