| If there's one marketing model every high-tech | | | | So by all rights, this group should be a pretty easy one |
| marketing manager should know, it's the Technology | | | | to market to. Yet I see high-tech companies miss the |
| Adoption Life Cycle (TALC). The TALC is the | | | | boat all the time when marketing to them. |
| paradigm that describes their prospects' mindsets your | | | | B2B Copywriting: Getting Innovators' Attention |
| sales staff is likely to encounter as they market your | | | | Innovators care about technology issues first. If they |
| products and services. And it all begins with the | | | | care about business issues at all (admittedly, few do) |
| technologists themselves: the Innovators. | | | | they weigh in at a very distant second. So business |
| Innovators are the first market you're likely to | | | | benefits won't get an innovator's attention. |
| encounter when marketing high technology products | | | | What will get his attention is new technology - "new" is |
| and services. These are the people highlighted in the | | | | the operative word. They want to be the first to get a |
| far left-hand side of the curve you see above. They | | | | new widget that accomplishes something cool that has |
| love to be the first ones to jump on a new technology. | | | | never been done before. They're happy to sign your |
| And for good reason: they're technologists, | | | | non-disclosure agreement, as long as they can be |
| themselves. | | | | among the first to get their hands on your widget. |
| These technology enthusiasts sometimes go by other | | | | Innovators have the most advanced brains in the |
| names. Things like "techie," "computer-nerd," or | | | | company (really, they do), and they know it. So tell |
| "propeller-head." They'll appreciate your technology | | | | them so in your copy. Paint them a word picture of |
| product simply because it's cool. Oh, and if it happens | | | | themselves being part of an exclusive group of |
| to have an advantage over what they're using now, | | | | advanced engineers who truly appreciate what your |
| so much the better. | | | | breakthrough technology means to the unsuspecting |
| As Geoffrey Moore says in his landmark book, | | | | world. |
| "Crossing The Chasm,"... | | | | One other thing about innovators: they know they |
| "They [Innovators] will forgive your ghastly | | | | have to live within the confines of corporate America. |
| documentation, horrendously slow performance, | | | | But that doesn't mean they have to like it. Though they |
| ludicrous omissions in functionality, and bizzarely obtuse | | | | may not admit it outright, they have a sharp disdain for |
| methods of invoking some needed function - all in the | | | | the "suits" who limit their creativity by demanding |
| name of moving technology forward." | | | | something so mundane as a return on investment. |
| You have to market to innovators before you can get | | | | In my next article, I'll give you an example of direct |
| the attention of the early adopters. And it's a good | | | | response copy I've written to these Innovators that |
| thing: these guys are technology savvy enough to give | | | | worked very well in the past. So watch for Part 2 in |
| the early adopters the thumbs-up. | | | | this series. |