In a world that is increasingly using information and communication technologies, B2B/B2G high-tech companies obviously cannot remain on the sidelines of this general movement and must use digital to serve their marketing and communication.
Le high-tech B2B/B2G face au marketing digital
Consumer companies have been using digital in their marketing and applying it for about fifteen years now. Even if the shift was sometimes brutal and somewhat difficult for marketing departments because it required so many new skills, they have integrated it all the more easily because it was designed for them from the start.
The situation for technology companies is slightly different as digital marketing tools and techniques must be both selected and adapted to their particular context.
They are interested in what these tools and techniques can do for them, but frequently encounter two types of difficulties:
- A “marketing techniques” difficulty: very comfortable with technology in general and IT in particular, they easily use these “new technologies” to innovate their products and services, as well as using them as productivity or collaborative work tools in their “digital transformation”. However, some of them are surprisingly less at ease when it comes to using them in their marketing and communication. Perhaps because they already have some difficulty in clarifying the place that marketing in general should occupy in their organisation and lack specialists, they have even more difficulty in clarifying the role of digital within their marketing and communication
- A “cultural” difficulty: as the word marketing is itself often associated with irrelevant mainstream marketing, “digital marketing” is often even more so: “we’re not going to communicate on Facebook! A way of closing the debate.
However, if we take a closer look and with less preconceived ideas, a communication strategy and actions using digital media can be very useful in the context of marketing and communication in the technological world. It is simply a question of a well understood digital selecting the means of action specifically adapted to the universe, the markets and the products of the company, among means such as:
- Websites,
- Blogs
- Social networks
- Newsletters or mailings
- Mobile applications.
Digital tools and techniques for marketing and communication
There is an exponential growth in the supply of techniques and tools to facilitate digital communication.
Some of these tools and techniques have both internal and external applications.
The use of these tools and techniques for marketing and communication purposes may prove to be:
A powerful means of monitoring, information and anticipation
Digital is a powerful means of monitoring, gathering information, first investigation, anticipating markets, customers, products, competitors, startups, as well as anticipating trends or detecting opportunities.
This is the case, for example, through:
- Keyword searches on search engines such as Google
- Special tools such as the setting of “google alerts” for example
- The use of artificial intelligence to “make information or too much data talk
- Even if they are a bit out of fashion, RSS feed aggregators grouping together the feeds to which one is subscribed
- Follow the Twitter accounts of influential people or specialists in a given theme, with the advantage of near-real time
- Social media whose content is mainly generated by users and some of which may be oriented towards professional uses or built around the users’ profile. Among these, LinkedIn has taken on a special role, becoming a directory, source of information, communication and recruitment space
- The company’s internal social or collaborative network (CSR), which will allow information from outside the company to be circulated, as well as more confidential internal information
- The use of its website(s) as a tool for dialogue and exchange
A powerful means of identification
Digital is a powerful way of identifying your company and its products:
- Through natural or paid search engine optimization (SEO)
- On social media and here again on LinkedIn or by being identifiable as an expert on twitter and by using its “echo chamber” effect.
A powerful communication tool
Digital is an effective way to send messages to markets and customers
- Through all means of online communication and advertising
Digital is also an effective means of exchange and personalised dialogue with each customer, with groups of customers or types of decision-makers or influencers
It allows to communicate more specifically around specific actions to support:
- The use of new technology
- The acquisition of a company
- Launching a new physical product or a new version
- Offering a new service
We can see that digital marketing and communication are far from being reserved for the general public. The question is not so much one of usefulness as of usefulness:
- The choice and “calibration” of the most effective techniques and tools for the company, taking into account its business, its markets and its products
- The effective combination of these techniques and tools in an efficient communication mix for the communication/promotion plan
- The availability of sufficient budgets because the use of these techniques and tools will require the implementation of platforms, the acquisition of tools, the subscription to services, the use of external service providers, etc.
