This document discusses marketing strategies for targeting modern IT professionals. It identifies two categories of CIOs - those focused on internal operations and resisting change, and those embracing business initiatives. The primary concerns of IT managers are security, usability, mobility, measurable ROI, and ease of implementation. It recommends establishing credibility through customer stories, analyst reports, and advising prospects rather than directly selling. Various channels are identified for reaching IT professionals, including events, publications, peer recommendations, business users within a company, partners, suppliers, email, and LinkedIn. Three target IT profiles are outlined along with recommended messaging, assets, and best channels for each.

1. MARKETING TO THE
MODERN IT PROFESSIONAL
Nick Fisher
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Huddle

2. Today’s IT Professional – “The Great Schism”
Today’s CIOs can broadly be placed in two categories
“Service provider” “Business Peer”
Drives business innovation
Cultivates IT-biz relationship
Develops biz strategy
Improves IT operations
Deploys new systems
Controls IT costs
Focused on internal ops
Not incentivized to change
Resists biz-led initiatives
Meets with customers
Great relationship w/ CEO
Embraces biz-led solutions
This is your
target
Source: http://www.cio.com/article/744601/State_of_the_CIO_2014_The_Great_Schism?page=1

3. The primary concerns of an IT manager
Security
Usability
 Best of breed credentials
 Trusted by reputable orgs
 Simplicity in design
 Will be easily adopted

4. The secondary concerns of an IT manager
Mobility
Measurable
ROI
Easy to
implement
 Powerful mobile apps
 Secure and audited use of data
 Free up IT resources
 Consolidating existing systems
 Integrations & high adoption
 Simple identity management

5. The current enterprise selling landscape
Cold calling is not what it used to be, the ROI for this has plummeted
“I no longer answer the phone
from an unknown number”
Source: http://www.enterpriseirregulars.com/71431/future-selling/

6. The current enterprise selling landscape
NOISE! There is so much spam and unfiltered content around that
people are tuning it out more and more
“I get 78 emails per day from
vendors like you, for the most part
I just delete them all”
Source: http://www.enterpriseirregulars.com/71431/future-selling/

7. The current enterprise selling landscape
So many sources of information, customers bypass brands and trust
filtered networks and reliable sources
“Why would I listen to you when I
can easily access an unbiased
source?”
Source: http://www.enterpriseirregulars.com/71431/future-selling/

8. The current enterprise selling landscape
“Telling” isn’t credible anymore, and “selling” is even less credible
“Don’t tell me about your value,
demonstrate it in an interesting way”
Source: http://www.enterpriseirregulars.com/71431/future-selling/

9. So how do you get through to them?
• IT doesn’t want to be “sold”, they want help educating themselves so that can
make the “right” informed buying decision
It mostly comes down to one thing:
CREDIBILITY
• You will rarely be seen as a credible source, which is where customer stories
and analyst reports become critical
• You need to act as an “advisor”, pushing them towards your value proposition by
helping them filter through the noise
• You must give value to get value

10. “If you were to market to yourself outside of
events, how would you do it?”
Asset types:
Style:
Analyst
reports
Webinars Videos
ROI stats
Customer
quotes
Case
studies
Straight
talk
Brevity Informative
Visual Personal
A bit of
humor

11. Which channels are best to reach them?
Target
Face to
face
Reputable
publishers
Peers
Business
users
Partner
marketing
Suppliers
Emails
LinkedIn/
PPC

12. Channel 1: Face to face
Your goal: See the whites in their eyes and establish TRUST
IT prospect goal: Learn about new solutions, network, freebies
How you do it:
• Hosted dinners
• In-house networking events (user groups)
• Conferences
• Symposiums
• Charity events

13. Channel 2: Reputable publishers
Your goal: Demonstrate credibility in the marketplace
IT prospect goal: Learn from unbiased source and cut through the noise
How you do it:
• Analyst reports: Gartner, Forrester, 451 Group, etc.
• General publications: WSJ, telegraph, FT, V3, Forbes, TechCrunch..
• Niche publications: cio.com, computerworld, sponsored reports (cio.com)
• Personal publications: well-known bloggers, twitter users

14. Channel 3: Peer recommendations
Your goal: Establish a large and diverse network of champions
IT prospect goal: Seek advice from a trusted source
How you do it:
• Continue your growth and your focus on customer success
• LOTS of webinars and customer stories across your key use cases
• Place a VALUE on peer marketing, work it into renewal contracts (1-3 free
months for example)
• Incentivize Customer Success Managers to get a customer on a webinar
• Customer videos are great and reusable. Deconstruct the problem & wrap the
solution into something concise and outcome-focused

15. Channel 4: Business users
Your goal: Demonstrate your value and facilitate expansion into the company
IT prospect goal: Understand the software being used by their org, and govern it
How you do it:
• Build a case of business adoption across the organization
• Demonstrate security and usability of your product
• Webinar, videos, quotes
• LinkedIn ads to IT within your larger accounts

16. Channel 5: Partner marketing
Your goal: Leverage other partners network as a filter for “business-minded” IT
IT prospect goal: Learn about new solutions from a trusted vendor
How you do it:
• Webinars- create a standard set of collateral so you can scale them
• Joint events- join strategic partners at their industry events
• Cross promotion- post informative partner content on LinkedIn groups/Twitter
• Co-sponsored reports through channels like cio.com

17. Channel 6: Suppliers (public sector)
Your goal: Work with a credible supplier of IT to expand into public sector
IT prospect goal: Narrow IT search through a trusted middleman
How you do it:
• Joint events with partners that possess GSA Schedule Contracts
• Joint webinars
• Ads in public sector publications (FCW and GCN)

18. Channel 7: Email
Your goal: Expand reach to a large audience with a funnel approach, timing
IT prospect goal: Discover solutions if their problem is top of mind
How you do it:
• Acquire contact lists in key verticals using researched job titles
• Send custom asset in genuine tone, educating on collaboration in their space
• Rely heavily on customer case studies and ROI metrics
• Hope to catch them at the right time

19. Channel 8: LinkedIn/PPC
Your goal: Refine target audience through ads and LinkedIn groups
IT prospect goal: Knowledge about their industry
How you do it:
• LinkedIn ads to IT with business degrees (a filter for more progressive IT)
• Targeted LinkedIn ads to competitors of your brand name accounts
• Find 3rd parties to post neutral industry content in IT groups (like SaaS)
• Network directly with IT professionals

20. Target IT profile 1: Their business units
already use your product
Your goal: Generate immediate demand for your product
by noting that business users are already adopting it
across the organization.
Message: “Your business users have started using our
secure cloud product trusted by enterprise and government
organizations around the world”
1
Name: Peter Gilroy
Titles: IT Manager
IT Director
CIO
VP IT Services
Assets: Tailored messages with case studies/webinars, targeted
LinkedIn ads, simple 1-pagers
Primary channels: Business users, events, email, LinkedIn

21. Target IT profile 2: Is actively looking for
your solution
2
Your goal: Get on their radar, cast a wide net, demonstrate
value and differentiators through referrals
Message: “Why your peers are adopting our product:
secure enough for governments, simple enough for the
modern business”
Name: Mara Williams
Titles: IT Manager
IT Director
CIO
VP IT Services
IT “architects”
Assets: Analyst reports, webinars with IT professionals, gov’t case studies, ROI
case studies, customer quotes on simplicity
Primary channels: PPC, email, partner marketing, reputable publications, peer
recommendations, LinkedIn, face to face, suppliers

22. Target IT profile 3: Not looking for your
solution right now
3
Your goal: Plant the seed about the value of your tool,
relying heavily on peer pressure
Message: “Saavy IT managers are adopting our product to
delight users with a simple and secure solution”
Name: Howard Johnson
Titles: IT “architects”
IT Manager
IT Director
Assets: Webinars with IT professionals, case studies, ROI case studies,
customer quotes on simplicity
Primary channels: Face to face, reputable publishers, peer recommendations,
suppliers

23. Nick Fisher
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Huddle
www.huddle.com