Most C-level executives of data center companies are not new to the industry. And even if they are new to leading a data center provider, they came from a company that was one degree of separation away – during the previous 10 to 15 years of their careers
Early on in their careers, scaling marketing and sales was pretty straightforward. The plan included things like renting lists, making cold calls, emailing those lists (basically what’s known as spamming), and exhibiting at trade shows. And things were humming along pretty sweetly for a while until along came change.
What Changed?
10 years ago, a mobile device was a BlackBerry or Palm Treo – a tool largely limited to the geekiest geeks. Because mobile bandwidth was crazy expensive, and largely sucked, at least in the USA, mobile was the exception, not the rule.
Today, that’s all completely changed. Mere mortals, even technophobes, feel very comfortable with their iPhone or Android-powered smartphone. Tablets are so ubiquitous that even many toddlers have their own. Wi-Fi and 4G bandwidth
10 years ago, when you wanted to look up something online, you needed to wait until you were back at your desktop or on your notebook, in your office or home office. Today, any question you could possibly want to be answered can be, within seconds, no matter where you are:
10 years ago, was social media even part of your personal or professional life? Today, a huge percentage of people check their Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn stream within minutes of waking up each day – and right before going to sleep each night…and, oh yeah, a few dozen times in between.
What about
Why the Traditional Marketing Playbook is Broken
So as mobile, search, social, and cloud all hit tipping points, over the past years, the B2B buyer’s journey changed…drastically.
Your buyers are more empowered than ever and doing insane amounts of research on data center companies before they’re even ready to talk to your sales team.
Depending on
So if you’re still heavily relying on the broken marketing playbook – powered by rented lists, cold calls, spam, and interrupting people at trade shows – you’re simply arriving too late, after most of your buyer’s decision has already been made up.
This is a big challenge for data center companies. But it’s also a huge opportunity if you can get found early enough, in the right places, by the right decision-makers, and in the right context to achieve that all-so-coveted trusted advisor status.
How do you do this? By creating remarkable thought leadership content at scale.
Most Data Center Companies Asleep at the Wheel
In a world where decision-makers are in control and have all the information that they need, on their terms, when they want it, the sales rep is no longer the gatekeeper -- and many times isn’t even in the loop for most of the sales cycle.
And at the same time this once-in-a-generation change was going on, decision-makers got fed up with and really good at blocking out the kind of irritating interruption-based marketing that dominated for decades -- including cold calls, trade show booths, direct mail, and rented email lists (in other words: spam).
How is your data center company adapting to these new realities? Or are you living in the past? Let us know your take on the Comments.
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