There are plenty of opportunities to ‘gamble’ a marketing budget – advertising, mailshots, events, executive influence programmes – but few guides to measure the relative value. Demonstrating the success of marketing – except by the end-result (sales generated) – is very difficult. Marketshare or shipments are only snapshots and do not show momentum, buying intentions or expensive never-to-be-repeated purchasing mistakes. During a marketing campaign, measuring eyeball share helps, but does not show the level of influence or ‘mindshare’ gained.
The value of mindshare depends on roles and responsibilities in the decision making process.
Recent Quocirca research has reinforced the view that simply pursuing a sale at the technical level will often result in failure, as many critical decisions are not taken in the IT function. Opportunities that seemed only moments from closing will fail, even though the right approvals have been gained, because budgets are reprioritised.
A good marketing strategy should not rely on a costly scattergun mass-mailing approach to stimulating demand, nor on executive contact on the golf course, but should understand the different financial – as well as technical – influencers in the decision making process, and how to effectively reach each of them.
So while the sales support teams are working hard to win the technology arguments, how can marketing provide positive broader influence, and where should the bets be placed?
Favourites
Given the financial impact, go for the information routes favoured by the commercial decision makers. In any unfamiliar area where there are important choices to be made, individuals generally favour personal recommendations from those they trust.
Industry analysts are the outsiders that are most likely to be trusted by both finance and IT managers, although as a group they are even more highly favoured by the marketing director, who often pays for their researched opinions and reports. However, forward-thinking analysts make their report content available free-of-charge at the point of usage, funding their research with bespoke work. This opens up the influential content to a wider audience, including smaller businesses, which seldom pay for opinion. Business focus that sheds light on the commercial values of a solution is most likely to appeal to the finance department.
Many of the financial decision makers still attend industry events to keep up to date with technology developments, more so than their peers in IT. What a shame then, that so many vendors present products and features at exhibitions and conferences, when benefits and RoI would earn more influence with the decisive audience.
Each-way bets
Business consultants offer trusted advice with moderate appeal to both IT and finance departments, but are perhaps a costly source. Free information from the vendor websites – whilst partisan – is also deemed useful. Perhaps the ability to look, without being pestered to buy, works in IT as well as retail sales.
For printed media, the more analytical content of monthly IT titles is favoured by the finance director, as well as the IT department. This is not interest in new technologies or features, but real-world examples, case studies and best practice. These might also be useful places to advertise a commercial message, but steer clear of pictures of ‘big iron’, megabytes per millisecond and acronym overload.
Outsiders
Commercial influence diminishes as online information becomes too news-oriented. Financial managers are less likely to be looking for the latest hot topic; far from it in fact. They want sound reasons for making an investment decision, preferably backed with proof from those they really trust.
However, many online sources do find favour with the IT department. It might be harsh to characterise the IT director as surfing for information that the finance director will ask a colleague for, but IT professionals will search the Internet for freely accessible information. The jumping-off point favoured by the vast majority is Google, but one online source still looks like a rider-less horse: the blog.
Fans
Despite widespread hype and the surge of interest in the interactive promise of Web 2.0, blogs are not yet something for most vendors to place a significant bet on. A flutter perhaps for the most adventurous, cool and trendy types to stimulate ‘buzz’ among fans, but it’s unlikely to generate significant influence in the boardroom.
Direct mail also failed to impress the decision makers in Quocirca’s research. So many of us hate it, bin it immediately or ignore it, and yet it is still the blunt marketing instrument of choice for many marketing departments.
Will those bets pay off?
Outside the IT function, there is generally a more conservative attitude to investment in IT, especially in those with financial responsibility. The lure is not the innovation or fascination with the technology, but what it can do for the business, and at what cost. That’s total lifetime cost impact, not just the purchase price.
From a product marketing lifecycle perspective, it’s like marketing to the whole spectrum from early adopters to laggards at the same time. Different audiences with the same organisation have to be identified, segmented and communicated with correctly, for the marketing bets to pay off. It may still be a gamble, but at least an informed and well targeted strategy will shift the odds in your favour.
