3 Ways to Win Over IT Marketing Skeptics

2 min read
Sep 29, 2015 3:46:34 PM
Know thy audienceit’s a critical first step in marketing. You can do this by leveraging tactics such as social or web research on your audience in order to build out 
targeted buyer personas
. Then, you’ll understand how to speak to these audiences and what marketing programs will be most effective in engaging them.

When it comes to IT audiences, what are the best ways to engage them? Here, we’ll illustrate 3 key ways:


  1. Don’t segment by “IT decision makers.”
 This classification happens far too often in marketing. CTOs and CIOs cannot be lumped into a single segment—their interests, needs, and drivers are vastly different and ignoring this will not benefit your bottom line. Furthermore, the size and industry being targeted will significantly inform the types of messages that will resonate and the marketing and sales approaches that will work best to reach these audiences.
 
  1. Understand that developers are a breed all their own.
 Developers are perhaps the most skeptical of technical audiences when it comes to marketing. That’s why it’s extremely important to remain authentic and engage on a topic basis. When you market to developers, you should work with actual developers to ensure your messages will authentically resonate with them. Technical audiences at this level aren’t generally scouring the web for interesting marketing literature on relevant products and services, but rather they are looking for real answers to specific problems they face daily. Any content developed for this audience should reflect and address that need.
 
 
  1. Security people care about security!

This sounds obvious, but the very underpinnings of this audience can get overlooked when building a marketing program. Because security folks live and breathe security and privacy threats daily—and are often responsible for protecting others from vulnerabilities—they are particularly wary of sharing personal information. When marketing to this audience, you might be better off sharing more content upfront without asking them to fill out a form. Make the content so valuable or intriguing they are compelled to come to you. You need to think creatively about how to showcase successes without asking for something that’s likely unattainable.

These 3 IT marketing tips will help you tailor your messaging to each unique audience your product or service serves. Understanding whom you’re creating content for is crucial and it’s simply the only way to win over IT marketing skeptics. Make sure your messaging makes sense for each particular audience. These tips will give you deeper insight on how to make an impact on IT professionals – and not just one kind.

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