Grow your IT/high-tech business across the 'internet of things' by applying these latest industry strategies for technology product marketing

What is product marketing?

Product marketing describes the management of all processes involved in taking a product to market. This field of marketing involves working with R&D, manufacturing, logistics, comms, and sales. Since your role is so closely tied to the products in your category, product marketers take the role of advocating for the customer when product-related decisions are made (positioning, launch, development, etc). In this blog, we will explore what makes technology product marketing different.

What is technology product marketing?

Technology product marketing refers to product marketing when your products are IT/high tech. Typically sold in a B2B environment, technology product marketing is renowned for extended stakeholder relations and, currently, an increasingly competitive market. Of course, the nature of IT/high tech means many technology products will be software. The growing Software as a Service…

What are the differences in digital marketing for business-to-business compared to business-to-consumer audiences?

Since working in digital marketing I have found that much of the discussion and examples of digital marketing focus on B2C marketers and well-known big brands. Yet, when I have trained marketers, it's a different picture with at least half of the people on the course working in B2B digital marketing. We also see the importance of B2B marketing to digital commerce if we look at the latest statistics on global E-commerce from UN trade and development group UNCTAD. The value of global B2B e-commerce in 2019 was $21.8 trillion, representing 82% of all e-commerce, including both sales over online market platforms and electronic data interchange (EDI) transactions. We also have to remember that many B2B transactions are conducted by more traditional invoiced arrangements and contracts, so not even…

76% of B2B marketers have a formal marketing plan, but what B2B marketing trends can you optimize in your 2021 digital marketing strategy?

Understanding where B2B industries are going with their marketing strategies can help you identify trends and outpace your competition. Our 2021 B2B marketing trends summarises the key tactics you can look to for increased sales and conversions over the next few months. We’ve taken a look at the B2B 2021 Marketing Mix Report from Sagefrog Marketing Group to see what the state of B2B marketing currently is. We’ve highlighted what we believe are some of the key trends that could help you see more success from your marketing planning in 2021. "Use a structured framework to create a plan and improvement process. The RACE practical digital strategy Learning Path is designed for marketers to plan, manage and optimize their digital marketing strategy."

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Most organizations have…

Real-world examples of PR getting an account-based makeover

You ride on the ABM train because your destination is a results town. Life is all about the names on your account list that you’ve converted into customers and the revenue you’ve brought in from doing so. There’s a beauty to this kind of commercial simplicity! Although the endpoint is succinct and straightforward, that doesn’t mean to say the process will be. You’ll likely have to flip, hack, and smash your way through the age-old promotional mix in a way that befits an approach that operates with laserlike focus. This brings a neat blend of freedom and flexibility when you’re looking at the activities to deploy as part of an ABM campaign. One such area that’s been under the spotlight for me recently in helping companies with ABM strategy is PR: specifically account-based PR. Before we get into the detail on that - first things…

B2C strategies can also be used for B2B audiences, after all, all marketing is human to human

B2B marketing strategies can be hard to get a handle on since reaching potential customers is very different from B2C ones, right? Or are there strategies that translate from consumer-focused organizations to B2B ones? In a word, yes...and it is those strategies that need to infiltrate our marketing efforts in the business-to-business world to compete in the current and future age. All marketing is, after all, human to human. In their article (and accompanying infographic), Imaginasium, a B2B marketing agency, demystifies B2B marketing with stats, tips, and strategies you can put to use today. First, let’s review a couple of those surprising stats about B2B marketing strategies; for more of these, see the full infographic below. 51% of companies don’t have a clear marketing strategy 68% struggle with getting enough quality B2B leads 79%…

Channel sales compose a fundamental part of most business models. Trusted partners can help companies enter new regional markets with little investment or expand their share in existing markets.

But most channel partners will work with more than one brand, so a business needs to establish close relationships with its partners to boost its channel sales strategy. In a crowded landscape, live experiences (online and offline) have proven to be a successful way for brands to establish relationships with target audiences. Traditional marketing can communicate the quality of your brand’s product and the value of your relationship, but connecting channel partners with your brand amplifies the impact even more. With the right B2B event marketing strategy, you can build confidence in your brand plan and help secure further investment, too. [si_guide_block id="146918" title="Download our Business Resource – Channel and partner marketing improvement guide" description="In this guide we'll show you the seven factors that you should use…

LinkedIn has been quietly building a strong presence and reputation within the professional community making it a great social media opportunity

When we think of social media, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are probably the first platforms that come to mind. After all, these are the major platforms leading the way and generating headlines (although not always for the right reasons). [si_blog_banner_cta] However, LinkedIn has been quietly building a strong presence and reputation within the professional community. Over the last 15 years, LinkedIn has grown rapidly to create a network of over 560 million professionals worldwide, with 23 million in the UK. LinkedIn’s stated mission is to "connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful". This clear and relentless focus on the professional sector has enabled them to develop a powerful B2B proposition. Whilst personal social networks are about spending time, professional networks are geared around investing time: …

How to boost business results by recognizing cognitive biases

In the 1970’s two young psychologists named Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky pioneered a new field of study, which eventually became known as behavioural psychology. They were interested in understanding whether humans were rational, economic decision-makers or fallible creatures, vulnerable to mistakes and errors as a result of ‘cognitive load’. Their research suggested that our brains use two ‘systems’ for making decisions: In the words of Daniel Kahneman, system one ‘runs the show’ but is powered by a range of heuristics, or rules of thumb, which lead to biases and behavioural quirks. There are now nearly 200 recognized cognitive biases that can affect how we make decisions in a multitude of different ways. Some are fairly well known (e.g. anchoring) whilst others are slightly more obscure (e.g. the false consensus…

How do you know who isn't converting and how can you make the most of the data to bring them back to your site?

Have you ever looked at your website analytics in real-time and watched as people entered the site? To your excitement, some of them filled out a form and converted into a lead. I have, and it’s awesome seeing the 5-6% of people that make it through your website funnel pop out the other end. 

But what about the 94-95% of people who don’t convert? Most likely you’ve got a remarketing campaign setup, which is bringing some of them back. But is there anything else you can do?

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The #MarketingMinds series share real-world stories from marketers showing how digital marketing has helped them develop their careers or businesses.

Marketing Mind:

Hanna Cevik

I'm Hanna, I've been a Marketing Manager for 10 years, working in the third sector, the arts and now technology. I am a generalist, which I think is increasingly rare, but I enjoy being part of the strategy as well as the tactics of marketing in the B2B space, so I tend to join organisations as they are growing large enough to start separating roles like marketing out for the first time. That means I'm most often a one-woman team - with support from all over the business. Reason is just that; five years old, growing, with a great client roster and a really smart team of designers, strategists and engineers. I've worked with Reason…