Skip to main content

Tech Vendors to Apply Community Marketing


The technology marketer traditional demand generation and customer conversion processes won't qualify in the transformation from information technology (IT) to business technology (BT), according to the latest study by Forrester.

Buyers who are concerned with using technology to exploit new business opportunities are dominating technology markets -- and adoption of business capabilities is their objective, not product or service selection.

These "business technologists" use Web 2.0 applications to advance adoption goals. Their approach, which encompasses an attitudinal, procedural, and overhaul of technology marketing practices, is the new discipline for matching buyer's business needs with technology vendor capabilities.

Forrester believes that creative messages, collateral, and formal sales presentations are no longer the primary source of information about tech industry product strengths and weaknesses.

BT decision-makers see online search engines, discussion forums, blogs, podcasts, and other Web 2.0 publishing resources as unbiased, easier to apply, and more focused on BT success imperatives than typical vendor marketing materials.

Increasingly, business technologists turn to their "trusted peers" as a credible influencer that they reach through social networking communities for insight and meaningful guidance.

The enterprise adoption of BT is a social process that depends on complex networks of internal and external participants for success. In this way, business technologists recruit participants into adoption networks in response to business objectives and tactical needs. How?

Again, applying Web 2.0 technologies provide the means to inexpensively set up and sustain rich interactions across the activities -- such as educate, delegate, problem solve, share, collaborate, complain, elevate -- that define these adoption networks.

To intimately participate in customer adoption networks, tech industry marketers must evolve a new, co-optive personality and operating model that Forrester calls community marketing.

They define Community Marketing as: the application of marketing processes and resources to assimilate a supplier into customer adoption networks and activities in order to support better business outcomes. That said, I believe that Forrester has uncovered a significant new trend.

Popular posts from this blog

Industrial and Manufacturing Technology Growth

In an evolving era of rapid advancement, market demand for innovative technology in the industrial and manufacturing sectors is skyrocketing. Leaders are recognizing the immense potential of digital transformation and are driving initiatives to integrate technologies into their business operations.  These initiatives aim to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and ultimately drive growth and competitiveness in an increasingly digital business upward trajectory. The industrial and manufacturing sectors have been the backbone of the Global Networked Economy, contributing $16 trillion in value in 2021. Industrial and Manufacturing Tech Market Development   This growth represents a 20 percent increase from 2020, highlighting the resilience and adaptability of these sectors in the face of unprecedented challenges, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research . The five largest manufacturing verticals -- automotive, computer and electronic, primary metal, food, and machinery -

Rise of AI-Enabled Smart Traffic Management

The demand for smart traffic management systems has grown due to rising urban populations and increasing vehicle ownership. With more people and cars concentrated in cities, problems like traffic congestion, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions are pressing issues. Since the early 2000s, government leaders have been exploring ways to leverage advances in IoT connectivity, sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics to address these transportation challenges. The concept of a Smart City emerged in the 2010s, with smart mobility and intelligent traffic management as key components.  Smart Traffic Management Market Development Concerns about continued climate change, as well as cost savings from improved traffic flow, have further motivated local government investment in these advanced systems. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, they found that by 2028, smart traffic management investment will be up by 75 percent from a 2023 figure of

GenAI Revolution: The Future of B2B Sales Apps

When B2B buyers consider a purchase they spend just 17 percent of that time meeting with vendors. When they are comparing multiple suppliers‚ time spent with any one salesperson is 5 or 6 percent. Self-directed B2B buyer online research has already changed procurement. IT vendors are less likely to be involved in solution assessment. Now, more disruptive changes are on the horizon. By 2028, 60 percent of B2B seller work will be executed through conversational user interfaces via Generative Artificial Intelligence sales technologies -- that's up from less than 5 percent in 2023, according to Gartner. Generative AI Market Development "Sales operations leaders and their technology teams must prepare for the convergence of new forms of artificial intelligence, dynamic process automation, and reinvented deal-planning activities that will transform the sales function," said Adnan Zijadic, director analyst at Gartner . According to the Gartner assessment, Generative AI (GenAI) s