When you’re a technology company marketing a B2B product or service it brings up specific challenges. You’re not selling a commodity like toothpaste, nor a gift to make someone happy. Marketing for technology companies isn’t like consumer marketing at ALL.
You’re selling business efficiency, productivity, value. These are big and important things, not nice to haves.
You need to communicate trust, efficacy, proof and (of course) that wildly overused word: innovation.
The problem is: your market is big. It’s crowded. It’s incredibly noisy. If you don’t market well, standing out from the crowd is a huge headache.
We’ve been marketing for technology companies and innovators for almost 20 years, helping firms demonstrate why their solutions work, helping them stand out from competitors, and supporting them to accelerate growth. In this post we’ll walk you through just why tech marketing needs a distinct approach.
What makes marketing for technology companies distinct from other marketing?
1. The buyer is driven by need.
Technology buyers, especially in B2B, are typically well-informed, risk-averse and focused on functional, business and productivity outcomes. They are not seeking something to make them feel better, look better or tick a box, but seeking the answer to a business problem. They need assurance, certainty and proof of your capability. However, even the most analytical buyer isn’t emotionless and they need to feel confident. Business buyers expect evidence, not just claims – whether that’s from a demo, a benchmark, or a case study.
Clarity wins over claims when you’re marketing technology. You need crisp, open, value-driven communication, backup for every single thing you say and to show true understanding of your buyer’s world and problems. There’s no room for vapourware any more.
2. It’s not just one buyer.
Selling to one individual buyer is only viable in very small businesses. As your target customers grow, they evolve buying committees rapidly. Buying committees are where more than one person, with different views and drivers, get involved – and there’s plenty of expert analysis on how they think, act and make decisions. Forrester suggests that on average 13 people are now involved in buying decisions with 89% of purchases now involving two mor more departments. You need to recognise that each decision contributor has different priorities and show value from every perspective. That often requires role-specific content for IT, leadership and finance. Your marketing team can help create content to help your contacts ‘sell’ the idea internally too.
Marketing for technology companies needs a deep appreciation of technology buying dynamics and strategies that appeal across such groups. Succeeding means telling not just one story, but many stories.
3. The product is complex.
Your technology product or solution may solve a business process, reduce cost or enable new capability but it is also always a complex offer enabled by digital technology. Your messaging must bridge technical credibility and business value. Plus, you must be prepared to unpack how it all works, without alienating non-technical decision-makers while you impress the technical ones. Explaining the core benefit can also be a challenge when there are multiple layers of value – simplified, prioritised messages are a must. You might need to explain how the product fits different technology environments and interacts with other systems.
Your buyer doesn’t need to understand the technical complexities to believe you understand them and their needs. When you simplify the story, you release the power of the product. A tech marketer’s job is often about simply making it all relatable – and that’s about storytelling, not spec sheets.
4. Purchase cycles can be looooooooong.
Technology product marketing in B2B is a long game, because so are the sales cycles. For anything except simple single licence sales, inputs from multiple stakeholders slow the process and you may be waiting for budget cycles or jumping through some purchasing hoops too. The higher the investment, the greater the risk – so people will take time validating your ROI, technical compatibility, and long term reliability before committing.
Marketing your technology company and product through long sales cycles means committing to communications, creating content strategically, and sustaining your interest in showing each prospect that their business matters.
5. Differentiation is hard.
Technology brands often promise very similar things. Whether that is efficiency, innovation or ‘seamless integration,’ marketing for your technology company absolutely must go further. Avoid the buzzwords and jargon because B2B buyers will tune it out. Crystal clear language and mindful messages are critical to stop distinctions becoming blurred. Competing products and solutions can also have very similar functionality so relying on that isn’t enough either – differentiation depends on more than specs.
Standing out requires real customer stories, outcome evidence and building trust and confidence with buyers at every single touchpoint. As our Remedy motto puts it: “Words aren’t enough. Proof is everything.”
If you’re ready to transform the marketing for your own technology business, we can help. Remedy has almost 20 years’ of experience translating complex technology tales into meaningful, relatable stories that build trust and generate traction – check out our marketing for technology services. Get in touch to see how we can help you prove your value.
