5 tips to help marketers sell tech, and techies market their services, from Marketing Coordinator Anna Remus at WordCamp Boston 2014. *Minor corrections will be made to slides soon.

1. 5 Secrets of
Tech Marketing
(shh.)

2. About Me
@aremoose
Likes: Infographics, Dogs, Traveling
Dislikes: Ghouls. Cold Calling,
Moving on September 1st

3. About Oomph
Oomph is a full service digital design and
engineering firm assisting premium brands
and media companies with large-scale
content engagement solutions.
● Open source: mostly WP and Drupal
● Full-service = design, dev, consulting,
strategy, support…
● Enterprise-level clients including:
NBC, NESN, BlueCross BlueShield,
Getty Images...

4. About You
I hope that you are a…
● WordPress user
● Business owner
● Freelance developer or designer
● B2B agency
● Small development shop
● Start-up
● Anything
(If not, get out.)

5. Do you ever feel like…?
“Ahhh, I’m a marketer, how do I make it in tech?”
or
“Ahhh, I’m a geek, how do I make it in marketing?”

6. About This Talk
Goals:
● Give you a better, basic understanding of marketing
● Give you usable tips and strategies to start using immediately
● Help branch the creative vs. technical gap
● Give information that is applicable to everyone here, no matter your size

7. Ready?

8. I hate marketers.

9. We ruin everything.
-Gary Vaynerchuk

10. So in this increasingly over-accessed world,
how do you reach people?

11. 5 Secrets
of Tech Marketing

12. Secret #1
Sit with the developers.

13. If you are a creative, sit with the developers.

16. ● Learn what is popular and use it
● (semi) Painlessly make industry contacts
If you are a developer, sit with fellow
developers.

17. Today
● Pick up a linkbait-worthy topic at WordCamp
● Make some industry contacts at WordCamp and have a follow-up plan
● Find 3 groups to join on Meetup.com
● Move your desk
● Post a recent, popular blog post to Reddit (or start writing)

18. Secret #2
Remember the everyman.

20. Meaning...
Balance content like:
Script_Debug in WordPress
with posts like:
10 Ways WordPress is the Best CMS

22. ● 90% of information transmitted
to the brain is visual, and
visuals are processed 60,000X
faster in the brain than text.
(Sources: 3M Corporation and
Zabisco)
● Posts with videos attract 3
times more inbound links than
plain text posts. (Source:
SEOmoz)
● Viewers are 85% more likely
to purchase a product after
watching a product video.
(Source: Internet Retailer)
● Make a video tutorial of a bug fix
● Make a an infographic explaining
the differences between CMS
platforms
● Create a diagram or animated
instructional video
● Create video case studies of your
clients telling their stories
● Put a full-sized photo in your
Facebook posts
● Hold a photo contest on social
media
Why How

23. Today
● Consider visual social media: Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, even Snapchat.
● Find ways to incorporate images or video into everything you do.
● Find a trade-for-services partner, or think about who to hire, for infographics,
animations, and other visual content design.
● Think about ways to reach a lot of people with your knowledge. A weekly Twitter
chat? A podcast?
● What are some recent news topics that could translate to an everyman blog
audience? Web security? A new WP release?

24. Secret #3
Know yourself.

25. What makes you different from everyone else?

26. Are you…
● The most educated?
● The most experienced?
● The most adaptable?
● The cheapest?
● The most fun to work with?
● The most convenient?
● The most organized?

27. ● Who/What/Why statement for companies
o Be truthful and brief.
● Past/Present/Future statement for individuals
o Bring out your personal story.
Who am I?

28. You are a __________
that does __________
because __________.

29. How do your clients know that?

30. Where can you incorporate branding?
= Everywhere.
● Social media
● Fonts
● Colors
● Website
● Logos
● Business cards
● Powerpoints
● Stationary

31. Today
● Start to ask Who/What/Why and Past/Present/Future questions
● Make sure you’re telling the truth
● Think about what channels you have available.
● Incorporate your story into your website.

32. Secret #4
Rely on ROI.

33. ROI = Return on Investment
● CEOs always ask marketers:
What is the ROI? aka What is
the actual, monetary value of
the things you’re doing?
● Keep marketing efforts and
platform alliances in check

34. ● Specialized tools ($$$)
● Google Analytics (complicated)
● Social Media tracking tools (limited)
● Promo codes (not 100% thorough)
How to Measure ROI

35. Mind the Funnel
● Top: Get as many people in as possible
● Middle: Qualified lead that needs coaxing
● Bottom: Buying from you, need them to come back.
For every effort: What funnel cycle is this for?
Helpful to take a step back and get organized

37. Today
● Think about your usual funnel
● Come up with (3) marketing efforts for each stage
● Think about which way to measure ROI works best for you
● Implement analytics tools and plugins as needed
● Analyze current efforts in terms of leads
● What is a conversion for you? A web form? A call?

38. Secret #5
good marketing = people
(So be a people.)

39. The ‘Golden Circle’
People do not buy what you do, they
buy why you do it.
- Simon Sinek

40. Mac vs. PC

42. American Idol Syndrome
o Talent isn’t enough.
o You need to be a single
parent/veteran/have a serious
illness/etc.

43. Keep your marketing authentic.

44. What do you like?
● Social media ads?
● Email newsletters?
● Podcasts?
● Blog posts?
● eBooks and eResources?
● Local tech events?

45. Help, Not Annoy.
● At the end of the day, good marketing is about people. So do what appeals
to people, not what annoys people.
● Help them through content.
● Do not push sales, just offer answers.

46. Today
● WHY do you do what you do?
● Take a step back: What works (& doesn’t) on you?
o If you’re using FB ads to market yourself, you should notice yourself paying
attention to them when you’re just playing around on the site. If they really
annoy you and you make a point to never click on them---that’s a problem.
● Think about common questions people ask you, or even a question you had until
recently. How can you turn this into answers for others?
● Enable content downloads on your site to make it easy to be a resource.

47. To Summarize:
1. Sit with the developers.
2. Remember the everyman.
3. Know yourself.
4. Rely on ROI.
5. Marketing = People

49. Thank you!

50. Questions?