Marketers trying to reach an audience of IT professionals face numerous challenges these days. In many cases, IT buyers' staffs and budgets have been cut, meaning they have less time and face more pressure. The good news, however, is that marketers that do their homework and know their audiences are finding ways to break through and deliver their messages more efficiently than ever.
The biggest challenge in reaching this audience, said Sharon Trachtman, VP-global marketing for Radware, a provider of integrated application delivery services, is rising above the noise of so many other marketing messages (see case study, at right). “There is so much advertising and so many communications channels that are being targeted to them [IT professionals],” she said. “You have to really stand out in one way or another to get your message across.”
One way IT marketers are meeting this challenge is by using rich online content on community channels to tell more complex stories more quickly, said Kevin Jenkins, VP-account director at b-to-b agency Doremus. Marketers might create such content for their own websites, or they can contribute to or sponsor sites created by industry media outlets. “IT people are very busy,” he said. “With rich video content and things like Flash demos and webcasts, we are able to communicate a very complex story very simply.”
Marketers can use rich content to create real-world scenarios and answer questions about their products or services, he said. “The old view of an IT manager that had stacks of paper on his desk—I think those stacks are getting smaller,” Jenkins said. “You can go to these one-stop resource centers and find video content that speaks to a business problem that you have. You can find the training that you need. You can find the peer engagement that you need. We're even seeing a reduction in call center-type activity as more and more information is available in these peer communities.”
Video, virtual events and webinars are also helping marketers overcome the logistical challenges with traditional event marketing efforts. ASI Corp., a distributor of IT hardware and software, works with virtual event solutions provider Unisfair to produce virtual events as an enhancement to live events. “Timing was always a challenge [with traditional events],” said Kent Tibbils, VP-marketing at ASI. “Physical shows are set in stone for when you have to do them and, logistically, we can only market to a certain-size area. Virtual shows and webinars give us the ability to go out much quicker to all of our customers across the U.S.”
Still, Tibbils said, live events continue to be an essential part of ASI's marketing program. “We definitely think that both online and offline [events] are necessary,” he said. “They both have their advantages in getting information out. With live events, you're restricted to an area; but it's a better opportunity for customers to look at products—to touch them, and see them and have a hands-on experience. We still think those are very important, and our customers continue to tell us they want us to keep doing them.”Proving how your product or service will provide a return on investment is an important part of marketing to IT buyers because they often have to get C-level approval for large purchases, said Tami Hernandez, president of Martopia, a branding, marketing, public relations and interactive agency. “They need detailed ROI info that gives specific examples and numbers,” she said.
One popular way to prove ROI is to provide prospects with ROI calculators, Jenkins said. “Calculators remain a key evaluation tool,” he said. “ROI is still king out there, particularly in this economy.”
Such tools are becoming more sophisticated in that marketers will now link to a video from the calculator or enable the user to share the results with a friend.
Social marketing is also a hot topic among IT marketers, though many still are not entirely comfortable with the medium, said John Mannion, exec VP-director of client relations at Doremus. “There's still a lot of reluctance among a lot of IT marketers to really engage in full-blown open community social marketing because the IT community is a pretty verbal, responsive community,” he said. “They don't hold back; they have a tendency to share every experience—good, bad or indifferent—in big open forums.”
One way marketers are managing their anxiety about giving buyers a forum in which to voice their opinions is by targeting communities toward specific market segments—for example, creating a social site about IT products for small-to-midsize health care companies. “[Marketers think], "OK, that's a collection of peers that are trouble-shooting their IT solutions,' “ Mannion said. “It's not as wide, so clients are feeling less anxious about the impact of a comment sending a ripple to a community that doesn't really understand it. Also, [a targeted community] creates a more rich and helpful discussion among those people.”