Less than 20 years ago the majority of consumers did not negotiate cell phone plan rates, check to verify if their new software came with free updates, or even use Google to look up a local diner. But in the past ten years it has become difficult to imagine a life without these modern conveniences. It is fair to say that peoples reliance on these technologies is a clever combination of good products, competitive pricing, and a great deal of ingenious marketing.
While now the selling points of a cellular phone may be obvious, during the first inception of this product cell phone companies had to do a great deal of marketing. In 2010 as even deeper technology comes to the forefront, it may seem difficult to market things such as search engine marketing, biometric technology, voice command products, or even contactless keyboards. What I will illustrate in this article are simple, familiar ways to market new forms of technology to the masses.
Search Engine Marketing Web Advertisements
The yellow pages, billboards, telemarketing, and printed collateral were once the main staples of marketing a new project. Now, websites and search engine marketing play a major role in getting users face-to-face with your product. Consumers use search engines instinctively to learn more about a product before even contacting the provider.
Google, what some refer to as the worlds most popular search engine, has garnered millions of dollars in advertising funds for just a well-placed advertisement that consists of just a few key words.
Why do people continuously buy ads using Google AdWords? Because they created a market where users consistently rely on Google for information. Using this leverage, Google uses a simple right-hand column and a small piece of their main column to provide online ad space.
How did search engines like Google get millions of people to invest in online ad space?
Slow Inception
Do we remember search engines without ad space? Slowly but surely search engines began to slowly introduce small, simple changes that didnt drastically interfere with how the user would ordinarily interact with the product. When marketing your technology you can slowly introduce the new option to make consumers used to seeing/experiencing the product before a formal introduction.
Free and Paid Components
While your pricing structure may seem very sound, and you need certain funds to cover business expenses, offering something for nothing is often a good way to get people to trust you and rely on your free services. Once people get a feel for your company through free content, demos, etc. they will come to associate your company as a company that cares and as not just about its bottom line. When you slowly incorporate your paid components people may be more willing to respond. For instance, using a search engine is free, but there is a fee to advertise or use special components.
Biometric Technology
One of the main players in the biometric technology market is M2SYS Technology, an award-winning biometric firm that offers fingerprint, palm vein, finger vein, and iris recognition technology. While some may associate fingerprints with government operations, M2SYS has found a way to infiltrate the market and be on the forefront of making things such as finger vein recognition a part of many seemingly unrelated industries such as law enforcement, church management, point-of-sale (POS) systems, membership administration, and workforce management.
How did they do this? M2SYS used a hybrid combination of standard market techniques, search engine optimization, and social media to achieve their success.
Email Marketing
M2SYS utilizes a unique combination of email correspondence to open the communication lines between company and client. Rather sending a standard, three column newsletter, M2SYS creates dynamic content that encourages users to both read and interact, resulting in a unique user experience.
M2SYS uses a web-based email solution to send emails about special promotions, press releases, latest updates, free seminars, test products, tidbits on the M2SYS staff, simple greetings, and more to remain a transparent company that cares about interactivity with its clients.
Direct Mail Campaigns
While some businesses may incorrectly rely solely digital communication in todays time, some fail to see that a well orchestrated direct mail campaign may be exactly what it takes to get their technology into their desired market. M2SYS sends mailers to demographics that may not respond as well to email marketing. Vertical markets such as churches and non-profit organization receive dynamic mailers from M2SYS that prompt the recipient to contact the company.
Social Media Management
Perhaps one of the areas where M2SYS is most active is social media management. M2SYS uses Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, WordPress, Delicious, and more to stay in contact with their users on a personal level.
Following M2SYS on social networks gives clients an all-access pass to what is going on behind the scenes here M2SYS. Fans and followers gain insider knowledge regarding their latest announcements, new software releases, newest biometric devices, special promotions and discounts, fan page only marketing materials, videos, and much more.