MLM Directory

Marketing an Information Technology Business?

Hello all, I'm looking for marketing tips for my Information Technology business. Our primary markets are K12, business, and health care. Our product/service focus is network cabling, switches, routers, etc. We also sell workstations, laptops, and tablet PCs to our customers. We are not a store front computer repair business that sells computers to the public and goes to businesses every now and then for on-site work. We do not work with individuals at all and do not operate a store front (we do have an office but it is used to meet with clients, training, and a place for us to do paperwork). I know most people consider a company a small business if it has less than 500, 200, or 100 employees (I've seen the numbers scattered everywhere), but I'm not interested in targeting businesses that only have a few computers. These businesses usually aren't interested in purchasing quality network equipment, servers, etc. It's not a matter of they don't make as much money but they are usually more of a headache because since everything is off the shelf equipment and cheaply thrown together it gives us more problems than quality built networks. I have a very large client that I have serviced for 6 years and we have a new large client (health care) that just hired us to do a $300,000 network upgrade. The new client heard about us through word of mouth. I'd like to get my company out there so we can get more clients. I'm not sure where to start with advertising & promotion, since we are targeting the decision makers in companies, not individuals. How effective is promoting via phone? I know I hate getting calls from salesmen and I don't want to annoy people that could be my customers if I handled it correctly. The majority of our clients are K12 schools. If anyone knows any marketing tips for those clients that would be great. Thanks!

Public Comments

1. On the basis that you want to target decision makers then I wouldn't do advertising. I would find the names and contact details of those individuals and I would consider how to become useful to them so that when they have a problem they ask you first. This is the old challenge of trying to create a community. Advertising is a shot gun strategy where you hope you hit the right target. I have always felt that was right if you are P&G or Dell but not for a small focussed business. I would suggest you buy or build a database of contacts and then you consider how to slowly create that relationship. You don't say who the decision makers are or what their job/role is so I can't comment. Imagine if you got some of them in a room and they chatted and realised that they had some challenges/problems which were common to them, they would benefit from that shared knowledge. How to fix a problem, what to do to avoid a problem, who to ask help from, where to validate their plans, where to buy from, how to get the best deal, what things to avoid.... If you were to own this area then when they have problems they dip into your experience for help. In my experience of doing this part-time it takes 2+ years to start to see results. Then you can do events and other things and build the relationships.