MarketStar Blog

If you are selling enterprise technology, then you probably are selling cloud services. The cloud is here to stay, and everything-as-a-service sales are outpacing traditional enterprise software sales. Cloud services are faster to deploy, less expensive, and easier to manage. Cloud computing is being used to handle data storage, business applications hosting, custom development, and more. The cloud is driving most of today’s technology buying decisions. Migration to the cloud is also taking decision-making out of the hands of IT since you now are selling business solutions to multiple stakeholders.

Titus, current MarketStar President and COO, to replace Dave Treadway who is retiring December 31, 2018

Product marketing is all about demonstrating the value of your product to prospective customers and building a relationship with them to stand out from the competition. That said, a successful product marketer needs a complete product marketing strategy so that customers can connect with the product. 

A good product marketing strategy ensures that the product is aligned to customer needs, is well-positioned in the market and that there’s a marketing communication plan in place to spread the word. 

The following are the five essential elements of a successful product marketing strategy:1 

It was the year 2016. The campaign was a brand index and a new customer survey. The results were astounding – 90%1 of the respondents acknowledged that they have used social media in some way to talk to a brand directly. Also, over one-third of them divulged that they preferred social media over other traditional channels like phone and email.  

That was 2016! Imagine how it is today. 

Social media has come of age in recent years. Though it was conceptualized as a networking platform, over the years, it doubled up as a business development tool. Today, it’s redefining the way customer service is delivered, thanks to its influence and penetration. 

If a business is heavily counting on the traditional contact center approach, it’s time they pull up their socks. Customers are fatigued with the traditional call center approach in which waiting times are getting longer. They now seek instant answers, and that’s where social media comes to their rescue. So, should ‘trings’ become ‘clicks’? Not at all. This is the age of multi-channel customer service, and adding social media to the contact center is a call that’s worth taking. Here’s a quick rundown on the benefits of social customer service: 

Something that started as a nice-to-have channel has now overtaken other traditional channels of consumer interaction and purchase. Customers are searching for vendor information, checking user reviews, making purchases on the go with the help of mobile devices. The latest mobile usage statistic by WebDam shows that 1.4 billion people own and use smartphones globally; that is 1 in 7 people worldwide! According to a projection by ComScore, monthly data consumption by an individual using a smartphone will increase from 150MB in 2011 to 2.6GB in 2016. Mobile devices have changed the way customers think and purchase and this is evident more than ever in the year 2014.

Virtual Reality (VR) has been hailed as a revolutionary technology, promising to transform the way marketers engage with their audiences. The hype surrounding VR often suggests that its adoption is straightforward and without significant challenges. However, integrating VR into your marketing strategy requires thoughtful preparation and consideration of potential obstacles.  

It would not be an overstatement to say that every industry has been disrupted by the widespread adoption of technology. From automobiles to manufacturing and hospitality, technology has transformed businesses everywhere. Technology has also changed customer expectations, and companies are constantly adapting themselves to address this change.

Most hi-tech enterprises, including the large players, use channel partners to increase their reach and capture a larger share of the market. They know that indirect sales get access to new business opportunities faster and with lower risk. Channel partners help hi-tech enterprises to market and sell their solutions across the globe, opening new markets and creating opportunities that the internal sales team may not have access to. That’s why it is important to treat channel partners differently and not as an extension of your sales team. Their priorities lie first with the customer and then with you, and they try to integrate multiple solutions from different vendors and not necessarily sell your pure solution as it is.

If you were to ask, ‘What is that one thing online retailers constantly worry about?’, it would be gaining and retaining customers. In a world where customers are well-educated, tech-savvy, experienced shoppers, meeting their high expectations is a daunting task. They won’t compromise on either quality or price. Not to mention the problem of choice aplenty; there are alternatives for everything. How can online sellers get customers’ attention, then? Through quality products? Affordable prices? Discounts? Each plays its part, but nothing is as critical as customer experience.

Increasing focus on digitization has driven widespread adoption of technology in every aspect of business, irrespective of department, region or industry. Our dependency on technology is greater than ever before and has escalated to the point where any technological failure brings life -- both work and play -- to a grinding halt. To say that technology is essential to our productivity would be an oversimplification of our enormous dependency on it.