Four Dimensions for Expanding Addressable Markets

A good marketing executive should always spend a percentage of their time contemplating entry into adjacent markets.  In today’s hyper-competitive technology sector, market segments mature rapidly and new products quickly become obsolete.  Consequently, every company needs a well-designed strategy to expand their addressable market opportunity if they want to continue to grow.  There are four dimensions by which you can expand your addressable market – new product lines, new geographic regions, new vertical industries and new customer segments:

Where to Hire Industry Marketing Personnel From

Ideally, you should hire industry marketing personnel from other technology vendors. Alternative options include candidates from consulting firms, industry associations, standard organizations and market research houses. I think you will find that most of these candidates have strong qualifications avoiding the three challenges I outlined in my November post – Don’t Hire People from Industry for Industry Marketing Roles.

Don’t Hire People from Industry for Industry Marketing Roles

I always tell people that you shouldn’t hire industry marketing people from industry. I usually get a confused look because this seems to conflict with the conventional wisdom for hiring these types of roles. I’ve heard many a technology CEO state that the answer to all the company’s sales challenges would be solved if they just had someone from industry who could speak the customer’s language. Then without fail twelve months later there is boardroom discussion about how the $300K/year “industry expert” that was hired isn’t making an impact. Most executives assume that the recruiting process was mismanaged and the wrong person was hired. However, the true root cause is that the wrong profile candidate was hired into the wrong role.

Wikipedia – Replacing the “About” page on your Web Site

As a marketing professional I find myself frequently researching and investigating various different companies. In some cases my research is designed to gather background on a prospect or client before an on-site visit. In other cases, I am attempting to understand the structure or business trends within a vertical industry. However, nine times out of ten when I visit corporate web sites I am left with nothing but disappointment and frustration.

Rule #2 for Getting Thought Leadership Content – Make it Fast

This is the second post in my series of how to get thought leaders to generate compelling and differentiated content. Rule #2 explains how blogs and podcasts are two quick ways of generating thought leadership content that reduce both the intimidation factor for the author and the time commitment for the reader.

Rule #1 for Getting Thought Leadership Content – Make it Easy

In my last post I outlined the challenges with getting subject matter experts to create a regular stream of compelling and differentiated content. In this entry I explain one of the best practices I have found for encouraging opinion leaders to write down their ideas.

Four Ways to get Thought Leaders to Write Content

One of the key challenges technology marketing executives face today is producing a consistent stream of differentiated and compelling content for external distribution. In today’s Web 2.0 world there are more communication channels than ever before. Not only do marketing departments have to produce content for tradeshows, direct mail, web download, e-newsletters and live webcasts, but they must also experiment with the various new media being popularized in business forums such as e-books, video, podcasts, weblogs, micro-blogging, social bookmarking and social networking sites.

Outside-In Marketing

One of the consistent trends I have found is that corporate marketing departments in the tech sector are full of “inside out” thinking. Decisions are based upon internal goals, priorities and opinions of a company rather than customer needs and market drivers.