Monday, April 23, 2007

Technology is bought by committee

IT products and services are typically bought by committee. Your initial sales presentation will usually be made to a group that includes middle management, technical staff, and an end user representative. While top management usually does not attend the presentation, top management’s support is necessary to close the deal. Successful marketing communications must address all these groups.

That is why new media are so well suited to IT marketing. Company blogs offer an opportunity not just to talk to your customers, but, more to the purpose, they offer your customers the opportunity to talk to you. It is precisely the interactive quality of new media that makes it so valuable. Customers and prospects who post comments on company blogs are engaged, and that is critical to building a relationship.

Employee blogs are powerful, because they offer customers and prospects a chance to communicate directly with the individual in the company they need to speak with. Software developers can receive direct feedback. That is why it is best to have many different employee blogs, as this will reinforce the view that your company is a collection of individuals who are committed to the products and services that your company provides.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

God love you...but I must disagree. IF...and I emphasize if...a silo within the company...shall we say Corp. Comm? decides that they need a solution...if the price is right they rarely need senior management approval for adoption. The problem in the "sales cycle" is rarely senior management and nearly always IT staff. The gatekeepers...the control freaks whose job it is to manage "all" web properties for the company, regardless of whether a third-party, vended solution might make more sense!

New media is NOT suited to IT Marketing in most firms because the "strategy" and the "control" of the website usually live in different management silos.

IMHO

Alice said...

The "strategy" silo is more likely to read blogs than the "control" silo, but blogs are a way to reach both groups.