Marketing Facts & Myths - A Technology Marketer Views

In this article, I'm trying to brief marketing based on my experiences. From my perspective, there is no success formula for marketing. It varies industry to industry, region to region, people to people. So don't blindly follow 4Ps, 7Cs, handbook, bluebook, etc.

Most of the time, there is confusion between sales and marketing. Common people also interchange sales and marketing words. Even within companies, the sales department doesn't like the marketing team and blames of not sharing good leads or poor content. On the other side, the Marketing team, points sales team is not giving credit for their work. This story is always there and is not going to change ever. To understand the sales and marketing team functions, we should know how sales happenings from lead generation to sales closure. For large organizations or branded products/ services, sales may happen organically. But for a mid-sized or small organization sales and marketing should work in hand and glove mode. They should complement each other to generate more business and build a better branding.

The sales team members are front runners, on the field (ok, nowadays virtual also), meet clients and prospects to generate revenue. Marketing team involves in messaging, crafting value propositions, differentiators supply ammunitions like collaterals, social media presence, content to the sales team to crack the market. The marketing team sits at the back end, but watching carefully on the trends - region, market, technology, competitors, alternatives, and fine-tune messaging accordingly and, responds quickly. The sole purpose of marketing team supports is to the sales team and not involved in selling.

Marketing is not a science. If it is science or maths, then all the IITians are the best marketers in the world. Marketing is also not art as well. In fact, most of the creative folks don't know how to market themselves. I feel there should be a right balance between the 2 elements. It is a combination of handling the right and left-hand side of the brain.

The marketing team has multiple roles. Content writers, creative designers, market research, digital marketing, marketing operations, and analytics. So not all the team members are great in writing and need not be. But if you want to grow as a marketing leader, you need to be a master in communication. Here communication is not just English. It is all about how you are conveying your thoughts and influence people. Infosys Narayanamuthy, Ratan Tata are some of the best examples in our world. These guys English are above average and not that great, no one expects that, because they are not native English people. But they know what they are talking. To become a marketer, you don't need a degree from an M.B.A. A thorough understanding of the products and services you are pitching and good preparation is what important.

Marketing is the easiest among all subjects. Yes. believe me. It is all about common sense and put yourself on customer shoes. I don't give importance to traditional or digital marketing techniques. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. Traditional marketing is useful in certain scenarios like B2C products, mass reach, quick proliferation, brand recall, launching time of the product. Digital marketing will be useful in B2B scenario, niche targets, matured, or decline stage of product and cost-effective. In some businesses, we need to deploy both methods. Being a good marketer, you should understand the product and figure out which route is to opt for you. In some cases, you may need to use both, ignoring one channel will harm the business. Adjusting the levers to mix the blend, correctly.

Marketing materials can't be salesy all the time. Building a brand is another important area they need to focus on. Building a brand is nothing but building trust. To stay in business for a long time, marketers should help enterprises to build the brand. Just think about, Accenture, IBM, Godrej, Tata Sons..etc. We all respect the Tata brand. It is a pride for India. We don't even know what are the products they are producing. But Tata is TATA for us!

I'm from a technology marketing background. Technology purchasing doesn't follow a linear buying pattern. It involves multiple stakeholders. Honestly, differentiators among companies are very thin (even though we claim). Companies hiring from competitors and building products and you cant expect differentiators also. It is also like a commodity now. But don't underestimate, all the procurement decisions are happening just from the pricing point of view. If that is the case, IBM, Accenture, and Capgemini would have closed shops. Then, what else?

Recipe for Secret Sauce

CATT, AIDA, 7 stages funnel are jargons. You can always match with any scenarios. It is like 'This thing too pass' kind of philosophy. I would recommend the marketing team to understand your product/ services and the buying pattern of the customers (it varies from business to business). Closely work with the sales team to understand where is the trigger point, how to influence, conveying channels, and gain a mind share and market share.

An integrated marketing approach is

business mandatory for selling. Leverage the best channels, which work out for you. Don't just blindly follow digital marketing (now this is the trend). Still, cold calling is needed to set up a meeting for a sales guy. Thought leadership article (content marketing) is mandatory to stand out in the competition. Use the article and promote in LinkedIn (digital/ social media marketing). Email marketing, for your next upcoming webinars. Video POCs in the next event. It is all a combination of both traditional and digital marketing, complimenting each other its purposes

Final Note

Don't too much focus on identifying differentiators. If you are an innovator of the product, then you have the differentiators. The marketing team should understand the product and align it with sales team closely. Identifying your customer pain points, market and technology trends, competitors' tactics, and message it appropriately. Broadcast messages on prefer channels without understanding the buying behavior is like drawing on the air. Test your channels' efficacy with multiple combinations and apply an integrated marketing strategy, to improve branding and business.

Happy Selling!