Use Your AMMO for Tech Transfer Marketing: Kicking Off the “Marketing Mondays” Series

One of the top topics at any tech transfer industry meeting is technology marketing. Just a few weeks ago, one of the most popular sessions at the AUTM? Eastern Region Meeting was on the topic of “guerrilla marketing.”

Fuentek has blogged a lot about marketing strategies and various marketing tools over the years. And as the tech transfer profession has evolved, we have developed new insights that we would like to share. So we’ve decided to get our readers caught up by offering a systematic treatment of the topic.

We’re calling the series: Marketing Mondays. Using our Cultivate Your IP infographic as our guide, we will discuss developing effective collateral, strategically reaching out to prospects, and converting the qualified leads into licensees.

Of course, any discussion of technology marketing has to begin with the AMMO, which Fuentek developed years ago and has been applying successfully for our clients ever since. AMMO stands for…

Audience

Start by identifying your target audience and then ask yourself: What is important to this industry/market? What do they need and how will the technology meet that need? How technically savvy are the individuals you’ll be targeting? Put yourself in their shoes.

Remember: Your audience will change from one technology marketing campaign to the next. Even within a single marketing effort, you might have multiple audiences if the technology has value in various industries.

Speaking of value, check out our value chain webcast for a step-by-step process on identifying the target audience for a technology marketing effort.

Message

Refine your core message to match the specific audience. When it comes to technology marketing, the core message to any licensing prospect is:

Here’s what the technology does for the user,

and here’s how it will benefit you to license it.

Remember: The more succinctly and clearly you can state the value proposition, the better. Frame your message in terms that will resonate with your target audience. Focus on what’s in it for them. Avoid jargon they won’t recognize — or better yet, use their jargon. And if your audiences are highly diverse, you might need to adjust the message accordingly.

To learn more about crafting an effective message for technology marketing, check out our webcast on Effective Technology Overviews.

 Mechanism

Select the best tools for conveying the message to the target audience. The quintessential mechanism for technology marketing is the online Technology Listing. But there may be additional mechanisms to use in reaching out to your target audience. The choice of mechanism(s) depends on many factors. Just a few examples of these factors are:

• Are you implementing a passive, targeted, or active marketing strategy?
• Does explaining the technology’s value proposition require the use of video or other multimedia tools?
• Is the target audience active on social media?
• Is there a key trade show or other event where most (if not all) of the licensing prospects will be?

Remember: Whatever mechanisms you use, the message should be consistent across them for any given audience.

For more information on the various tools that are often used in marketing technology, check out our webcast on Tactical Tools for Tech Marketing Strategies. 

Outcome

Last but by no means least, consider what outcome you are trying to achieve so you can evaluate how the technology marketing effort is progressing. Make the outcomes as granular as necessary — each component of your marketing collateral should have a specific purpose and “call to action” for the audience. Be clear in your plan about what you want them to do and ensure that they can follow through on completing that action. Also, set up appropriate tracking mechanisms for measuring the success of the marketing effort.

For example, if your desired outcome is that they attend an online briefing about the technology (more on this later), have the registration web page ready to go. Then, monitor the signups to confirm that your audience is planning to attend, reaching out to them again — perhaps through different channels — if key targets have not responded to the invitation.

Remember: Your goals and desired outcomes must align with your audience (e.g., Does the target audience have the authority to take the action you want?). They also will influence your message and mechanism(s). So do not approach the Outcomes as the last thing to think about. Rather than a linear process, developing the AMMO considers all aspects of the strategy concurrently.

Looking Ahead

Every one of the posts that will run in our Marketing Mondays blog series uses our AMMO concept as its foundation. So now you’re all set for what’s to come:

• Producing effective marketing collateral
• Prioritizing your targets
• Marketing technology via webinar-based briefings
• Cultivating the leads

To ensure you don’t miss a single post, subscribe to our blog here. Also, you can get additional exclusive content when you subscribe to The Fountain, Fuentek’s quarterly electronic newsletter. We’re working on the next issue now, which will have a Subscriber Exclusive presentation on using the AMMO not only for technology marketing but also for your tech transfer program’s overall communications strategy. Subscribe to The Fountain now so you don’t miss out.

See you Mondays!