By Linda Moran and Francis Moran
Hey there, small or medium B2B technology company: Have you thought about what your actions are saying to your customers? Even if you don’t think you can afford a big company’s expensive embrace of high-touch customer service, at least you can stop shooting yourself in the foot. Here are six little things you might be doing, all of which tell your customers you don’t really care about them.
By Anil Dilawri
I saw close to 300 business presentations last year – lucky me.
Unfortunately, most of them were not very good. They were just plain boring and resulted in the most tragic response from their audiences – indifference. That’s right. In most cases when I asked audience members for their thoughts following a presentation, they responded with shrugs of their shoulders. They would say “I don’t know” or some other meaningless comment that really meant “I don’t care.”
Our blog is taking a break today as we enjoy Family Day in Ontario and our U.S. readers observe President’s Day. We would like to take this opportunity to express a warm thank you to all of our readers. Our blog recently passed 1,000 posts thanks to your continued interest and support.
By Francis Moran
Ah, tech marketing. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
1. The learning curve can be wonderfully steep
It’s not true of all the tech companies and products I have worked with during my 25-year career, but my favourite clients have invariably been the ones that require me to go deep in order to understand them. I don’t have an iron ring on my pinkie finger and although I was once a Canadian math Olympiad, I abandoned the maths and sciences in favour of writing, journalism and business strategy when I hit university. (However, I couldn’t resist taking Calculus — as an elective! — in first year. And it was my best mark.) So it’s a real blast for this engineering wannabe when the subject matter is technically dense and I have to learn all kinds of new stuff. I’m an old dog but learning new tricks is one of my favourite things.
My enthusiasm for complex scientific and engineering subject matter does translate into a swift understanding of all aspects of a technology client’s business, something that has been a key differentiator for me over the years.
By Leo Valiquette
We were back at full steam last month after a welcome holiday break in December. In addition to our usual counsel about effective and strategic marketing practices, we featured guest posts on topics ranging from the ongoing patent battle between Apple and Samsung to regional economic development, how music affects the brain and the future of venture capital in Canada. There was even something about bootleggers, smugglers and a certain big football game.
In case you missed any of it, here is a handy recap of our posts, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
Jan. 8: Five new year’s resolutions all marketers must adopt, by Francis Moran
Jan. 15: The revitalization of the Canadian venture capital sector, by Chris Arsenault
Jan. 16: Let me wave my magical content wand, by Tara Hunt
Jan. 29: It takes more than bricks and mortar to build a regional economy, by Denzil Doyle
Jan. 22: A primer on strategic thinking, by Caroline Kealey
Jan. 09: When the cat’s already out of the bag …, by Leo Valiquette
Jan. 30: Bananatag discovers the marketing power of good press, by Fiona Campbell
Jan. 21: Music and the brain, by Bob Bailly
Jan. 14: Making the business case, face to face, by Leo Valiquette and John Hill
Jan. 04: First-time entrepreneurs: There are big ideas, and then there are doable ideas, by Alexandra Reid
Jan. 28: Do you know what your customer actually wants?, by Maurice Smith
Jan. 24: Customer service must be a deliberate strategy, by Francis Moran
Jan. 23: Brand marketing that is inspired, but not imitative, by Leo Valiquette
Jan. 10: It takes a village … to succeed in social media, by Megan Totka
Jan. 31: Super Bowl weekend: That time of year when a marketer’s fancy turns to thoughts of…advertising?, by Francis Moran
Jan. 17: A year in the life of bringing technology to market, by Francis Moran
Jan. 02: Apple vs. Samsung: U.S. Patent Office – Challenges to patent validity, by David French
Jan. 03: Holiday lessons for anyone trying to get their tech to market, by Leo Valiquette
Image: The Printable Calendar
