IT professionals love robots. They can chat for hours about R2-D2, Data and K-9.
However, they don’t feel the same about robotic marketing.
I attended SpiceWorld 2014 and had the opportunity to sit down with Jennifer Slaski, executive director of marketing communications at Spiceworks. She offered advice on how technology marketers can make their content more human.
“I believe that everything you need to know about marketing you learned in kindergarten,” says Jennifer. “However, many marketers get caught up with jargon, campaigns and metrics. They forget that people want to interact with people – not robots.”
Jennifer recommends the following three steps to make your technology marketing more human:
1. Ask questions and listen to the answers.
Technology marketers often feel pressure to be really smart and know all the answers. However, this can create a disconnect between your marketing message and what your customers want to know. Customers appreciate when you ask them questions and really listen to their answers. When you take the time to do this, you can drive an effective marketing strategy.
“To me, it’s a failure to roll out a campaign without asking someone in our community what they think about it first,” says Jennifer. “There’s a humility in admitting that you don’t know something and had to ask. However, it’s also very freeing.”
2. Don’t obscure your message with buzzwords.
IT professionals want information that will help them solve their problems. As soon as they sense marketing BS, you’ll lose their trust. You don’t need to impress them with acronyms and buzzwords. They prefer straight language that tells it like it is – which is why they look for recommendations from their peers when researching products.
IT professionals will also tune out if they think that you’re not taking them into account. Take the time to get to know them, so you can speak to their likes, problems and needs.
3 Ways to Make Your Technology Marketing More Human [Insights from SpiceWorld 2014]
