What is the most important marketing advice for tech companies?

Answer: The person(s) that are handling your marketing need a thorough knowledge of your particular business in order to deliver value. Marketing expertise is secondary, industry expertise is tertiary. Of the three most common complaints about marketing and public relations consultants, #1 is They don’t understand our business (#2 is extra fees and #3 is poor writing quality).

The conventional wisdom for both marketing and public relations has been that you want employees and consultants that know your industry. This is not as important as it used to be for 2 reasons:

1. The tech industry has become extremely fragmented.

2. The tech industry is moving at lightning speed.

There is no one tech market anymore and even the segments are continually changing. Marketing must be nimble rather than industry savvy.

For a small, growing tech company, there needs to be one person that knows the company well. That could be either an employee or a consultant. After that, hire consultants with the proven capacity and willingness to understand your business thoroughly.