Globally, information technology firms are getting their big boys and girls to blog. Thought leadership has leaped out of printed marketing collateral and onto companies’ websites and LinkedIn pages. IT firms that are serious about content marketing in India are only now waking up to the possibility of generating leads or engaging with existing customer with the help of social media. And in doing so, they are facing several challenges. Some learn what kind of content marketing they shouldn’t be doing quickly, while others spend thousands of rupees before they realize. The latter typically end up stopping all content marketing activities, which, in my mind, is just a knee-jerk reaction to a failed experiment.
If you are an IT firm that has started or is considering content marketing in India, here are some challenges you should be prepared to face.
An abstract product is difficult to sell online
Most IT firms sell a service that lead to the creation of a product. What I mean is that when an IT firm starts a project, the product they are going to build is not fully defined yet. They have to start collecting requirements from the client, code accordingly, let the client test the code and only on the successful completion of these stages does the software actually become a product that gets deployed. Different clients have different requirements, so IT firms are constantly building different products. While there may be similarities between the software built for multiple clients, they are never the same. The challenge, therefore, is to sell something that doesn’t exist yet. Since you cannot market such an abstract product, you have to market something else. What this “something else” is going to be, is what IT firms need to figure out.
There is a lack of differentiators
There are hundreds of IT service companies within 5 sq. km. of the Spacebar office. Each one of them does the same kind of work. Even if you look at the bigger players such as TCS, Patni, Wipro, Infosys, etc., they pretty much do the same kind of things. To stand out from the crowd, you need a USP or a differentiator. Sadly, not many companies think of this and expect content marketing to do miracles for them. This is a recipe for failure.
Cool posts don’t get you leads
You can get your office to do the Ice Bucket Challenge or the Mannequin Challenge. And that might get you a lot of views, comments and shares, but it won’t get you leads. Not that that’s a bad thing – sometimes you just want engagement for the sake of engagement. The problem arises when your objective is to get leads, but your posts are catering to engagement. So, your cool posts may get you a lot of eyeballs, but this from people who will never want to use your services. Focus on who your target audience is. As an IT firm, you are looking to impress a niche and niches don’t get you virality. Your challenge is to choose between the two.
The sales funnel is long
Unlike an e-commerce website, you cannot persuade your customers to buy on an impulse. Your audience consists of CIOs, CEOs, CFOs, Purchase Managers or owners of SMEs. This business audience will take its time to get to know you before doing a deal with you. From emails, to phone calls to sales meetings to technical meetings, your sales funnel is long. IT firms that expect this funnel to magically shorten with content marketing are sure to be disappointed. The sales funnel online will be at least as long as your offline sales funnel. Focus on getting quality leads and be patient. Sometimes, even 6 months is too short a duration for IT firms using content marketing in India.
The key, like I said above, is experimenting with patience. Find what your audience reacts to best and keep at it. Have a sales team ready to respond quickly, whether on social media, phone or email. Don’t keep a lead waiting for too long. With content marketing in India being an upcoming trend, you’ll have several digital marketers trying to get you to do what the rest of the B2C world is doing. Don’t fall for that trap. How? Always keep your audience in mind and ask yourself, “Would my current customers be convinced to buy from me if they saw this?” If the answer is no, don’t do it. You have enough challenges to deal with already without having budget become an additional one!
