The Changing Tech Market

Years ago, while still hocking CAD for a monthly quota, I found myself generating a significant amount of volume from companies far outside the conventional "urban" centers of commerce. Later, I developed a local user group program for Autodesk's community marketing organization, known as AUGI, and noticed a strikingly familiar trend. During my research, I overlaid a map of U.S. user groups with a map of U.S. manufacturing GDP, and discovered a large percentage of CAD use in rural areas where manufacturing output was non-existent.

The oddities that I had experienced mark a notable industry shift in design and engineering. Over the past decade, while small service bureaus have declined, outsource contracting for design, drafting, and engineering has increased significantly. With today's computer-based design and even digital prototyping, to become an engineering service provider requires nothing more than a computer, a CAD package, and an internet connection. By contrast, antiquated service providers whose businesses carried overheads such as tools, machines, and working space have either closed, re-invented their businesses, or are being absorbed into larger companies.

As a result, the marketing for technology products within the design and engineering industries must shift as well. Many companies are finding that they can no longer rely on a personal sales team to produce sustaining volumes of sales amidst the widely dispersed market of small buyers. Instead, just as the industrial revolution ushered in an era of efficiency with automated machines, so today a marketing revolution has ushered in an era of efficiency whereby tech writing, data-rich collateral, and online interaction performs the job that a salesperson once did: educating the buyer and handling objections.

With the industrial revolution, were humans extricated from the factory? No. Their efforts were multiplied through the economy of automation. The same is true for technology business today. The most successful companies today use marketing both for branding and selling. In today's marketplace it is important to empower your sales staff with all the tools they need to leverage their time and efforts most efficiently. Successful tech marketing educates clients in mass, handles objections before they even come up, and even prompts sales through e-commerce.

Less is More

One thing I learned to be true in my hobby of cooking is a lesson that we can all learn in our marketing. At some point, the dish would have reached an optimal flavor, and yet I could not leave well enough alone. Just a pinch more of this… then, to recover from the ill effects of adding 'this', I added more of 'that', and then the proverbial 'other', until the "this, that, and the other" overwhelmed the simplicity of mom's good ole potato soup.

In your marketing communications, consider yourself fortunate that extracting elements from a page is as easy as pressing the delete button, far easier than in a stew. With technology products so rich in features, it's easy to begin thinking, "what more can I say... how can I build this up even greater?" Stop and consider that what you may need could be to remove some parts. Reduce the copy, simplify the design, and do not try and say too much.

Our firm designed a collateral piece for one of our CAD consulting clients. The cover was as simple and elegant as they come – blank white with three curved lines and their logo. The owner wanted to see more. "I have to pay so much to print a full color page, let's make the most of it." After four new revisions, we finally settled on the original design.

I often find myself writing a press release or the copy for an ad and think to myself, "Something else needs said. What can I add?" More often than not, the real improvement is found when I pare down what I had and just stick with the basics. From time to time we all need to be reminded that the key to any single element in Client Path Marketing is merely to move the client one step further down the path - nothing more.

Drivel or Data?

Once upon a time, it cost money to publish copy. Brochures were expensive, and forget about a 10-page white paper. But the Internet in all its glory has given companies the freedom to publish unlimited information for their customers and prospects without a linear increase in cost. So, the question is, have we lost our reverence for marketing communication?

When it cost money to market, we poured over every word fearful of a costly re-print. Today, unfettered from costs, marketers can push "publish" with the comfort of knowing, if it's ineffective, inaccurate, or just plain bad copy, they can always edit it later. As a result, I read online collateral every day with typos and other errors, but even more disconcerting is the lack of compelling language and attention to the true goal of marketing - persuasion.

Web2.0 is characterized as 'perpetual beta.' - and I confess that I enjoy having iterative 'online brochures' that evolve as we tweak over time - but I for one would like to cast my vote that marketing is still an art, and any good artists dumpster is more full than his gallery.

Welcome

If you're new to the blog, you may have expected a long history of posts. Previously, my ramblings had been posted in a weekly e-newsletter. But, I decided to join the craze and begin blogging. Please feel free to post your own comments, and enjoy!