With the growing popularity of cloud services, the need to securely store this information is also rising. Being able to efficiently and effectively reach their target market has often been a challenge for colocation data centers.
But Inbound marketing and sales enablement can help solve this problem by providing remarkable, helpful content at the exact moment that someone is searching for a solution to a particular problem -- not just interrupting with an annoying, self-serving promotional message.
Colocation data centers are, by nature, more technically advanced than many other IT companies -- and their marketing and sales processes need to be advancing as well -- not stuck in the past.
Data centers have been described as “the brain of a company and the place where the most critical processes are run.” (Source: SAP Data Centers)
In the past, data centers focused primarily on housing information for large corporations and government entities, but these information storage centers are quickly being sought after as a solution to the growing cloud services needs for both individual and business applications.
Nowadays, clients of data centers may be top financial institutions, telecommunications providers, search engine providers, and just about any business that sells cloud services. Colocation data centers -- including modular data centers -- are being built surprisingly fast, and clients have many options to choose from.
Being able to store and access data remotely has become a normal part of many business’ success, and they have high expectations from the keepers of this information. Some of the qualities evaluators and decision makers search for in a data center include:
Security of their information
Expandability when necessary
Stability of the systems
Excellent customer service
Robust connectivity options
Green operations
But perhaps this can be narrowed down into four short words:
Connectivity
Capacity
Customer Service
Community
Operating a colocation data center means that there are many areas to be concerned about, such as federal and state regulations, funding for expansion, space planning, site selection, the ever-changing climate, and capital market conditions. But finding ideal clients does not need to be one of those worries, as Inbound marketing and sales enablement will help attract, convert, close, and delight these ideal clients for you.
It is very easy and very comfortable for a business to continually use the same marketing and sales playbook that it has always used… it is also very wrong.
Did the taxicab industry protect itself against a disruptor like Uber?
Was Blockbuster Video adequately prepared to protect itself against a disruptor like Netflix -- let alone Amazon, Apple, Google, or Redbox?
Remember when Motorola and BlackBerry Limited, formerly known as Research In Motion Limited (RIM), had huge market share in mobile?
And how well did Microsoft fare when it entered the mobile device space way too timidly while trying to protect its desktop OS franchise? (Unless you consider the 900 million dollar loss on its Surface launch to be just a learning experience or a rounding error, it's pretty safe to say that Microsoft was severely disrupted in mobile by Apple and Google.)
So you need to ask yourself if your data center company is truly prepared to be the disruptor rather than disrupted.
To avoid disruption, a data center company’s search engine and social media strategy must now be combined with a well-planned, full-funnel, persona-centric, marketing and sales enablement program -- plus highly remarkable content that educates and builds trust while it
Attracts strangers into website visitors
Converts website visitors into highly qualified leads
Closes sales opportunities into new ideal clients
Delights clients so they become the best promoters -- which attracts even more new strangers to your website and fuels even more new growth with ideal clients -- delivering much-needed leverage to your sales funnel
Colocation data center companies can no longer put out a single, daily Tweet or an unnecessary Facebook quote; companies must now start a movement that will excite their future and current clients, and make them want to know more… that is the beauty of Inbound.
Both evaluators and decision makers have radically changed the way that they find information and navigate the buyer's journey.
This means that successful providers must change their marketing and consultative sales strategies to continually attract these ideal target clients.
Inbound marketing and sales enablement can help data centers achieve high margin business growth by:
Building brand awareness
Developing strategic positioning within the industry
Expanding into new markets
Disrupting established players
Differentiating from the competition
Generating positive Return on Investment (ROI)
Growing the bottom line
The ability to differentiate one data center from another can often be difficult, as nearly all qualified data centers offer stable buildings that can withstand the elements, redundancy assurance, attention to security, and the ability for their clients to expand and grow.
Therefore, these companies need truly remarkable and contextually relevant content to find new and resourceful ways to stand out from the crowd.
Finding and captivating the right clients at the right time and in the most cost effective way within the first 60% of the sales cycle will help colocation data centers succeed.
A successful data center must attract and earn trusted advisor status in their target market very early on in the buyer's journey.
Data center buyers have the pressure of finding solutions that will help them do more with less. Evaluators and decision makers have to navigate through the buyer's journey while addressing all the needs and concerns of their companies.
If your data center can address and resolve these needs and concerns proactively throughout the entire buyer’s journey, it will be much easier on the decision maker to move forward sooner.
Using a traditional media and marketing approach is not enough to gain the consideration of decision makers.
Banner ads are increasingly being ignored.
Almost 90% of people have asked to be removed from an email list at one point or another.
Cold calling is time consuming and largely ineffective.
Inbound marketing empowers a colocation data center company to attract the attention of the right strangers (potential clients), make that person curious about the company, and want to learn more. Soon that word ‘potential’ disappears and that person has become a new client. It is then necessary to reassure the client that the right decision has been made.
Your remarkable content must educate, inspire, or entertain the audience, and the best campaigns will do all three. Having a remarkable marketing and sales strategy will:
Set you apart from your competition
Position you as a leader in the industry
Build lead generation
Create new opportunities
Increase sales
Data centers are innovative and front-leading companies; they didn’t become this way by holding on to past notions and ideas of how their businesses should be built, nor should they hold onto past notions and ideas of how their marketing and sales should be done. Inbound is the present and future way of marketing and selling data center services.
Through Inbound marketing and sales enablement, your data center company can:
Attract the right visitors to your website
Convert visitors into highly-qualified leads
Close sales with new clients
Delight clients for long-term retention
Learn more about how your colocation data center business can use proven Inbound marketing and sales to find your ideal clients, retain those clients, and grow.
