Business Technology Marketing Trends for 2008 – What You Can Do.
I know. I know. It’s January 3 and you’re probably sick of trends and predictions. Stick with me, though. Here are a few that are likely to matter most in business technology marketing:
TREND: Online marketing is where the action is.
BtoB magazine found that 79.1% of marketers plan to increase online spending in 2008. The Wall Street Journal predicts that online advertising will continue to grow relative to off-line advertising such as print and radio.
What this means: Ignore online marketing at your own peril. Study after study shows that business buyers begin their decision-making process with an internet search. You’ll have more competition for key word terms and search engine optimization, but you’ve got to be there or your prospects won’t be able to find you. And, since each lead is likely to cost a little more, pay close attention to what you do after the click-through.
On the other hand, this creates an interesting opportunity for advertising in trade publications. Fewer advertisers equals less competition and hungry media sales teams who are willing to negotiate prices.
TREND: Event marketing budgets are growing.
The same BtoB study mentioned above also found that nearly 50% of marketers plan to increase event marketing budgets this year. Trade shows rank especially high as valuable information sources in the reach and negotiation phases of the technology buying process (MarketingSherpa).
Interestingly, I speak with a lot of leaders of technology companies, and very few are happy with their results from trade shows. Yet it’s the most common marketing tactic used.
What this means:
Technology buyers like to see you at trade shows, but few of you are really taking advantage of this opportunity. For 8 keys steps to making trade shows work for you see Are Trade Shows Really Worth the Effort.
TREND: Mobile delivery is becoming critical.
According to MarketingSherpa, 64% of business technology decision makers view email via a mobile device. These prospects are increasingly clicking through to whitepapers and web pages from those PDAs and SmartPhones. Yet the same survey in 2006 found that 91.4% of marketers didn’t think mobile marketing applied to them and weren’t planning to do anything about it in 2007.
Whoops. Guess you’d better rethink that for 2008.
What to do: Take a look at your outbound email on a Blackberry. If you’re like most technology marketers, it’s going to be ugly. Call on your email and web teams to address the problem. Here’s a big opportunity to get ahead of your competitors – especially important if execs and other mobile technology users are among your buyers.
TREND: Bloggers are gaining influence.
When MarketingSherpa asked tech buyers to rate information sources in terms of value, “blogging by industry peers” got the highest ratings. “Vendor blogs” didn’t rank as high, but 64% of buyers found them to be of some value. Numerous advertising agencies report that thought-leadership blogs rank high on their clients list of 2008 priorities. The top two reasons business technology companies have blogs – or are considering them are 1) search engine optimization and 2) to establish thought leadership.
What this means: Blogging has become a very powerful means of communication. At minimum, consider it carefully before you decide not to do it. You’ll need a dual-prong blog strategy: one prong aimed at external bloggers and the other at your own blog.
What Next?
Not surprising, there are many more changes occurring in business technology marketing. We’ll cover these in future posts. Leave us a comment to let us know what you’d like to see covered.
Technorati Tags: technology marketing, business marketing,
This article was first published January 3, 2008 on the Tatum Marketing blog
I know. I know. It’s January 3 and you’re probably sick of trends and predictions. Stick with me, though. Here are a few that are likely to matter most in business technology marketing:
TREND: Online marketing is where the action is.
BtoB magazine found that 79.1% of marketers plan to increase online spending in 2008. The Wall Street Journal predicts that online advertising will continue to grow relative to off-line advertising such as print and radio.
What this means: Ignore online marketing at your own peril. Study after study shows that business buyers begin their decision-making process with an internet search. You’ll have more competition for key word terms and search engine optimization, but you’ve got to be there or your prospects won’t be able to find you. And, since each lead is likely to cost a little more, pay close attention to what you do after the click-through.
On the other hand, this creates an interesting opportunity for advertising in trade publications. Fewer advertisers equals less competition and hungry media sales teams who are willing to negotiate prices.
TREND: Event marketing budgets are growing.
The same BtoB study mentioned above also found that nearly 50% of marketers plan to increase event marketing budgets this year. Trade shows rank especially high as valuable information sources in the reach and negotiation phases of the technology buying process (MarketingSherpa).
Interestingly, I speak with a lot of leaders of technology companies, and very few are happy with their results from trade shows. Yet it’s the most common marketing tactic used.
What this means:
Technology buyers like to see you at trade shows, but few of you are really taking advantage of this opportunity. For 8 keys steps to making trade shows work for you see Are Trade Shows Really Worth the Effort.
TREND: Mobile delivery is becoming critical.
According to MarketingSherpa, 64% of business technology decision makers view email via a mobile device. These prospects are increasingly clicking through to whitepapers and web pages from those PDAs and SmartPhones. Yet the same survey in 2006 found that 91.4% of marketers didn’t think mobile marketing applied to them and weren’t planning to do anything about it in 2007.
Whoops. Guess you’d better rethink that for 2008.
What to do: Take a look at your outbound email on a Blackberry. If you’re like most technology marketers, it’s going to be ugly. Call on your email and web teams to address the problem. Here’s a big opportunity to get ahead of your competitors – especially important if execs and other mobile technology users are among your buyers.
TREND: Bloggers are gaining influence.
When MarketingSherpa asked tech buyers to rate information sources in terms of value, “blogging by industry peers” got the highest ratings. “Vendor blogs” didn’t rank as high, but 64% of buyers found them to be of some value. Numerous advertising agencies report that thought-leadership blogs rank high on their clients list of 2008 priorities. The top two reasons business technology companies have blogs – or are considering them are 1) search engine optimization and 2) to establish thought leadership.
What this means: Blogging has become a very powerful means of communication. At minimum, consider it carefully before you decide not to do it. You’ll need a dual-prong blog strategy: one prong aimed at external bloggers and the other at your own blog.
What Next?
Not surprising, there are many more changes occurring in business technology marketing. We’ll cover these in future posts. Leave us a comment to let us know what you’d like to see covered.
Thu, Nov 5, 2009
Conversion Rates, Strategy, Traffic
Written by: Susan Tatum