As someone who works in marketing, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate utilizing a martech solution that fits into our agency tech stack – whether it be SEMRush, Google Analytics, HubSpot, Sprout Social, or a myriad of other options.
But, at the same time – there are so many tools out there (in fact nearly 8,000!) that marketers can build their tech stack with, and frankly, it’s a little overwhelming. So, when I receive various emails, LinkedIn InMails and more marketing communications promoting these solutions, I’m forced to ask “what’s so special about this and why is it different from what I already have in my tech stack?”
That’s a product-oriented question that marketing needs to answer from the moment they introduce their martech brand to a new prospect.
Knowing that, I’ll ask again, “how do you differentiate your martech tool from the other 8,000 solutions that are out there?”
…and there lies the need for competitive differentiation for your brand.
How to Make Your Martech Solution Stand Out from the Crowd(ed Marketplace)
Know your buyers: You can accomplish this through detailed persona research to uncover prospect pain points and needs. Your customer persona book can be your bible for how you communicate to various buyer roles that your brand targets. As you develop your buyer personas specific to your brand and solution, you should interview martech buyer stakeholders (such as marketing ops, marketing directors, digital, email and social media marketers and more) asking them questions such as:
What are you missing in your martech stack currently that would make you do your job better?
What frustrates you about onboarding new martech solutions?
What’s most important to you in buying a new martech solution? Price? Integration with the rest of your stack? Data/reporting capabilities? Ease of use?
What keeps you up at night and how can technology help you sleep easier?
Nail your brand messaging: If your content isn’t memorable, then your brand won’t be either. This is probably the most important element of your brand, from your tagline to your mission statement. From there, this top line messaging needs to trickle down into all aspects of your marketing in a cohesive format.
An example I’m going to visit here numerous times is HubSpot. This is a martech solution that we absolutely love at Alloy (and they’re just fantastic marketers who can talk the talk and walk the walk). Their tagline perfectly sums up what I’d be looking for in a CRM: “Powerful, not overpowering.” They even go on to say “Finally, a CRM that’s both powerful and easy to use. Create delightful customer experiences. Have a delightful time doing it.” Well… I’m sold.
Create helpful content that builds trust: Not only should martech marketing content be memorable, but it should also be helpful. This really is the leg that successful inbound marketing stands on, as it provides value to an end user. For example, if a prospect is looking for a data measurement hole to fill in their martech stack, how should they go about finding the solution? In their moment of need, this content can really make a difference in their buyer’s journey to finding this solution (and that solution could be your product!).
And here I go on my Hubspot kick again… their inbound marketing course is a perfect example of content that is truly helpful to an end user. This content serves as an entire professional development course that a whole marketing team can take to ensure all of its team members are capable of understanding and executing inbound marketing. In turn, the team members can produce trust-building content, can highlight their inbound certification on their LinkedIn profiles and continue to grow thanks to an excellent, educational content experience.
Integrate measurable marketing touchpoints: As a marketer, you already know it can take 7 to 13 marketing touchpoints to drive a qualified lead. If your brand doesn’t have a measurable, integrated methodology then 1 of 2 things (or likely both) will happen
You won’t know if you are reaching your prospects frequently enough to drive your message home
You won’t reach your prospects enough to create lasting, memorable impressions of your brand solving a martech prospect’s challenges
And we’re just talking about driving the initial qualification point here in the sales funnel. Beyond these initial touchpoints, your brand needs to keep providing insightful content and touchpoints for prospects in your database, current customers and even past customers who may come back to your product.
Competitive differentiation is not easy in the crowded martech industry, and Alloy knows it. But, we’ve done this before during pivotal moments of differentiation for our clients. We’d be happy to do it for you as well.