Technology marketers need to jump many hurdles in their quest to reach technology buyers. It can be argued that unearthing the business pains facing both the C-suite and IT executives is the highest of them all. It’s critical to leverage that understanding with a compelling story that proves your organization is a thought leader in your field—uniquely qualified to solve critical business problems and create value with your technology.
Are you clearing enough hurdles with your technology content?
Top technology issues facing CEOs
Today’s CEOs and IT executives need to manage a business environment that is constantly changing, balancing the desire for stability at the same time they need to innovate. Now, more than ever, the pressure is on to respond quickly to threats and adapt to new changes on the world market. Only those who respond quickly will achieve sustainability and growth. Some of the top issues facing the C-suite include:
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Cybersecurity: According to KPMG 2016 report a full 72 percent of CEOs don’t feel fully prepared for a cyber event.
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The Cloud: The 2017 Gartner CIO Agenda report found that cloud services were among the top technology spending priorities for CIOs around the world across industries.
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The Internet of Things (IoT): Experts estimate the number of connected things will reach about 50 billion by 2020. That’s about 6.3 connected things for every person worldwide. According to IDC, the global IoT market for services and products will grow from $1.9 trillion to $7.1 trillion between 2013 at 2020, about double the size of the worldwide telecom and IT market today.
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Skill Shortages: In the 2017 trends analysis from The Society for Information Management (SIM), 24% of IT leaders say skills shortages were the top concern. Gartner found an even bigger skills shortage with an average of 34% of survey respondents reporting that information-related skills, especially advanced analytics skills needed for processing big data within the IoT and cybersecurity space, are lacking.
Content first strategy for technology marketers
It’s critical to understand these pain points because the most effective content marketing is targeted right at them. Your audience needs to know that you can offer real insight into their business problems and offer actionable advice before they will commit to learning more about what you have to offer.
Over two-thirds of the entire B2B buying process now takes place online. The sales process begins long before your sales representatives pick up the phone. With more than 80% of buyers using supplier websites for research, capturing your market share depends heavily on how well-established your content marketing strategy is executed.
Connecting with the modern technology buyer requires you to understand the buyer’s journey and develop content that meets your buyer’s needs. According to research by LinkedIn, up to 78% of stakeholders outside the IT department have influence over tech buying decisions. This means that the buyer’s journey may involve influencers from finance, HR, marketing, and sales as well as IT.
According to the 2016 B2B Technology Content Marketing Report from the Content Marketing Institute, businesses with documented content marketing strategies were more likely to be successful, as were businesses with a documented editorial mission statement.
All of these facts underscore the importance of a content first strategy to reach the right audience with the right message. The bottom line among content marketers is that those with documented, well-established strategies who have a persistent stream of content targeted at the right personas were the most successful.
Content First = Success
ContentMX is the premier content first marketing company for B2B technology companies. ContentMX enables marketers to create and execute a complete content strategy to nurture and improve communications with customers and prospects. Our platform and services enable you to easily build mobile-friendly email, newsletters, and campaigns; create original content for blogs; curate relevant content; and integrate to all popular blog, social media, and email marketing platforms.