sell sell

marketing
Ken Valledy,
founder of Tech2Brand
www.t2blimited.com
Forewarned is forearmed
I spend a lot of my time discussing the subject of marketing with
startups. This can be anything from providing a ‘Marketing Office
hours’ session at Seedcamp to providing individual One to One
mentoring to startups at Microsoft Ventures and Techstars. All
conversations are different and are all (in their own unique way)
very rewarding. However, over time, I have come to realise that the
general understanding of the role of today’s Marketing Manager is
very out-dated and in some cases, completely off the mark.
1. The Marketing Manager holds the 'Purse Strings'
Assistant Brand Manager, Brand Manager, Senior
Brand Manager, Marketing Manager, Brand
Director, Marketing Director – lots of titles, but who
really holds the keys to the Marketing purse when it
comes to new startup tech innovation? Answer: the
Marketing Manager.
2. The Marketing Manager is a NUMBERS person
Today’s Marketing Manager has to be aware of
where every penny of their budgets is going and will
be required on numerous occasions to defend their
investments internally.
As a startup don’t be fooled by big brand budget
numbers and believe that vast amounts of funding is
available for your product. Brand budgets are now
heavily scrutinised and challenged on a daily basis
– gaining access to funds is a lot harder than it used
to be.
So what is it like to be a Marketing Manager? To help you
understand how today’s Marketing Manager (your future
customer) ticks, and the pressures that they are under, please find
below 5 key insights into their world:
4. The Marketing Manager has lots of partners
A lot of startups that I speak to aren’t aware of one of the most crucial
pieces of the brand jigsaw – the agency. Contrary to popular belief a
brand team doesn’t do everything that is required for their brand. They
have numerous agency partners to help them. These agency partners are
(and in no particular order) the Media agency, the Creative agency, the
Social Agency, the search agency, the experiential agency, the list can
go on and on.
The point here is that if you are successful in gaining some business with a
Marketing Manager, you will also be working with an allocated agency
to help you (and the brand) deliver the project in hand. In summary, the
Marketing Manager isn’t the only marketing person that you will need to
build relationships with to be successful.
3. The Marketing Manager is the MADTech expert
Marketing Managers are now under incredible
pressure to be the internal experts of the everchanging
tech scene. Firstly, they need to be aware
of what tech is out there and secondly, they need to
decide what is the best tech for their brand – both
are huge tasks that take a lot of time, patience and a
high element of risk taking.
If you can convince them that your tech is the answer
to their problems and that they need to search no
more, you will be saving them valuable time and
effort, and you will also be helping them to reinforce
their role as the company’s MADTech expert.
5. The Marketing Manager isn’t the last Gatekeeper!
Finally, even if your meeting with the Marketing Manager goes really
well and they seem very interested in working with you and your new
technology, other internal stakeholders may still have to be convinced
and this can take some time.
However, the one thing that all Marketing Managers have always had
in common is a passion and love for the brand they represent – anything
that can help their brand get ahead of the competition will always get
their attention.
If you can show that you have empathy with their needs and also share
a passion for their brand, you will definitely be a step ahead of your
competition.
GOOD LUCK!
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