Inbound Marketing and ComTech

Recently, I noted the switch going on in our industry towards inbound marketing. Vendors are spending much more time these days on their websites, developing thought leadership content and campaigns to draw in prospective buyers. I had particularly noted that this also meant something of a sea change in terms of what vendors were prepared to disclose about their own products. In the past, vendors were actually quite secretive and would only demonstrate or show their software under controlled conditions. The reasoning behind this was that they didn’t really want the competition to know what they had. This has now changed quite substantially and many vendors do show their product in videos and so on as a part of the shift towards inbound marketing.

As a marketeer myself, inbound marketing can only work to a certain level. Yes, good content, good SEO and social media can help create a brand promise but actually I would argue that it doesn’t create brand and nor is it effective without some traditional outbound marketing mixed in. Lead tracking and qualification are still essential tools as is information about the market and competitive landscape. Furthermore, a brand is only created through experiencing it and I don’t truly experience your brand from the content you place on the website. I do so by interacting with your staff and your products.

The other problem is social media. Facebook isn’t a very effective tool in our industry. Linked in is proving to be a better choice for us and CTRMCenter and Twitter is only minimally effective too. In our industry, social media needs to include sites like CTRMCenter in fact and others like it. Those social platforms that are targeted at the probable and likely buyers. In fact, CTRMCenter and ComTech both offer a wealth of support tools to any firm conducting inbound marketing as follows;

• Content generation – ComTech are experts in CTRM software and markets. We generate content all of the time through research, networking and need to constantly produce blogs like this one. We also develop videos and provide sponsorship opportunities around our research,
• Visibility – advertising on CTRMCenter is one way to be visible and with advertising opportunities like our sponsored links, you can actually draw attention into your own content in the form of white papers etc.

Finally, some outbound type marketing is also needed and again ComTech as the primary analysts in the field can also help here with industry research, facts and figures as well as proven tools like win/loss reporting, go to market strategy and much more.

Give us a call or send us an inquiry about any of these opportunities.

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