Technology Branding Pays Dividends

Branding has moved beyond a snappy logo and memorable tagline to become a series of experiences that customers have with your company, its suppliers and other customers. In fact, a recent post on Marketing Pilgrim reports that 91 percent of IT decision makers consume blogs, videos and peer reviews when making buying decisions. Two examples of smart integrated marketing come from:

• Texas Instruments, which targets design engineers at companies like Cisco and Apple with an “E2E Community” and companion Twitter campaign. The strategy pays off with two to six times greater engagement with prospects, says the company’s Director of Internet Marketing, Devashish Saxena, in B2B Social Media Digest. Metrics track visitors through the funnel as they turn from suspects to prospects, as measured by downloading product sheets, watching videos or requesting samples or prototypes.
   
• Nuesoft Technologies, which provides online medical billing solutions and electronic medical records solutions. Last October, the company posted a send-up video of Lady Gaga’s song Pokerface, featuring its IT department. As reported in the e-book 11 Examples of Online Marketing Success, key healthcare industry thought leaders raved about it, and the video received 5,000 YouTube hits and countless Facebook mentions. The goal was not to generate sales per se, but to set Nuesoft apart from the dry brand presence of competitors in the field.

As marketing guru David Meerman Scott says, “Nobody cares about your products and services. What buyers do care about is solving their problems (and they’re always on the lookout for a company that can help them do so). The good news for smart marketers is that this knowledge has the potential to make you many times more successful with your marketing.”