Cloud computing continues to grow and make a difference in the way we work. Forecasted to reach $106B in 2016, it is an opportunity that no technology vendor would want to pass up.
While the technology aspect is agog over migration issues and benefits, how has marketing placed their respective companies as cloud players?
First of all, like any technology company, even marketers need to cope with the technology jargons. However, this is not to say a technology-laden marketing campaign is what you should launch. Contrary, nobody likes gobbledygook anymore. That’s old hat. It no longer is effective. In addition to technological know-how, marketers need to understand their customers better than anyone else. In fact, customer insights should be driven across the board. This means knowing your customers’ pain points so you can give new meaning to “Help” and “Value.”
Consequently, technology translated in layman’s terms should not alienate any other team member in your customer’s decision-making panel. In a guest post on Forbes, cloud marketing is targeted on CEOs and CFOs, leaving out the fulfillment team, which is the turf of the CIO. Target the right person to sell the cloud else all efforts will fall like London bridges falling down.
As such, whatever marketing tactic you want to use should consider the messages you want your audience to hear. Should you wish to use telemarketing as an initial introduction to a certain company, then it is important to train your callers on these messages (sometimes called key conversation points) as well as train them on which conversation piece goes with whom.
This is a common mistake among marketing agencies, where conversation pieces are set but they fail to orient their telemarketers on the right people to talk to. They tend to forget to emphasize the value of prospecting more than ever.
But while telemarketing is a short-term tactic, you can also listen to the sentiments of cloud forums and get insights via social media. Social media has taken a lot of flak because of proof of ROI, but one thing is for sure, if you want to build credibility and become a thought leader, then social media is one of the cheapest ways to do so, plus it’s long term. But out of all your marketing channels and tactics, do not move without studying your data or any data that you want to use. After all, data is what fuels your marketing tactics.
Back to the technology, cloud might seem a dream, but to CIOs and their staff, they bear the brunt of the impact, and we’re both saying that on a negative and positive note. Considerations should be assessed when thinking of migrating to the cloud. ROI is one factor, so is customer benefits, offloading work, flexibility and consolidation work.