Precision Marketing
Headline: Busting the myth of the IT nerd
Publication date: 27th March 2007
The stereotypical image of an IT professional is one of a technology geek who spends his or her day in a dark basement office next to the server room.
These people are viewed as mysterious beasts within their organisations. Other staff members feel nervous about approaching them; scared they will be bombarded with computer jargon when they ask why their PC has crashed or why they cannot open their emails.
However, in reality there are not as many IT nerds around as perhaps there used to be. A survey by database software developer Embarcardero revealed that, contrary to popular belief, IT professionals are not tied to their computers. Many are enthusiastic sportsmen and lots consider themselves to be competent cooks these days. Of course, this may have always been the case, but no one noticed.
A lack of understanding by businesses generally of what makes IT professionals tick is not making marketers' jobs any easier as they fight their way through the cluttered world of digital media.
In fact, failing to understand how this group likes to be communicated with and through which media channels is costing companies with products and services aimed at this audience thousands of pounds every year.
In March, the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) called on chief executives and other board members - those who ultimately sign off marketing budgets - to get a better grasp of IT or risk falling behind their competitors. The CMI claimed that, while many business leaders accept the value of technology, they have little interest in learning about it.
This is not an option for marketers who need a strong knowledge of the IT sector if they are to get their message across.
The emergence of Web 2.0 technology is perceived as both a help and a hindrance by marketers in what is still a complex and mysterious sector. They need to know when to use new techniques, but also when to leave the latest technology alone and use more traditional direct marketing methods instead.
Web 2.0 is basically an umbrella term for the second wave of the World Wide Web which has evolved at a tremendous speed as computers and the Internet have become more powerful.
While Web 1.5 enabled users to be more interactive, using audio and video content, Web 2.0 takes into account the growth in user-generated content including blogging, as well as key marketing tools such as search engine optimisation and cost-per-click technology.
The mistake marketers can make is assuming that all IT professionals have a thorough understanding of Web 2.0 and therefore expect, and indeed want, brands to promote products and services to them using the latest technology.
The reality is not all IT workers are spotty, T-shirt wearing, early-adopting twentysomethings. Many are aged over 35 and have been working in some form of IT for many years. Few of these people really understand Web 2.0 and many of those who do are not using it on a day-to-day basis.
Marketers can also make the wrong assumption that IT professionals are experts in all forms of new technology. This is not the case. IT is a very broad church and individuals in this industry tend to specialise in one area or another. An expert in Internet firewalls will not necessarily know anything about email servers or computer hardware.
Tim Beadle has been a database marketing specialist for more than 20 years and he set up Marketing Improvement four years ago to help clients improve the profitability of their customers.
Marketing Improvement's clients include IT vendors such as Cisco Systems and VeriSign. Beadle tells them to concentrate on permission-based email campaigns and to exploit specialist interest groups where members are encouraged to forward links and information on new products.
"Before launching an email campaign, marketers need to realise that the buying cycle in IT is very erratic," says Beadle. "It is no good sending out one email in January and then sending nothing for another three months. The secret is to get permission to communicate regularly so you have a better chance of hitting an IT person's desk just when their team needs to make a purchase."
Beadle adds that while emails are often deleted without being read, marketers can achieve more success by targeting member groups. He cites the example of www.complianceandprivacy.com, sponsored by VeriSign. This is a resource centre for executives working within major organisations who are responsible for IT security issues.
"With virtually no promotion, this site gets around 100,000 unique visits a month. The content has to be good for these sites to work, but it is a great platform for IT professionals to show their bosses that another company has used a product or service," says Beadle.
Another company urging marketers down the social networking route is Internet application development and Web marketing agency Bit10.
Strategic director Ben King says companies must spend time finding the most appropriate networking groups for their product to ensure they get the most authoritative referrals.
King adds that blogging is one Web 2.0 technique which can generate interest in a company and ultimately increase sales. He points out that page rankings on search engines such as Google are improved considerably if companies have a blog on their website.
"Web 2.0 is an area where the IT and the marketing industries are still finding their feet, but you can expect to generate more sales leads using blogs," he says. "Many large organisations now have blogging guidelines where they encourage their staff to blog about whatever they want. This promotes the company, its products and the sector it works in."
One of the reasons marketers have a poor understanding of IT professionals is that within many organisations the IT department has become marginalised.
While the role of the marketing and sales teams is to drive the business forward, the function of IT nowadays is largely one of protecting the company. This includes everything from ensuring the servers do not crash to making sure valuable customer databases are secure. It means the marketing and IT teams interact less than perhaps they should, while the heavy reliance on jargon by IT workers can create a conflict with marketers.
Owen Ashby, managing director of Think Smart Marketing, believes these two internal departments are too isolated from each other. This fact, combined with a feeling among some marketers that they are being forced to adopt Web 2.0 technologies sooner rather than later, is creating tension. Indeed, it is not uncommon for marketers to clash with their bosses when they have read about pay per click and search engine optimisation and wonder why their company has not invested in them, especially as the pressure is on to show a return on investment from every pound in the marketing budget.
"Web 2.0 techniques promise instant gratification, low cost, low risk and high visibility. For marketing departments under the cosh to provide tangible evidence of their work, they are almost irresistible," says Ashby. "Here lies the problem. We are creating a generation of marketers who could become Web 2.0 junkies, dependent on cheap techniques like Google rankings, pay per click and search eng ine optimisation, believing that these alone will deliver results."
He adds: "Web 2.0 techniques work when targeting IT professionals if they sit on top of traditional direct marketing ideas that have always worked, and which, in today's world, can be very effective at driving people to a website," says Ashby. "IT workers also have their own language and terminology which marketers need to use competently offline and online if their message is to have any credibility."
The importance of ensuring the message is tailored to the IT audience seems to be common sense. What is not so clear is whether in such a crowded digital media market companies should be making more use of offline direct marketing to get the stand out they crave when they launch a new product or service.
Tom Evans, joint managing director of Hothouse Marketing, says offline media can have more of an impact when a company needs to convey a complicated product message aimed at busy IT executives.
He feels there has been so much abuse of the online media channel to reach the IT audience with continual promotions that the perceived value of these communications has been weakened. He adds that, rather than worrying too much about whether they should be using the latest Web 2.0 techniques, marketers should concentrate on getting the balance right between online and offline marketing.
"It is hard to convey the benefits of a new product in an email. Offline media such as direct mail can get someone's attention and is the perfect tool to encourage the target market to go online to find out more," says Evans. "New digital media has a place once a product has been launched. In fact, Web 2.0 techniques can come into their own then, because it allows marketers to very quickly and ef fectively penetrate their target market."
There are other routes for companies to reach key IT individuals, including via mobile marketing. For example, there are 700 information and communications technology (ICT) businesses in the Liverpool area and Merseyside ICT, the organisation set up to represent this sector, is working with SMS marketing company Txttouch.
The mobile details of the Merseyside ICT membership have been placed on the Txttouch system so members can receive local industry news and details of events via text message.
However marketers choose to target IT professionals, it is crucial any database remains up-to-date because workers in this industry move around at an alarming rate.
The latest ATSCo/SkillsMarket report claims 49 per cent of IT workers are either actively looking for a new job or are open to offers, compared with 24 per cent this time last year.
In many ways, the level of turnover among staff in IT mirrors the marketing industry. It also adds to the complexity of this sector, where, for marketers with products to promote, knowledge is power.
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Busting the myth of the IT nerd
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