Technical Marketing is more than Speeds and Feeds

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

In this special guest feature, Kim McMahon writes that success in technical marketing for HPC products takes more than having the fastest speeds and feeds.

Kim McMahon, McMahon Consulting

Kim McMahon, McMahon Consulting

Outside of a company’s product or service, the number one most important primary call-to-action elements for success are establishing marketing goals and messaging. This strategic step establishes the building blocks that lead to revenue, branding, and competitive edge.

In this blog, I will give you and your team some things to think about so you can #JustStartToday with your strategy and messaging to move forward with success.

  1. What are your company’s goals? Having this discussion between you and your team will force you to articulate the goals of your organization and what you are trying to accomplish. Based on these results, you can devise an appropriate marketing plan that fits these goals. Without articulating this one critical point, and getting buy in from the company principals, there is a great risk of company activities, as well as marketing activities, not driving towards the goals of the company.
  2. What are the specifics for your goals? A common goal many companies have is revenue growth. But revenue where? What region? In a specific vertical? For all the products or for certain products? Are their higher margin products we should focus on? Prioritizing your products, regions, and industries will help you focus your efforts.
  3. What are your pathways to market? “Pathways” can be your direct sales force or a partner channel. Within a partner channel you can have a range of partners, some who will be more active than others or some that have more technical knowledge than others. Within your sales force you can have a range of knowledge and technical acumen. Define and prioritize these pathways. This will enable you to create sales enablement tools and marketing plans to support the prioritized pathway.
  4. Who are your target customers and why should they buy from you? Defining your target customers will also help you think about who you shouldn’t be selling to. Knowing where to avoid is as important as knowing where to target. There are some customers who will just never buy from you – and it’s not you – its them. Knowing where you win will allow you to focus your efforts in the right place.
  5. What makes you better than the other options out there? There are market, competitive, feature, customer service, and many more reasons that a prospect buys from you instead of not buying at all or buying from someone else. Who are your competitors? What differentiates you from the other options out there? Knowing your competition and communicating your differentiation will make you stand out and with that, prospects will think of you first.
  6. Who are you? This is the Branding question – who are you? How do you want to be perceived in the market and by your customers? If your brand was a person, what kind of personality would it have? Thinking about these items and defining them will be your guide to the naming and tone of voice that should be used in all your marketing communications.
  7. Why not now? Again, as always, look for the Twitter hashtag #JustStartToday and discuss/answer these important questions for you and your business. They are the pillars of your success.

mcmahon_logosmWant to further discuss the number one most important primary call-to-action elements for success? I welcome the conversation! Email me at kmcmahon@mcmahonconsulting.com.

Kim McMahon has performed sales and marketing for more years than she cares to count. She writes frequently on marketing, life, the world and how they sometimes all come together. McMahon Consulting is a full-service marketing firm entrenched in the HPC and Enterprise Technical Computing space with over 15 years of experience in Compute, Storage, Networking, Cloud, Big Data, and Services.