3 main challenges of doing marketing for "techies" (like me)
It is not a secret that poor marketing is the reason for a great share of failures in the tech industry – be it video games, services, or online stores. I’ve seen it (and done it) myself quite a few times. So, finally, I made it my mission to become better at marketing, while also being curious about the reason for these sad statistical facts.
From what I understood so far, one of the reasons for so many failures is that tech-oriented people have an especially hard time wrapping their heads around marketing. And this is quite unfortunate. History shows that when smart marketing insights are guiding any development process it multiplies the chances of success!
So, why is it especially hard to do good marketing for techies? And what can be done about it?
1. It requires a serious mind shift?
The marketplace battles are happening between perceptions of the products - not the products themselves. This is a pretty hard concept to grasp for anyone, but especially for tech-oriented people. Technology battles are more interesting and understandable for us. So many products and services were released to “cricket sounds” because of this misunderstanding.
Want can help to achieve the mind shift? I recommend the short but useful book 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.
2. It requires “people skills”
Unfortunately, you can not do marketing alone and without bothering other people. By nature being more introverted tech people have serious troubles with that. So, usually, they just skip all these uncomfortable moments. (Kinda) good news here is that people skills are… just skills. They can be developed along with any other skills by trial and error.
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The book People Skills for Analytical Thinkers could be a great first step on this (admittedly perilous) way.
3. There is no good manual
Indeed, I can fully attest to that. I’ve spent at least 3 last years devouring books, articles, and courses on marketing and trying to apply them in real life. It is a very complex subject involving tons of disciplines and bordering on art in many of its aspects. This is a hard path for any tech-oriented person. There are some worksheets and frameworks that might help at a certain moment, but understanding when and how to apply them is a skill in itself.
A good start here could be Build or The Startup Owner’s Manual. These 2 books are much more than just “marketing manuals”. They are trying to explain how to approach the creative process from the customer’s perspective. Fascinating and challenging reads!
Bottom line: Marketing skills are really useful but pretty hard to get, especially for tech-oriented people. Understanding the challenges beforehand and taking some “preventive learning” steps may help you on this hard journey.
Do you agree with the thoughts above?
What are your personal challenges with marketing?
Senior Writer and Narrative Designer
2 年To take a current issue we're seeing, AI creating "art" and "writing", in all of that we see the techies going "this is what it can do!" As if that's enough to convince anyone of its value. It's not. They're failing to tell us what it will do for us. In part because, as Aki Kanerva surmised, they're not asking what people need or why they need something. To be a Luddite for a moment - sometimes what you're making just isn't going to be needed. And no matter how much you change you're mindset you aren't going to sell me on it. That's probably the hardest lesson in all of this.
Game dev ronin and sensei (he/they)
2 年I feel like a lot of the confusion among non-marketing people is because we think marketing is only about advertising and PR. We see marketing as one more expert task among all the others: design, code, art, and all their many specializations. And because marketing doesn't produce any part of the solution itself, we see it as an unrelated but necessary task. But marketing is actually a way of looking at everything you do - and more importantly, why you do it in the first place. Marketing informs (or should inform) every decision that's made in both product and business development. So, your point #1, the mental shift, is the most important one. And I think the reason is because as a technical person, you are creating a product or service to solve a problem. Marketing... doesn't do that. Marketing asks what the problem is that needs solving, who needs it solved, and how to reach those people. The mental shift needs to come first. After that, you understand that points #2 and #3 are actually irrelevant. ?? Here's a mental exercise I've found helpful: Try to develop a business or product idea by ignoring the implementation. Sell it before you've built it.
AI/Analytics Expert | Serial Entrepreneur
2 年Aki Kanerva, Suvi Kiviniemi, Gregory Pellechi - you deal with marketing and techies a lot :) What are your thoughts?