There’s a perception that B2B tech companies will have an inbuilt marketing advantage because they’re tech-savvy.
Surely, they’ll know how best to exploit innovative channels for reaching their prospects and customers?
It might surprise you that technical know-how can be a disadvantage in marketing, because more often than not, you have a much bigger challenge on your hands — the need to take what is quite often complex technical information and convert it to digestible, audience-friendly content.
Put it this way; from a technical viewpoint, you might know the most up to date channels for communicating your content, but this doesn’t necessarily mean you’re confident with which content will work best for your brand.
Content marketing should be an excellent fit for tech companies, for reasons we’ll come to. But like all tools, it needs certain elements to get the best out of it.
We’re going to take you through our top marketing tips for tech companies, but first, we’ll explain why content marketing should be your tool of choice.
Why content is a good fit for tech companies
According to recent research, B2B buying behaviour is changing. 67% of buyers rely more on research than they did a year ago. And more of them look for engaging content as a means of gathering information.
B2B buyers are looking for vendors who demonstrate a strong knowledge about a specific solution and of the business landscape. And what better way to showcase this than content?
Remember that content — and content marketing — refers not just to long-form website copy in the form of blogs and case studies, but posts on social media platforms, podcasts, videos, and more. It’s all content, but it needs to be relevant and backed up with a thought-out strategy to be effective.
With this in mind, let’s look at our six marketing tips for tech brands.
1. Focus on your audience
When creating content, it can be all too easy to lose sight of who you’re creating it for.
Some enterprises instinctively want to push their own achievements and status to the foreground, but this is highly likely to turn audiences off.
When people search for answers online, they’re naturally looking for valuable, useful information.
Therefore, no matter how specialised your product or service is, or your depth of knowledge, you must first understand your audience.
Are they as technically knowledgeable as you? Will they easily grasp the concepts behind what you’re offering? What are their pain points, and how are you addressing them?
2. Use a consistent brand voice
It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.
What’s your brand’s tone of voice and how sociable will it come across to the people looking at your content?
You don’t have to write like you want to be everyone’s best mate – some brands are all about sounding authoritative and confidently knowledgeable first and foremost.
But you can still be relatively formal and relatable.
The tone of voice you use should engage with your audience in a way that’s consistent with your brand and your brand values.
Inconsistency, or adopting the wrong tone for your brand, will come across as inauthentic and will be likely to put up a barrier between you and your audience.
Your credibility doesn’t depend on you sounding overly complex and technical. What it does rest on is your audience’s trust in what you’re telling them.
If you explain things clearly and in a straightforward way, this is more likely to resonate with them than if you blind them with science.
3. Explore different channels and methods
There’s no right or wrong way of producing content.
A short explainer video, for example, might immediately connect with an audience. But if you want to explore an issue in greater depth, then a blog or ebook often offer better ways of engaging with and keeping your audience’s attention.
There are numerous ways of formatting and publishing content.
Infographics can be highly effective in presenting statistical information at a glance, and they work well with how people read on-screen.
Visual content retains high levels of impact. 65% of people will retain information for longer if it comes with a relevant image.
Another growth area is in interactive content, like quizzes and surveys. Digital interactive content can combine audience education and engagement, building relationships and helping to drive conversions.
4. Tell compelling stories
Storytelling is a vehicle for carrying powerful marketing messages and content is made for it.
People generally respond much more positively to content that offers some sort of narrative than content that aggressively markets something at them. If you treat your content creation as storytelling, then this provides it with a natural structure, and one which can resonate powerfully with audiences.
How easy is it to create stories out of marketing content though? Easier than you might think, in fact.
Take the case study.
This doesn’t have to be a dry recitation of facts, figures and statistics. It’s a story waiting to be told. It has a protagonist, in the form of your customer. It has an obstacle, which is the problem you have to solve. It might have further barriers along the way. But then it has a conclusion and, importantly, a legacy: how what you did for your customer benefitted their business.
You can include your customers’ own voices, as testimonials, to make success work for your brand, while still keeping the focus firmly on the customer’s experiences.
5. Provide interesting, relevant information
We said earlier that more and more B2B buyers rely on their own research first. They’re all looking for something. The job of your content is to answer their questions, and in the process, add value.
There’s a balance to strike here, between keeping your content accessible and also demonstrating your expertise.
Content is a means of displaying your depth of knowledge, expertise and insight, but in such a way that your audience understands the subject matter.
For tech brands, innovation is the linchpin here. It’s something that should be integral to your brand, and therefore a natural subject for your content.
Be careful to remain relevant, and to stay human and relatable in your thinking. If you go too far down the purely technical path, you may lose yourself, and your audience, to abstract concepts, or challenging theories.
6. Benefits come first
This is a well-established marketing adage, but it bears repeating. When your content is about your own offering, talk about benefits rather than features.
This feeds into the kind of personal connection you want to make with the audience that’s consuming your content.
Features are general (even if they’re specific to your product or service). Everyone can access them. Benefits, on the other hand, are much more personalised, because they stir the imagination of the individual reader or viewer.
Benefits paint a picture of what success looks like in the mind of the individual prospect.
Benefits are what your app, product or service will enable the prospect to do – to fix a problem, take their business to the next level, or fulfil their ambitions for growth.
This is especially true of software as a service (SaaS) marketing.
Are there exceptions to this rule?
With consumer electronics and other products, there’s the growing popularity of the unboxing video, which relies largely on the physical desirability of the featured item to make the content work.
Can you make your content marketing count?
Content can be a hugely valuable tool for marketing tech, with the right strategy and approach. This is where Prize Content can help. Get in touch for an informal chat today. Talk to our team about your next steps
