Tag Archives: technology

Boots on the Ground, NOW

How many of you have used the phrase “boots on the ground“?

By Tony Lama – http://www.totalposters.com, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=135504474

In the “war” against competitors, your company needs “boots on the ground”…especially for on-premise deployments.

I’ve known a couple of companies that didn’t realize that they lacked boots on the ground…and that they had no plan to get the boots on the ground that they definitely needed.

This doesn’t just affect a company’s products. It also affects a company’s content.

Company X brainstorms

Company X was a new software solutions provider that had an internal brainstorming channel, and one person made the following suggestion:

Why stop at providing software solutions to our customers? Why not provide complete solutions with both software and hardware?

Now you NEVER want to totally shoot down a brainstorming idea, but it’s appropriate to consider the positives and negatives of any brainstorm. I won’t delve into ALL the negatives of shifting from a software solution to a software/hardware solution (profit margins, delivery times, etc.), but I will focus on one:

If you deploy integrated software and hardware solutions, you are responsible for MAINTAINING them.

What does this mean?

  • This means that you have to hire employees with hardware maintenance expertise, or you have to hire managers who can oversee subcontractors with hardware maintenance expertise.
  • For certain products (such as those Company X sold), customers demand fast response times. Maybe a 2-hour response. Maybe a 5-minute response.
  • Customers won’t wait a week for a maintenance technician to show up at their site. Broken hardware grinds business to a halt, and customer’s won’t tolerate that.
  • And they DEFINITELY won’t send the hardware off to a distant facility for repair.

As a pure software firm, Company X had few if any people qualified to perform the necessary maintenance activities.

But at least Company X had SOME people to consider these issues. Company Y wasn’t so fortunate.

Company Y sells

Company Y was also a software solutions provider. Company Y wanted to break into a particular industry in a particular country. I won’t reveal the industry, but I will reveal the target country: the United States.

Company Y developed and delivered a sales pitch that talked about the importance of the industry in question, and how the company could deliver a solution for that industry in the U.S.

But it glossed over one thing: Company Y had very few people in the U.S. at the time. Oh, they were working on hiring some more people in the United States, but at the time they didn’t have many.

And it was painfully obvious that Company Y’s U.S. presence was lacking. While talking about the expectations of different generations of people in the industry, the company rep referred to “Generation Zed.” For anyone listening to the sales pitch, that sent up an immediate red flag.

From https://makeameme.org/meme/you-aint-from-473654aef5

Now I’ll be the first to admit that American English may not be considered the most advanced English in the world. After all, we spell many words with an abundance of z’s…whoops, I mean an abundance of zeds.

From https://jakubmarian.com/is-american-english-simplified-and-british-english-traditional/

If you’re going to do business in the United States, you have to speak our language. And we Americans will be criticised (with an s) when we don’t speak another country’s language.

So when do you buy boots?

If you need boots on the ground to fight your competitors, you have to…well, you have to obtain boots on the ground. But when?

  1. One option is to wait until you need them, and THEN buy the boots. Wait until someone actually buys your software/hardware solution, or wait until you actually have a U.S. contract in your industry. No need to spend money on resources if you never use them, and if you do need the resources later, they’ll be able to ramp up quickly…right?
  2. The other option is to take the risk and put the boots in your closet NOW, so that when a customer calls upon you to deliver, you don’t embarrass yourself. This financially costs your company, but you’ll be primed and prepared to move forward when the business does come.

So let’s talk about your content

You don’t only need boots on the ground to deploy your products. You need boots on the ground to create the content that will entice prospects to BUY those same products.

You’ve been meaning to create that content for a while, but just haven’t gotten around to it. After all, there’s a financial cost in hiring an employee or a contractor (like Bredemarket) to create the content, and there’s an opportunity cost in taking one of your existing employees and tasking them with content creation.

So you haven’t created the content you need for your business.

And you’re probably not going to create it next week either.

Or next month.

Or next year.

Unless you move forward NOW and bring in some boots on the ground, namely Bredemarket, to work with you and create the content you desperately need.

Drive content results with Bredemarket Technology Firm Services.

Are you ready to move forward, or are you going to stay in place?

Or retreat?

You’re Doing It Wrong™: One Piece of Collateral Isn’t Enough

If you create a single piece of collateral for your product or service and say that you’ve completed your job, “you’re doing it wrong™.”

Product marketers and content marketers know that you’re just starting.

John Bonini on content vs. channel

John Bonini advises that you separate the content from the channel.

What most companies practice is not actually content marketing. It’s channel marketing.

They’re not marketing the content. They’re marketing the channel.

From LinkedIn.

You can express a single thought on multiple channels. And as far as I’m concerned, the more the merrier.

Me on “expert” advice on social media channel adoption

Incidentally, that’s why I object to the “expert” advice that I master one social media channel first before branching out into others.

If I adopt that strategy and ONLY market on LinkedIn and ignore Instagram and TikTok, I am automatically GUARANTEEING that the potential Instagram and TikTok audiences will never hear about my offer.

“How I Expanded 1 Idea into 31 Pieces of Content”

I’ve expressed my thoughts on this social media “expert” advice before:

The latter post, entitled “How I Expanded 1 Idea into 31 Pieces of Content,” described how…well, the title is pretty self-explanatory. I created 31 pieces of content based on a single idea.

Create Technology Content That Converts

The 31 pieces of content, published both through the Bredemarket channels (see above) and via my personal channels (including my jebredcal blog and my LinkedIn page), all increased the chance that SOMEONE would see the underlying message: “Your prospects don’t care about your technology.” Each piece of content was tuned for the particular channel and its target audience, ensuring that the message would resonate.

By Christian Gidlöf – Photo taken by Christian Gidlöf, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2065930

As I often say, repurposing is good.

Speaking of repurposing, I’ve already adapted the words above and published them in four different ways (this is the fourth)…and counting. No TikTok video yet though.

Can Bredemarket help you repurpose or create content?

And if I can do this for me, I can do this for you.

Bredemarket can help you create content that converts prospects and drives content results. Why?

If you’re sold on using Bredemarket to create customer-focused messaging (remember: your prospects don’t care about your technology), or even if you’re not and just want to talk about your needs, there are three ways to move forward with your content project. Or you can just join the Bredemarket mailing list to stay informed.

  • Book a meeting with me at calendly.com/bredemarket. Be sure to fill out the information form so I can best help you.
From calendly.com/bredemarket. 
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Technology Firms: Drive Content Results

Does your technology firm need written content—blog posts, articles, case studies, white papers?

Why do you need this content, and what is your goal?

How will you create the content? Do you need an extra, experienced hand to help out?

Learn how Bredemarket can create content that drives results for your technology firm.

Click the image below.

Drive content results with Bredemarket Technology Firm Services.

#contentmarketing #technology

Your Prospects Don’t Care About Your Technology

By Intel Free Press – https://www.flickr.com/photos/intelfreepress/8652715478/sizes/o/in/photostream/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27917712

Technologists, you know how tough it is to create a technology product.

  • You have to assemble the technology, or perhaps create the technology yourself.
  • You have to work on the most minute details and make sure that everything is just right.
  • It takes a great deal of effort.

What if your product story is ignored?

But when you want to tell the story about your product, and all the effort you put into it, your prospects ignore everything you say. You might as well not be there.

Designed by Freepik. And yes, you need to woo your prospects.

Do you know why your prospects are ignoring you?

Because they don’t care about you. It’s all about them.

People want to satisfy their own needs

But the “it’s all about me” attitude is actually a GOOD thing, if you can harness it in your messaging. Let’s face it; we all have an “it’s all about me” attitude because we want to satisfy our needs.

  • You want to satisfy your own needs because you only care about selling your product.
  • I want to satisfy my own needs because I only care about selling Bredemarket’s services. (I’ll get to the selling part later.)
  • And your prospects want to satisfy their own needs because they only care about their problems. And because of your customers’ self-focus, they’re only going to care about your product if it solves their problems.

So when it’s time to tell the story about your product, don’t talk about your technology.

Adopt a customer focus

Instead of talking about you, talk about them.

From the Gary Fly / Brooks Group article “7 Tips for Implementing a Customer-Centric Strategy,” at https://brooksgroup.com/sales-training-blog/7-tips-implementing-customer-centric-strategy/

Adopt a customer focus and talk about things that your prospects care about, such as how your product will solve their problems.

  • Do your customers struggle for visibility, or awareness? Will your technology help their visibility?
  • Do your customers struggle when considered against the competition? Will your technology help them stand out?
  • Do your customers struggle to make money (conversion)? Will your technology help them make money?
  • Do your customers require better ease of use, speed, accuracy, or other benefits? Do the features of your technology provide those benefits?

In short, your customers need to understand how you can solve their problems.

How do you adopt a customer focus?

But how can you make sure that your story resonates with your prospects?

Perhaps you need a guide to work with you to craft your story. Yes, I can serve as a guide to solve YOUR problem.

If you’re interested in how Bredemarket, the technology content marketing expert, can help you create a customer-focused story for your prospects, find out how to create technology content that converts…

Create Technology Content That Converts

Quick Tech Takes on Speech Neuroprosthesis, AEM Dynamic Media, and Graph Databases in IAM

Yes, I’m stealing the Biometric Update practice of combining multiple items into a single post, but this lets me take a brief break from identity (mostly) and examine three general technology stories:

  • Advances in speech neuroprosthesis (the Pat Bennett / Stanford University story).
  • The benefits of Dynamic Media for Adobe Enterprise Manager users, as described by KBWEB Consult.
  • The benefits of graph databases for Identity and Access Management (IAM) implementations, as described by IndyKite.

Speech Neuroprosthesis

First, let’s define “neuroprosthetics/neuroprosthesis”:

Neuroprosthetics “is a discipline related to neuroscience and biomedical engineering concerned with developing neural prostheses, artificial devices to replace or improve the function of an impaired nervous system.

From: Neuromodulation (Second Edition), 2018

Various news sources highlighted the story of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patient Pat Bennett and her somewhat-enhanced ability to formulate words, resulting from research at Stanford University.

Diagram of a human highlighting the areas affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). By PaulWicks – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=130714816

Because I was curious, I sought the Nature article that discussed the research in detail, “A high-performance speech neuroprosthesis.” The article describes a proof of concept of a speech brain-computer interface (BCI).

Here we demonstrate a speech-to-text BCI that records spiking activity from intracortical microelectrode arrays. Enabled by these high-resolution recordings, our study participant—who can no longer speak intelligibly owing to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—achieved a 9.1% word error rate on a 50-word vocabulary (2.7 times fewer errors than the previous state-of-the-art speech BCI2) and a 23.8% word error rate on a 125,000-word vocabulary (the first successful demonstration, to our knowledge, of large-vocabulary decoding). Our participant’s attempted speech was decoded  at 62 words per minute, which is 3.4 times as fast as the previous record8 and begins to approach the speed of natural conversation (160 words per minute9).

From https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06377-x

While a 125,000 word vocabulary is impressive (most adult native English speakers have a vocabulary of 20,000-35,000 words), a 76.2% accuracy rate is so-so.

Stanford Medicine published a more lay-oriented article and a video that described Bennett’s condition, and the results of the study.

For Bennett, the (ALS) deterioration began not in her spinal cord, as is typical, but in her brain stem. She can still move around, dress herself and use her fingers to type, albeit with increasing difficulty. But she can no longer use the muscles of her lips, tongue, larynx and jaws to enunciate clearly the phonemes — or units of sound, such as sh — that are the building blocks of speech….

After four months, Bennett’s attempted utterances were being converted into words on a computer screen at 62 words per minute — more than three times as fast as the previous record for BCI-assisted communication.

From https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2023/08/brain-implant-speech-als.html
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaWb1ukmYHQ

The Benefits of AEM Dynamic Media

Now let’s shift to companies that need to produce marketing collateral. Bredemarket produces collateral, but not to the scale that big companies need to produce. A single company may have to produce millions of pieces of collateral, each of which is specific to a particular product, in a particular region, for a particular audience/persona. Even Bredemarket could potentially produce all sorts of content, if it weren’t so difficult to do so:

  • A YouTube description of the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service, targeted to fingerprint/face marketing executives in the identity industry.
  • An Instagram carousel post about the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service, targeted to voice sales executives in the identity industry.
  • A TikTok reel about the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service, targeted to marketing executives in the AI industry.

All of this specialized content, using all of these different image and video formats? I’m not gonna create all that.

But as KBWEB Consult (a boutique technology consulting firm specializing in the implementation and delivery of Adobe Enterprise Cloud technologies) points out in its article “Implementing Rapid Omnichannel Messaging with AEM Dynamic Media,” Adobe Experience Manager has tools to speed up this process and create correctly-messaged content in ALL the formats for ALL the audiences.

One of those tools is Dynamic Media.

AEM Dynamic Media accelerates omnichannel personalization, ensuring your business messages are presented quickly and in the proper formats. Starting with a master file, Dynamic Media quickly adjusts images and videos to satisfy varying asset specifications, contributing to increased content velocity.

From https://kbwebconsult.com/implementing-rapid-omnichannel-messaging-with-aem-dynamic-media/

For those who aren’t immersed in marketing talk:

Fair use, from https://www.racers-behindthehelmet.com/post/first-historic-pole-position-and-podium-for-antonella-bassani-in-porsche-cup-brasil. Photo credits: Porsche Cup Brasil.

The article also discusses further implementation issues that are of interest to AEM users. If you are such a user, check the article out.

Graph Databases in Identity and Access Management (IAM)

I previously said that I was MOSTLY taking a break from identity, but graph databases impact items well beyond identity.

So what is a graph database?

By Originally uploaded by Ahzf (Transferred by Obersachse) – Originally uploaded on en.wikipedia, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19279472

A graph database, also referred to as a semantic database, is a software application designed to store, query and modify network graphs. A network graph is a visual construct that consists of nodes and edges. Each node represents an entity (such as a person) and each edge represents a connection or relationship between two nodes. 

Graph databases have been around in some variation for along time. For example, a family tree is a very simple graph database…. 

Graph databases are well-suited for analyzing interconnections…

From https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/graph-database

The claim is that the interconnection analysis capabilities of graph databases are much more flexible and comprehensive than the capabilities of traditional relational databases. While graph databases are not always better than relational databases, they are better for cerrtain types of data.

To see how this applies to identity and access management (IAM), I’ll turn to IndyKite, whose Lasse Andersen recently presented on graph database use in IAM (in a webinar sponsored by Strativ Group). IndyKite describes its solution as follows (in part):

A knowledge graph that holistically captures the identities of customers and IoT devices along with the rich relationships between them

A dynamic and real-time data model that unifies disconnected identity data and business metadata into one contextualized layer

From https://www.indykite.com/identity-knowledge-graph

So what?

From https://www.digitalcheck.com/postal-banking-no-need-to-play-the-political-game/

For example, how does such a solution benefit banking and financial services providers who wish to support financial identity?

Identity-first security to enable trusted, seamless customer experiences

From https://www.indykite.com/banking

Yes, I know that every identity company (with one exception) uses the word “trust,” and they all use the word “seamless.”

But this particular technology benefits banking customers (at least the honest ones) by using the available interconnections to provide all the essential information about the customer and the customer’s devices, in a way that does not inconvenience the customer. IndyKite claims “greater privacy and security,” along with flexibility for future expansion.

In other words, it increases velocity.

What is your technology story?

I hope you provided this quick overview of these three technology advances.

But do you have a technology story that YOU want to tell?

Perhaps Bredemarket, the technology content marketing expert, can help you select the words to tell your story. If you’re interested in talking, let me know.

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This Post Has Nothing to Do With Age Verification

My previous post on the complexity of multi-purpose devices included the phrase “When I was a kid.”

Probably shouldn’t have done that.

By Vinther et al. – 3D Camouflage in an Ornithischian Dinosaur, Current Biology (2016), https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.06.065, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51767365

There’s a Reason Why “Tech” is a Four-Letter Word

By Tomia, original image en:User:Polylerus – Own work (Vector drawing based on Image:Profanity.JPG), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3332425

We often use the phrase “four-letter word” to refer to cuss words that shouldn’t be said in polite company. Occasionally, we have our own words that we personally consider to be four-letter words. (Such as “BIPA.”)

There are some times when we resign ourselves to the fact that “tech” can be a four-letter word also. But there’s actually a good reason for the problems we have with today’s technology.

Tech can be dim

Just this week I was doing something on my smartphone and my screen got really dim all of a sudden, with no explanation.

So I went to my phone’s settings, and my brightness setting was down at the lowest level.

For no reason.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

– Arthur C. Clarke, quoted here.
From https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202613

So I increased my screen’s brightness, and everything was back to normal. Or so I thought.

A little while later, my screen got dim again, so I went to the brightness setting…and was told that my brightness was very high. (Could have fooled me.)

I can’t remember what I did next (because when you are trying to fix something you can NEVER remember what you did next), but later my screen brightness was fine.

For no reason.

Arthur C. Clark, by ITU Pictures – https://www.flickr.com/photos/itupictures/16636142906, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64344486

Was Arthur C. Clarke right? And if so, WHY was he right?

Perhaps it’s selective memory, but I don’t recall having this many technology problems when I was younger.

The shift to multi-purpose devices

Part of the reason for the increasing complexity of technology is that we make fewer and fewer single-purpose devices, and are manufacturing more and more multi-purpose devices.

One example of the shift: if I want to write a letter today, I can write it on my smartphone. (Assuming the screen is bright enough.) This same smartphone can perform my banking activities, play games, keep track of Bredemarket’s earnings…oh, and make phone calls.

Smartphones are an example of technologial convergence:

Technological convergence is a term that describes bringing previously unrelated technologies together, often in a single device. Smartphones might be the best possible example of such a convergence. Prior to the widespread adoption of smartphones, consumers generally relied on a collection of single-purpose devices. Some of these devices included telephones, wrist watches, digital cameras and global positioning system (GPS) navigators. Today, even low-end smartphones combine the functionality of all these separate devices, easily replacing them in a single device.

From a consumer perspective, technological convergence is often synonymous with innovation.

From https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatacenter/definition/technological-convergence

And the smartphone example certainly demonstrates innovation from the previous-generation single-purpose devices.

When I was a kid, if I wanted to write a letter, I had two choices:

  1. I could set a piece of paper on the table and write the letter with a writing implement such as a pen or pencil.
  2. I could roll a piece of paper into a typewriter and type the letter.

These were, for the most part, single purpose devices. Sure I could make a paper airplane out of the piece of paper, but I couldn’t use the typewriter to play a game or make a phone call.

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1216813

Turning our attention to the typewriter, it certainly was a manufacturing marvel, and intricate precision was required to design the hammers that would hit the typewritter ribbon and leave their impressions on the piece of paper. And typewriters could break, and repairmen (back then they were mostly men) could fix them.

A smartphone is much more innovative than a smartphone. But it’s infinitely harder to figure out what is wrong with a smartphone.

The smartphone hardware alone is incredibly complex, with components from a multitude of manufacturers. Add the complexities of the operating system and all the different types of software that are loaded on a smartphone, and a single problem could result from a myriad of causes.

No wonder it seems like magic, even for the best of us.

Explaining technology

But this complexity has provided a number of jobs:

  • The helpful person at your cellular service provider who has acquired just enough information to recognize and fix an errant application.
  • The many people in call centers (the legitimate call centers, not the “we found a problem with your Windows computer” call scammers) who perform the same tasks at a distance.
By Earl Andrew at English Wikipedia – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17793658
  • All the people who write instructions on how to use and fix all of our multi-purpose devices, from smartphones to computers to remote controls.

Oh, and the people that somehow have to succinctly explain to prospects why these multi-purpose devices are so great.

Because no one’s going to run into problems with technology unless they acquire the technology. And your firm has to get them to acquire your technology.

Crafting a technology marketing piece

So your firm’s marketer or writer has to craft some type of content that will make a prospect aware of your technology, and/or induce the prospect to consider purchasing the technology, and/or ideally convert the prospect into a paying customer.

Before your marketer or writer crafts the content, they have to answer some basic questions.

By Evan-Amos – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11293857

Using a very simple single-purpose example of a hammer, here are the questions with explanations:

  • Why does the prospect need this technology? And why do you provide this technology? This rationale for why you are in business, and why your product exists, will help you make the sale. Does your prospect want to buy a hammer from a company that got tired of manufacturing plastic drink stirrers, or do they want to buy a hammer from a forester who wants to empower people to build useful items?
  • How does your firm provide this technology? If I want to insert a nail into a piece of wood, do I need to attach your device to an automobile or an aircraft carrier? No, the hammer will fit in your hand. (Assuming you have hands.)
  • What is the technology? Notice that the “why” and “how” questions come before the “what” question, because “why” and “how” are more critical. But you still have to explain what the technology is (with the caveat I mention below). Perhaps some of your prospects have no idea what a hammer is. Don’t assume they already know.
  • What is the goal of the technology? Does a hammer help you floss your teeth? No, it puts nails into wood.
  • What are the benefits of the technology? When I previously said that you should explain what the technology is, most prospects aren’t looking for detailed schematics. They primarily care about what the technology will do for them. For example, that hammer can keep their wooden structure from falling down. They don’t care about the exact composition of the metal in the hammer head.
  • Finally, who is the target audience for the technology? I don’t want to read through an entire marketing blurb and order a basic hammer, only to discover later that the product won’t help me keep two diamonds together but is really intended for wood. So don’t send an email to jewelers about your hammer. They have their own tools.
By Mauro Cateb – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90944472

(UPDATE OCTOBER 23, 2023: “SIX QUESTIONS YOUR CONTENT CREATOR SHOULD ASK YOU IS SO 2022. DOWNLOAD THE NEWER “SEVEN QUESTIONS YOUR CONTENT CREATOR SHOULD ASK YOU” HERE.)

Once you answer these questions (more about the six questions in the Bredemarket e-book available here), your marketer or writer can craft your content.

Or, if you need help, Bredemarket (the technology content marketing expert) can craft your content, whether it’s a blog post, case study, white paper, or something else.

I’ve helped other technology firms explain their “hammers” to their target audiences, explaining the benefits, and answering the essential “why” questions about the hammers.

Can I help your technology firm communicate your message? Contact me.

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Technology firms and qualitative benefits

If you are a technology business who is communicating the benefits of your products or services, don’t assume that these benefits have to be quantified. Qualitative benefits can work just as well.

CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=308760

But what are benefits?

As Kayla Carmichael has noted, features answer the “what” question, while benefits answer the “why” question.

From https://blog.hubspot.com/customers/3-takeaways-from-start-with-why

She notes that a company’s clients don’t care if your vacuum cleaner has a washable lifetime filter. That’s just a feature, or what the product does.

Your clients care about eliminating extra costs, which is the benefit that the washable lifetime filter provides, and why the client should care.

How do you discover benefits?

Let’s say your boss tells you to write about the washable lifetime filter. Imagine that you’re conversing with one of your clients, and you tell them that your vacuum cleaner has a washable lifetime filter.

Now imagine that your client responds…

…”So what?“

You respond that the client only has to buy one filter, rather than buying a new one every few months.

“So what?”

(Yes, your client may ask the “so what” question several times, like a small child. And you should do the same, to dive down into the true benefits of a particular feature.)

By Mindaugas Danys from Vilnius, Lithuania, Lithuania – scream and shout, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44907034

To the client’s last “so what” question, you respond that the client will save money!

Now the client is impressed and knows why they should care about your washable lifetime filter.

Quantitative benefits are great

In certain cases, the client may be even more impressed if the benefits can be expressed in numeric form.

For example, let’s say that a disposable vacuum cleaner filter costs $35 and lasts for 6 months. I have no idea whether these numbers are accurate; my last name isn’t Hoover, after all.

By Marion S. Trikosko – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs divisionunder the digital ID ppmsc.03262.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64381
By Library of Congress – http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/thumbnail339.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71911329

Whoops, not those Hoovers. I couldn’t find a picture of William Henry “Boss” Hoover or son Herbert William Hoover Sr.

Back to my guesses about disposable vacuum cleaner filters. If my numbers are correct, you can tell your client that your washable lifetime filter can save the client $700 over a ten-year period. Depending on your price points, the savings may be more than the cost of the vacuum cleaner itself. (Again, I’m not Hoover, so don’t quote me.)

With a couple of fancy leaps of logic, you could then say to the client:

“Would you like to MAKE money by buying this vacuum cleaner?”

Hey, whatever works. I’m a marketer, not a salesperson.

But qualitative benefits can be just as great

You can’t always quantify benefits, because to quantify benefits you need data, and you may not have the data close at hand. The data may not even exist.

This won’t stop your marketing efforts, though, since qualitative benefits can be just as powerful as quantative ones.

I’m going to take the marketer’s easy way out and just cite something that Apple did. I’ll admit that Apple sometimes has some pretty stupid statements (“It’s black!“).

But sometimes the company grabs people’s attention with its messaging.

Take this July 2022 article, “How Apple is empowering people with their health information.”

You probably already saw the words “empowering people” in the title. Sure, people like health information…but they really like power.

By Andreas Bohnenstengel, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61536009

There are more examples within the article:

  • Referring to an underlying report, the article states that “The first section describes Apple’s focus on personal health and fitness features on Apple Watch and iPhone that offer actionable, science-based insights.” So what? It turns out these actionable, science-based insights “help protect users’ health and safety.”
  • Apple’s chief operating officer, Jeff Williams, is quoted as saying “We believe passionately that technology can play a role in improving health outcomes.” Nice, but Williams subsequently returns to the power theme: “…they’re no longer passengers on their own health journey. Instead, we want people to be firmly in the driver’s seat.”

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Apple has referred to empowering the individual. The company has done this for decades. Remember (then) Apple Computer’s slogan, “The Power to Be Your Best”? If you missed that particular slogan, here’s a commercial.

From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5S9VvMMxhU

There’s not one statistic in that commercial. It doesn’t say that the Macintosh computer would equip you to jump 5% higher, or sing on key 99.9% of the time. And Apple Computer didn’t claim that the Macintosh would equip you to draw bridge images 35.2% faster.

But the viewer could see that a Macintosh computer, with its graphical user interface, its support of then-new graphic programs, and (not shown in the ad) the ability to distribute the output of these graphic programs via laser printers, gave Macintosh users the power to…well, the power to be their best.

And some potential computer buyers perceived that this power provided infinite value.

As you work out your benefit statements, don’t give up if the benefits cannot be quantified. As long as the benefits resonate with the customer, qualitative benefits are just fine.

What are your benefits?

Before you draft your marketing material, or ask someone to draft it for you, you need to decide what your benefits are.

I’ve written a book about benefits, and five other things that you need to settle before creating marketing content.

Click on the image below, find the e-book at the bottom of the page, and skip to page 11 to read about benefits.

Feel free to read the rest of the book also.

See https://bredemarket.com/techhow/

What Technologists Should Do Before Commissioning Thought Leadership Pieces

“Thought leadership” is the rage in all sorts of enterprises, including technology companies.

By CrisNYCa – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94532194

But should you hop on the bandwagon? And if you do, how should you proceed?

Why technology thought leadership is important

Should you hop on the thought leadership bandwagon? I suggest that you should.

Why? Michael Brenner’s “The Smart CIO’s Guide to Thought Leadership in Tech” explains.

Tech is the fastest-changing industry in the world. New innovations, tools, and capabilities are continuously reshaping the way every company does business….

Companies of all types, then, turn to tech thought leadership to understand emerging trends and potential disruptions.

For CIOs and other tech thought leaders, this presents a huge opportunity. Establishing yourself as a tech thought leader gives you a wide audience and a platform for increasing your brand’s (and your own) visibility.

From https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/thought-leadership-in-tech/

Benefits for your business and yourself? Sounds like a win-win to me. Be sure to read Brenner’s article for more of his thoughts.

Who should write the thought leadership piece?

Ready to be a thought leader? You need to get someone to write the thought leadership piece.

  • You could write it yourself.
  • You could have someone write it for you.
  • You could work with a writer and collaboratively create the piece.

How you work is up to you. Perhaps you have communication experience and know how to convey technical thoughts to non-technical audiences. Or perhaps you dread writing and would love to pass that task to someone else.

Now what?

Once you’ve decided who will write your thought leadership piece, you don’t want to just start typing. You need to prepare.

Whether you’re writing the first draft, or someone else is writing the first draft, you need to specify your needs for the piece.

And ask some questions before you start writing.

Click on the image below to find out what questions you need to ask.

See https://bredemarket.com/techhow/