Besides the channel and distribution, an established industry of marketing specialists can push your message across various channels, from social networks to trade press. Although these specialists are often very good in their domains, there are many specifics in enterprise IT networking, infrastructure and security market niches, which will determine the outcome of marketing activities in the SEE market. Let's explore some of them.
Two audiences: partners vs end-users
The nature of your business requires continuously addressing two specific audiences: channel partners and customers (end-users). The messaging obviously needs to be different for those two profiles. That's why we always separate and try to distinguish those two when localizing the messages and targeting.
Also, by leveraging the combined knowledge and understanding of regional B2B partner and end-user landscape, we can provide market analysis and intelligence with actionable information.
Many segments and acronyms: specialist knowledge
We know enterprise IT vendors operate in various market segments and verticals. Many of those are constantly evolving and new niches appear all the time to adjust for shifting demand, consumption models and technology trends.
As a team of industry veterans, each with 20+ years of experience in both IT vendors and distributors - from sales, marketing to tech presales roles – we have a deep understanding of the tech behind the IT acronyms as well as the technology trends driving demand for your solutions.
Our experience and technology knowledge covers (but is not limited to) topics such as:
Network and perimeter security (NGFW, SD-WAN, ZTNA, SASE, CASB, SWG...)
Endpoint Security (antimalware, EPP, EDR, XDR)
Enterprise Infrastructure (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS...)
Regulations and compliance (PCI DSS)
Mobile security and BYOD
Application security
Cloud security (Cloud workload protection, conformity security)
Vulnerability management
IoT, IioT and MioT security
Security awareness
Industry specific cybersecurity (healthcare, industrial IT, etc)
Commodity vs Solution: long sales cycle
We understand most of the times your product or service is not a commodity, but rather a solution that needs evangelizing and discovering its use cases and needs. Furthermore, B2B purchasing decisions are often driven by budgeting plans, which means the sales cycle can last multiple quarters or even years. All this means that potential customers and partners need constant and diligent nurturing to get your attention. Short lived campaigns are therefore bound to fail. We deliver local language native content that resonates with regional audiences and generates traction and engagement – from regular newsletters, custom events, lead-gen landing pages and social media to direct touch.
Conclusion
For all of the factors above, it is easier to see why marketing efforts delivered by generalist agencies will most likely fail, some of the reasons being:
Lack of understanding of your product, the market niche, value proposition, competitive positioning or general context. When creating events or content, or generally engaging with the audiences, not understanding your buyer personas or the problems you solve is a true handicap.
Lack of local language engagement: the SEE market is very fragmented and people speak different languages. One way to stand out is to shout in local language. However, the typical marketing agency will use stock translation services, often not adapted to tech lingo. Bad translations can often have a negative effect on your positioning.
Lack of focus: for solution selling where purchasing decisions take multiple quarters, a diligent and constant effort is required, rather than a short term campaign focused on one single channel (say, social network).
Interested to know more on our approach? Let’s talk – contact us!