Whenever we think of content marketing, the easy and regular industries come to mind. From fashion to beauty, health to entertainment, it is easy to fit in content with such industries.
But what happens when it comes to tech companies?
Creating products and services for a very specific set of individuals, does content marketing become too niche or difficult for them?
On the contrary, Content Marketing is one of the best tools tech companies can use to connect with their target audience. It allows them to stop pushing sales for products and services and instead concentrate on the audience using them. Your audiences are real people who have businesses to run and problems to solve. Your product may be just one cog in the wheel but you if tell them that you understand and support them, they are more likely to lean on you for a tech solution.
The other advantage of content for tech companies is that it allows you to break through the clutter. You and a few other competitors may be selling the exact same product at nearly the same price. What you say, how you say it and how you weave the stories of those benefited using your product will make all the difference. Here are five tech companies doing a great job with content.
1. Intuit India
Intuit’s accounting software has been a favourite around the world. In India, it is currently targeting small businesses. By allowing businesses to create GST invoices and cloud tracking of all accounting, it has literally allowed people to manage their accounting in a few clicks.
The exciting on-going offers of 70% discount and a free trial was just the push needed to get people to try Intuit. If everything is in place, does Intuit need still pull marketing with content?
One of the key things Intuit realized early on was that accounting was just one of the many problems faced by their target audience. New entrepreneurs faced common startup challenges. Intuit decided to address these through its blog. From HR policies for startups to applying for a TIN, the blog covered interesting topics from a finance perspective which brought users closer to solving their problems. It improved brand recall, imbibed trust and gave an entry for entrepreneurs to give their software a try! From traffic to leads to conversions, the content ran the length of the sales cycle.
The SAP Labs in India is their biggest research centre outside their German headquarters. Founded in 1998, it has one the earliest R&D centres in Bangalore. It continues to be a leading provider of business software solutions. It was also declared “Hub of the year in the Asia Pacific and Japan” in 2007. It has seen a 100% increase in both revenue and customer acquisition from when it started.
SAP has taken a community-centric and inclusive approach towards content. It created an official Community Blogging Channel that allowed members to share theories, strategies, and opinions related to SAP.
The community blogging has been structured effectively and guest bloggers who are truly interested need to ‘earn’ their way inside. You start out as a subscriber, become a contributor and once you publish two or more blogs, you get to become an author.
3. Adobe India
If you love graphics and colours, you can’t do without Adobe in your professional kit. The company was recently voted among the top IT companies in India for its policies towards reintegrating moms returning after maternity leave with a buddy program. Such actions go a long way in building the company’s reputation.
From a content perspective, Adobe India leaves out any hard sell from its blog. Instead, it is a place where the community can go to find solutions to their design problems. From immersive VR experiences to visual trend forecasts, the blog keeps you updated on the future of design.
In addition to this, Adobe puts out content on several of its other community platforms like Create Magazine, Behance, and 99u. Each of these addresses a specific community within the design industry and talk to them about creating a better design. The fact that they can do so with Adobe doesn’t need to be said explicitly.
4. Netapp India
Netapp is one of India’s leading companies helping clients gain insight, access, and control over their data. Their amazing array of products and solutions for data management and cloud services is effectively helping transform business technology.
Netapp’s clients are primarily the tech heads of leading companies so the content they put out on their blog isn’t the fluffy kind but full of technical knowledge. The content completely showcases their core expertise acting as a sales support too.
Netapp also nurtures a community of bloggers via the Netapp Community Forum. The authors get ranked by the kudos they receive. This gamification of content ensures that people remain motivated to continually post to quality content to the forum.
Teleperformance is a name synonymous with customer experience. Several companies rely on them to give a seamless customer service experience for their brand.
As a company, Teleperformance is raising the bar for employee engagement. They ditched the traditional annual appraisal a couple of years back and started a monthly, real-time score card. With constant feedback, the employees now have a chance to improve their performance on an ongoing basis rather than wait the entire year.
Their website has a “Think with us” section, where they not only publish their own insights but of external experts too. This mix of internal and external thought leadership articles not only helps them engage with their clients but also builds strong relationships based on authoritative content.
Conclusion
The common thread among leading tech companies in India is that they are all very focused on nurturing the community around their products. The realise that the end users are passionate about such products and services. You don’t need a hard sell for such users. Just content writing services that is overall helpful will inspire them to be a customer for life.