There is one question that everyone wants the answer to: what is the secret of success? Whether that’s writing a book, baking the perfect Black Forest Gateau or running a business. In the highly competitive B2B tech market, success has many different elements. As a PR agency that has worked with high performing tech businesses for the past 25 years we wanted to understand more about what success looks like, especially looking at sustained growth.
We spoke to a handful of CEOs and CMOs to get their views on success, the use of PR and marketing and the approaches they were taking to ensure sustained growth, and created the Secrets of Tech Growth ebook.
Interviewees Martin Philpott, CMO of Adatis, Alistair Mackenzie, CEO of Predatar, and Mark Paraskeva, from paiyroll, joined our most recent Team Talk Session to share their insights with us and some of our clients.
Many ingredients for success
Culture, business model, building the right team, and the use of PR and marketing all have a role to play in helping businesses sustain growth. But our focus for the session was on the way that PR and marketing helped these businesses.
The consensus among participants was that communications should be used early on in the growth journey — whether that is to create awareness or as part of a wider campaign. While it’s relatively quick to get started as a business, it is more challenging to stand out once established, and that’s where communications is important. Especially with the right core message and consistency across channels and touchpoints, which often ties in with co-ordination between sales and marketing.
Finding your niche
The interviewees in our session each took a different approach to the use of communications, because there is no one-size-fits-all approach. One company began its journey attending technical forums, presentations and networking events, before evolving into using its colleagues to generate knowledgeable content, and then formalising a defined marketing approach and team. Another relied on PR and marketing to frame its narrative and origin story as it transformed its business model and became a SaaS business — not just for external audiences, but getting buy-in from staff too. While another adapted its marketing approach as it went, with the result that marketing itself helped refine and influence its product development for new audiences that were not initially considered.
While each approach was different, the one common factor was that each organisation ensured its communication objectives were aligned to the wider business objectives. After all, a good idea is only a good idea if it forms part of the bigger picture.
Talking to many
Another point of discussion was around the challenges of addressing multiple audiences — refining different messages for different personas is essential and something that integrated marketing campaigns can help with. Not all audiences engage with content in the same way or on the same channel, but by developing tailored messaging across touchpoints companies can reach their desired audiences.
The biggest secret
In the quest for success, whether that’s achieving sustainable growth, launching a new product or changing business models, we can all agree that PR and marketing plays a starring role. That’s no secret.
So what is the secret to success? Simply put, there isn’t just one. There’s no single point that makes tech businesses successful. Instead, success is all about evaluating your business, your marketplace and the opportunities that exist, while evolving your approach as your business evolves, and making the most of the resources you have in the best way possible.
More secrets to tech growth are revealed in our eBook — download your copy today to find out what they are.
Or keep an eye out for our next Team Talk session. Keep an eye on your inbox and our social feeds to find out more.
