Marketing Materials for Technical Products
How to Plan Promotional Articles, Brochures, Internet Content
May 5, 2009
The two most important questions a writer should ask before starting to develop any type of marketing material are:
- Who is it for?
- What is the objective?
These two questions can help the writer develop articles for print and on-line media, website content, e-mailed newsletters or e-zines, brochures, white papers and other material that will:
- Serve marketing, advertising and PR strategies;
- Promote corporate branding;
- Support the sales process; and
- Generate sales leads.
They will guide the writer to do what effective sales professionals do: focus on the prospect buyer's interests, desires, needs and problems.
This is especially important for companies marketing technological products to businesses and industries. Business buyers of technical products make highly-responsible decisions on technology that affect the productivity, safety, product quality and operating costs of their enterprises.
Marketing to Defined Sales Prospects
The content and technical level of the marketing piece will defined by the technical knowledge and needs of the people who populate the target market segment to whom a company sells or wants to sell.
If the company is addressing prospective buyers in an industry where the company is already active:
- Are the prospects familiar with the type of technology being promoted, or will they need to have it explained in detail?
- Are they existing customers for other products of the company?
- Are they new prospects but likely to know of the company by reputation? Conversely, is the company likely to be new to them?
If the company is trying to penetrate a new target market segment, the writer must know:
- The needs of the industry segment;
- The technological knowledge of the people being addressed;
- Whether the prospects are likely to know about the company by reputation in other industries.
The Objective Of The Marketing Strategy
The question of the objective must be clearly answered. As Yogi Berra once said, "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."
The overall objective of the marketing strategy will be to help sales staff sell products. The promotional material can be used:
- To educate prospects about technology and products before the sales staff call;
- To generate sales leads from prospects;
- To give sales staff documents to use during a sales call;
- To give sales staff material to leave behind after a call.
Answering Sales Objections
To discern the specific objective for each piece, it helps to consider the three questions all sales prospects have in mind during sales calls, according to sales coach Tom Stoyan:
- Why should they buy your product?
- Why should they buy from your company?
- Why should they buy from the sales person?
Questions 1 and 2 can be addressed by promotional material. Question 3, about trust, has to be addressed by the sales representative but can be supported by promotional material.
Promotional material can answer or forestall objections by prospective buyers. Sales coach Paul S. Goldner says there are basically only 3:
- Price- this objective is answered by convincing the prospect of the value of the product;
- Will the product work for the prospect- best answered by case history articles and testimonials;
- The prospect is buying a competitive product from another company- answered by convincing the prospect of the greater benefits available from the product compared to the competition.
Based on these considerations, some objectives are as follows:
- To establish the company as a reliable authority on a technology (which answers questions about why a prospect should buy from the company), even before as well as during and after a product launch;
- To establish the company as the owner of a brand of a new type or generation of technology;
- To demonstrate to prospects that a technology-based product will work for them, by showing how it addresses a real need in an industry;
- To show prospects how a piece of technology gives value by improving productivity, quality and/or safety or by saving costs.
Marketing To Technical Business Buyers
Business-to-business buyers in technology-based industries carry heavy responsibilities when choosing technological products. They ask tough questions of sales people. By developing promotional materials that have specific objectives to address the needs of people in specific target market segments, the marketer of technical products will preempt objections and help to gain sales.
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