So, You Want to Be a Better Marketer...

2015 is a week away.

I find the holidays a good time to inhale, and more importantly to exhale. The rhythm of work, and of life, holds us in sway during the year with numerous activities setting the beat of the business. This often dictates the rhythm of our personal lives. As many of my clients exhale, and look forward to the new year, many technology firms I work with are clamoring to start building a marketing plan. For many, it is their fourth or fifth try. They start and stop each year. They stub their toes easily. This week, I had three of these meetings. I smile as the teams share their plans with me. They have no connection to understanding why they were not successful last year.

I find that marketing in small technology companies is not well-understood. The product is often developed by a technology team, and the initial push is a product sell. The founder wants to talk about their cool widget.They cannot help themselves. The initial marketing message is focused on product superiority. As they do this, most technology vendors don't realize why they're not effective. Most are not well-versed in these five points:

1) Make the Message Compelling for the Buyer. Line-of-business buyers do not understand a product-based message. They resonate with a message that is about them, not about the company selling the product. The most successful marketing approaches build a message that is about the value of the product for the buyer. So, while I find that most entrepreneurs want to talk about their widgets, the buyer wants to know the value of the product for them. An effective message is simple and easy to understand: requiring no explanation. This is surprisingly hard for a technologist.

2) Trust. Many business buyers have been burned in the past, and there is a general lack of trust of technology providers. As a result, it is important for the leader of a technology company to realize that it takes a village.The marketing plan should build an influencer map and actively educate the constituents that surround the buyer. An influence map includes thought leaders from consulting, press, and analysts. If successful, marketing plans should lift the power of the company's brand with the village. Technology firms need third-party validation.

3) Be Clear on the Buyer. I often find that vendors will get caught up in tactics without clarity on the buyer. It is ironic that many companies will chase leads without getting clear on who they are selling to. With that said, let's recognize that what sounds simple isn't. Organizations are complex, and most technology decisions are made by a group of people, not a single individual (this defines a complex sale). Many times, companies are not clear on how the team will make a final decision.

This work to get clear on the buyer is termed buyer persona. In the building of buyer personas, marketers 'grok' the buyer--this is a focused effort to understand where they go, what they read, and who influences them. I find it useful to build buyer personas annually. The process drives organizational alignment. Nine times out of ten, at the end of this activity, I find companies have invested in the wrong tactics. It is sad for me to see companies investing in tactics that are not aligned with the buyer.

4) Don't Confuse the Urgent and the Important. Sales is about the urgent. Marketing is about the important. While sales is focused on one-on-one interaction with a steady rhythm of moving prospects through the pipeline, the focus of marketing is about identifying the market and to lift the brand presence of the company in that market. In building these plans, it is important to understand the differences between marketing and sales. They have a very different focus and rhythm, and the two should not be confused. They are complementary, but not interchangeable.

5) Marketing Tactics Require Execution: At the end of the day, great marketing is based on execution. It is hard work. Here are the steps that I recommend:

• Step 1: Verify Your Market. To be successful, you need to identify an attainable market.
• Step 2: Build a List of Your Buyers. The first step after the identification of the buyer persona is the identification of the list. A list is an addressable mailing list for campaigns.I have never successfully bought a list. Building one requires hard work and the dedication of an experienced person. My advice is to not get hung up in the tools. We have tried both Sugar CRM and Salesforce.com, and I believe that there is no perfect solution. We have problems with both, but have tried to stay focused on list development. Our list is the heart of our business.
• Step 3: Hone the Message. I find it useful to use a messaging hierarchy. At the top, I list the highest level brand message, and then detail the supporting messages by buyer personas. I then end with enablers, proof points, and tactics.
• Step 4: Identify the Right Tactics. Align your tactics around what influences your buyer. If they don't go to trade shows, then don't do a trade show. If they are not on Linkedin, don't consider having a LInkedin blog. Build your messaging and tactics around your buyer; and adapt them over time.
• Step 5: Diligently Measure Success and Failure. Get alignment on what to measure and make marketing a data-driven discussion.

So, if this is you, and you need to build a marketing message, get ready to roll up your sleeves. Do the hard work. It will pay off!

Others? Have any comments?