It is not always a simple matter marketing technology products. IT firms with ideas to sell have a lot to understand about their industry. Because with the way things are right now, making an impact in the IT services market can take on brutal proportions.

Consider the main challenges that presently grip the technology marketing landscape. Writing for Business2Community.com, Hinge’s brand development specialist Elizabeth Harr wrote:

As the marketplace grows more hypercompetitive than ever before, effective IT marketing becomes absolutely essential.

To truly succeed in this highly contested arena, firms may have to bypass several urgent issues. Included in Harr’s article are recent findings from a Hinge Research Institute survey of the main industry challenges facing 530 professional services firms:

Attracting and developing new business – 63.8%

Finding/keeping good people – 42.6%

Innovation/new ideas – 29.8%

Dealing with a difficult economy/competitive marketplace – 27.7%

Dealing with client demands/expectations – 27.7%

According to Harr, these challenges are influenced by transformative trends that are currently shaping the way products are promoted. These include:

That buyers want to be educated: Successful vendors are able to meet their sales goals because they pay attention to the present needs of their constituents. Buyers of technology products make a great deal out of choosing a product that fits their current requirements. Educating them not only adds credibility to your brand, but also helps them decide on purchasing your offer.

Social media is maturing: Social media continues to evolve, incorporating new attitudes and making buyer engagement more complex than ever. Harr points out that managers need to exact more control over the way they handle their digital accounts.

Technology as a service: Numerous technology firms will agree: The technology-as-a-service sector has become a treasure trove of opportunities. Embracing it would also mean using strategies that worked for service-based industries.

With these trends, technology marketers will have to employ existing as well as newer strategies for brand awareness and lead generation. Here are the best bets:

Using platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn is greatly indispensable in terms of acquiring new leads. Technology firms are making it top priority to choose the best social media channels that allow them to network with important industry players as well as effectively reach out to and educate potential buyers.

A critical aspect in a product’s lifecycle is the choice of content used to promote it. A survey by Regalix finds that majority of technology firms largely use videos to launch their products. This is because video’s entertainment value enhances brand image and creates a more organic presentation. On the other hand, case studies fare better during a product’s “maturity” when it is more important to outline the product’s recent successes.

This is simply a matter of optimizing key elements in your website such as fill forms and menus as well as loading times. Online engagements depend entirely on the overall appearance and functionality of your site. It is then imperative to test these individual aspects and determine the best options for acquiring responses.

What’s more, technology firms may want to implement a multichannel strategy. Relying on social media and web content alone isn’t enough, but combining them with email and telemarketing considerably maximizes your efforts providing sales with quality IT leads.

Know more about IT Sales Inc and its lead generation services.