The word for 2015 is hustle. Companies cutting costs and workforce are forced to look for real indie talent in order to outsource marketing and content creation. Startups have no time for anything but core product and they are about to recognise freelancers and niche agencies as well.
Efficiency problem
Major tech companies have their own marketing teams, startups tend to hire growth hackers and move towards spending most of their time working on core products. Both are still viable ways of doing marketing but there's a couple of moves that can minimize your co's burn rate. Whether it's a small to mid-sized tech company or a startup, this is going to work for you.
Marketing teams: forget about efficiency here. Low output, high burn rate, poor content quality and tons of press releases – no need to explain the rest. Reason to this: dev folks, designers and real workers are off the mic.
There's no need to reinvent the wheel and think up any stories but this is what most of marketing teams do. Do a Skype-call with your tech lead, transcribe it, let him/her edit and finalise your draft. This is it.
We often consult tech co's and startups and see people who have no idea on how to communicate with the real world and talk about their products. They believe that there's nothing interesting to offer, no big things going on at their startup etc.
«On my own» problem
In-house folks tend to feel good talking about their skills. We rarely hear marketers expose their weak spots, fight for communication with the rest of the company and plan their education. They are too scared to offer any changes and this is when companies lose.
And we definitely love what they have to say about it:
«It's going fine. I'll manage it on my own.»
One of the most staggering things we see is content planning. It's cool to have all your content creation tasks on the plate and we actually help tech co's with their content strategies it but here's what happens in the real world:
Nothing.
Everybody is too busy with plans, ideas and disputes. Nobody is into actual content production. Outcome: stories with no expertise, posts smelling like ads, audience skipping through and business standing still (best you can get here).
There's no way you're going to impress people if you're constantly trying to make up something viral, ideal or unique. Put it out there, get feedback and improve. Simple as cake.
Recipe
Compare the situation with everything «cloud». Think about it as a leverage. Companies and startups utilising Dropbox, Google Apps etc. improve their processes and move in the fast lane while you're still communicating via pigeon post.
Let your team breather and work on core features that hold your business together. Outsourcing social media management, blogging, content strategy and PR-activities is here to stay and be used as the leverage by co's willing to move faster.
Whether you're a small to mid-sized tech company with or without in-house marketing, you should look for hustler's mentality. Hustling is putting every minute and all your effort into achieving the goal at hand. This is what your co's content really needs, so get it right now.
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