Technology. Tech marketing is the key for start-ups

The genesis of a start-up is when an entrepreneur sees an opportunity to build and deliver value to an audience.

Tech start-ups owe their existence to the fact that technology today influences all aspects of lives of people and businesses in fundamental ways. What many entrepreneurs (and technology visionaries) ignore is that for most people, the specifics of hardware, software and myriad mechanisms of how they come together are irrelevant (of course, to a degree that varies enormously). The primary concern is how to avail of technology to solve particular problems in the context of our everyday lives.

Costly mistake This is where technology marketing is the key in ensuring smooth adoption/use and communicating value. Start-ups do recognise the importance of marketing. Many invest in digital and traditional advertising, for example. In most cases, however, marketing is thought to be a support function, sales enablement is near absent and communication is an afterthought. Thus many start-ups make a costly mistake of creating products and businesses which are disconnected to the audience, or at-least are not dynamically harmonized to the realities of the market. Marketing is central to the business of a start-up. He or she has to get involved and influence the entire gamut consisting of complexities and dynamics of the tech business today. Perhaps, the entrepreneur has to be primarily a technology marketer. Start-ups, today, belong to the world characterised by the convergence of B to B and B to C, daily changes in decision making, and products and services on a sometimes daily release cycle.

Constant launch The key skills thus are, how to manage the chaos by using some basic frameworks to get to market quickly and effectively, and quickly generate audience and decision making profiles to enable technology sales. In addition, it is becoming critical to optimally leverage the power of the “constant launch” mentality to rise above the noise.

Another interesting aspect is the convergence of B to B and B to C. Technology decisions that businesses make are increasingly driven by how individuals/end-users use technology.

More and more consumer technology is entering the business environment and the adoption and value realisation of any technology is dependent on how these individuals experience technology. Many a tech start-ups have been founded on this very premise. Therefore tech marketing cannot focus merely at the point where technology is bought or sold. For technology to be of real use beyond the “bling effect”, its true value has to be communicated simply, effectively, and with clear regard to how individuals make decisions, whether for their personal lives or their business lives. As business grows, it is not unusual to see chaos creeping in and incoherence setting in. Tech marketing, with all its good intent, can end up alienating the customer with multiple messages, dated product information, and irrelevant content.

The key challenge for a start-up is to reach its audience and communicate the value of its offerings effectively. Thus tech marketing is about building awareness amongst the target audience, and at the same time is responsible to ensure effectiveness of various campaigns and high returns of marketing spend.

A right approach to is about bringing the multiple aspects of technology production and usage together to ensure that the value of technology is realised. Effective tech marketing is thus dependent on a deeper involvement in the business of technology and in the business of the technology user. It is a value-first approach, enabled by bringing together dissimilar skills. It is, for all businesses, and especially for a start-up, a critical ingredient for success and growth.

The writer is founder and CEO, Advaiya, a technology and marketing services company