At Setup, we regularly interview marketing leaders from different industries ranging from Tourism to Packaging to Entertainment and Healthcare. Having periodic conversations with marketing leaders not only helps us keep a pulse on every industry, but reveals common trends and challenges that all marketers are facing.

In this industry blog featuring the Technology sector, we have insights from a Cyber Technology + Services company, as well as a Wireless Services company, giving us a wide perspective of the innovation and next steps for companies protecting and expanding our networks. 

The following responses are from Colleen Murphy-Gomez, the Vice President of Marketing at iBwave Solutions Inc., and Noa Benari, the Vice President of Marketing at Sygnia.

1. What innovative changes are happening in the Technology marketing space that will become the status-quo moving forward?

TLDR: Both respondents recognized the evolution of the Technology industry, leaning more into marketing and consumer insights than ever before. AI especially is now a focal point across the board, particularly when it comes to consumer data collection. 

Murphy-Gomez: I see more technological sophistication. The telecom industry as a whole isn’t necessarily known for their on-trend, forward-thinking, digital-first marketing strategies. While many other B2B industries have moved in that direction, telecom has been slower to adopt as much of the technology is hardware created in manufacturing environments and marketing is still mostly seen as a cost-center vs. revenue producer. I’ve seen this begin to shift in the decade I’ve spent in this industry in a few key ways:

Influencer and User-Generated Content: Leveraging influencers and user-generated content (UGC) has become more norm in this space. Engaging influencers and encouraging user-generated reviews and content creation that amplifies brand reach and credibility. Here’s an example I personally orchestrated on with a top tech influencer.

Personalization: With advanced data analytics and AI, marketers are tailoring their messages and services at a deeper level. This includes customized plans, content, and promotions based on individual behaviors, preferences, and needs, down to more advanced targeting techniques for digital advertising. We mostly still refer to this as ABM (account-based marketing) segmentation, whereas the more modern terminology is hyper-personalization. ABM campaigns can be as simple as a dedicated landing page and custom ‘case study’ video such as this one I previously created, or incredibly complex and ‘hyper-personalized’ down to specific firmographics.

AI-Powered Customer Insights: Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing customer insights. I’ve been seeing marketers in this space starting to use AI to analyze consumer data, predict customer behavior, personalize offerings, help write content and optimize marketing strategies in real-time. Chatbots and virtual assistants are also being employed for customer service and engagement.

Benari: The technology marketing landscape is constantly evolving. Innovations that are shaping the future of our field are related to AI-Powered Marketing: AI and machine learning are being increasingly utilized for personalized content recommendations, predictive analytics, optimization, customer segmentation and even creative. It also acts as a force multiplier offering ever-accelerating complexity and speed that exceeds human capacity.

2. Are there other industries or companies outside of this industry that you have looked to for inspiration + why?

TLDR: Companies that value the essence of good marketing and compelling storytelling are inspirational to the contributors. Gomez-Murphy loves working with companies that realize the value of marketing, and Benari takes inspiration from industries like fashion that are notably more lively and visual when it comes to marketing. 

Gomez-Murphy: Some of the businesses on the wireless network side of the telecom space have been doing some notable marketing for awhile. They (Cisco, HP-Aruba, etc.) are a lot more tech-first, and that’s likely due to them coming up in the Silicon Valley, high-tech space where marketing as a revenue driver is better established. They’re used to heavy competition, and recognize the necessity for businesses to have strong brands that can drive business and compete in the vast Enterprise space that they do. They typically understand the need for marketing to help fill the pipelines of sales because there’s no way sales teams can touch the masses without support.

I also think the software side of the telecom space is doing some really cool things. One of the reasons I moved to iBwave was because they recognized the importance of building a marketing machine and believed that there was more they could do to help grow their business if they began to implement more modern strategies. Others doing that really well in this space are companies like Celona, whose content strategy I salivate over.

Benari: In tech marketing, we often seek inspiration from various sectors, such as the fashion industry's influencer marketing and visual storytelling to create compelling narratives.

3. How have the last few years of innovation and COVID impacted the Technology industry?

TLDR: Marketers are struggling to prove their value when many marketing efforts are harder to track. Gomez-Murphy listed a number of platforms that are effective for marketing, but hard to quantify, and Benari echoed these digital efforts. Acknowledging that digital engagement has accelerated in the last few years, and leaning into its accessibility and ease is necessary for companies. 

Read - 5 Ways to Prove Marketing’s Value to the C-Suite

Gomez-Murphy: Budget and headcount. Continuous reductions in both still plague our marketplace. When companies need to preserve cash, marketing gets hit pretty hard. It’s already difficult in this space to monetize and measure marketing’s impact on revenue when oftentimes we don’t have the latest technological tools and complex distribution channels. 

While the telecom space as a whole has fared pretty well in the wake of COVID, the inconsistencies in the customer’s spending patterns due to inflation, price increases, and, most impactfully, supply chain, has left a lot of instability for marketers to continue funding campaigns adequately. Trade Shows, product brochures, websites and webinars reign supreme in this space, but there are other avenues that are impactful yet harder to quantify like podcasts, influencers, brand champion programs, SEM, ungated content strategies and AI-driven marketing intelligence tools.

Benari: Tech marketing has changed within the last few years by the following:

Acceleration of Digital Engagement: COVID accelerated the shift to digital channels, emphasizing the need for seamless online customer experiences and optimized digital marketing strategies.

Agile Campaigns: Rapid changes during the pandemic have underscored the importance of agile marketing strategies and real-time adjustments based on consumer behavior.

4. What lessons can other industries learn from the Technology space?

TLDR: Although an industry is not consumer-facing, there is still a person on the other end of B2B marketing. The three lessons Benari listed that the tech industry can offer other industries include utilizing compelling and targeted content and digital marketing efforts. 

Benari: Tech marketing offers valuable lessons for other industries:

Personalization: Tailor your messaging and content to individual customer preferences for better engagement.

Content Marketing: Invest in informative, value-driven content that educates and engages your audience.

Digital Transformation: Embrace technology to optimize your marketing efforts and customer experiences.

Like most industries, it seems like AI is becoming ever more prevalent and necessary to enhance current strategies. Personalization is just as imperative in the tech world as it is in a B2C marketing strategy and, in order to understand your target consumer, capturing data efficiently and effectively is imperative. How are you currently capturing consumer data? Is AI a part of your marketing strategy? 

We would like to give a special thanks to Andrea MacLean at Wireside Communications for connecting us with these insights. 

We interview marketing professionals regularly to get their thoughts on their industry, as well as what they’re keeping an eye on. Subscribe to the newsletter below to never miss an update, and check out other industry blogs below.