Google’s parent company, Alphabet, recently posted the first revenue decline in its history. Meanwhile, the Advertising Association predicts that UK ad spend will decline across all categories (including digital) for the first time ever. A challenging market makes it more critical than ever to communicate a clear proposition, demonstrate return on investment, and rise above the noise.
Platform Communications just published the “How to Stand Out from the Adtech Crowd” report, which is designed to help companies navigate the communications landscape. The report includes input from many of the world’s leading journalists and analysts, together with our recommendations.
Read More 3 Adtech Predictions for Marketers in 2020
Here are our top tips for successful communications.
Get your message right
The ad tech industry is developing at an incredible pace. It’s not always easy for media and analysts to immediately see why a particular product or service is truly different. As one leading analyst commented in our report: “the biggest challenge is standing out from the crowd.”
Marketers must ensure that spokespeople are well prepared to explain complex technologies with clear, audience-focused benefits. They must be capable of articulating why the company’s innovations really matter. It’s vital to avoid jargon and make sure you build out strong proof-points.
Creating strong messaging will make it much more likely that you’ll be seen as an industry leader and get good coverage.
Be part of the industry conversation
The good news is that there are many hot topics to talk about, including maximizing ROI, data protection, measurement, brand protection, and transparency. Marketers can develop thought-leadership topics to position their brand as a source of trusted advice to their audiences. Companies need to demonstrate an awareness of what the broader customer challenges are.
Establish mutually beneficial relationships
Building strong relationships will definitely go a long way to ensuring success. John Moulding, the editor at Video net, highlighted an example of relationship-building done well: “One company sent a spokesperson to spend two hours with me; they were deeply involved in the product development and a new go-to-market strategy.”
This takes more than just setting up a meeting; it’s about taking the time to prepare good stories and in-depth insight. John Moulding added: “They got more PR over a three year period as a result, because I understood – at a much deeper level – what they did.”
Keep your company in front of mind
A typical sales cycle can last anywhere from a couple of weeks to two years. It’s important that your company remains front of mind to potential customers throughout. A well-planned content strategy can help you keep the conversation going – and provide the proof that’s needed to close the deal.
It involves creating the right stories and then delivering them in the right medium – across your own channels, plus earned and paid media. This typically involves a mix of news announcements, blogs, case studies, articles, original research, and reports. It’s important to make sure that sales teams are involved in planning topics and channels. This will ensure that content marketing actively supports the real-world conversations that your sales teams need to have.
Read More Inbound Sales – Content Marketing is Beyond Mere Content Publishing
The truth is that people purchase from people that they see as being active and credible. The pandemic has made it more challenging than ever to network with customers and prospects – with big events like DMEXCO happening virtually. The platform does a lot of work with clients on what we call “Social Influencers” campaigns. This involves ensuring that selected experts within companies are seen as influencers in their key strategic growth markets. We create compelling content for these experts and actively connect them with the right online conversations. Connecting your people with their prospects in this way can be game-changing.
There are many challenges for marketers in adtech, especially in today’s climate, but there are plenty of opportunities for innovative companies to stand out. Ultimately the best technologies presented well will win.
