This article written by DBC’s Bill Daddi originally appeared as a post for the Forbes Business Council.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of my company’s founding. As president and founder of a communications and marketing agency that has exclusively supported advertising, marketing and insights companies during that time, here are some observations gained from my experience:
Technology, data and methodology aside, this industry still runs on humans.
As an industry, we sometimes do not take this human element sufficiently into consideration. Often, advanced technology and better methodologies are available to solve problems, but they run into the challenge of inertia and resistance to change when it comes to adoption.
Yes, change incurs expenses in resources and training, but a big reason people don’t change is because they feel more comfortable with what they already know—even if they acknowledge there are better options out there. The continued use of Excel for planning, buying and invoice reconciliation is evidence of that.
I think we need to place an equal effort on understanding the emotional drivers to change as much as we do on advancing technology and methodology.
That human element also comes into play in adtech and martech vendor selection.
Effective functional and rationale arguments can be made for a vendor, but selection is often made on an emotional basis. This is part of the reason why it is so hard to dislodge incumbents. It’s that well-known dynamic of “no one got fired for recommending the category leader.” We need to better account for the human dynamic at play in vendor selection in order to increase effectiveness in marketing.
While this is a B2B marketing environment, the people making the decisions are still consumers.
At work, as at home, people have challenges, concerns and anxieties. They will typically gravitate to the companies that can speak to those challenges, whether in a B2B or B2C environment. The reality is, we want to work with and associate with entities that we feel understand us and our needs.
Companies in adtech and martech could do better by trying to understand the concerns, challenges and anxieties of their targets, and reflecting that in their outreach. Reflecting concerns can be a much more effective strategy for securing attention, relevance and engagement than touting the superiority of product benefits.
The human element should also be considered with marketing and sales content.
On many vendor websites, it’s hard to even understand what companies do or are offering or why someone would need them. Many sites focus on product benefits, which are usually described with superlatives—game changing, groundbreaking, the first, the fastest, etc. Using these terms often has the opposite effect from what vendors intend.
Sites and sale collateral are also often filled with jargon or company “positions” that never address the basic question of: How can you help me with the problem I am having?
There is a limit to what people will pay for better.
I’ve noticed there is a pervasive “good enough” attitude in the industry. End users don’t necessarily want to pay for better quality data or technology. They feel that what they have is good enough. That also comes into play when new technologies emerge. Those introducing new solutions sometimes face the “what I have is good enough” obstacle.
In my experience, the best way to overcome the “good enough” mentality is to demonstrate why what you offer is uniquely aligned with the target’s concerns and challenges.
Alignment often holds companies back.
As can be seen in many industries, internal misalignment on goals, approaches or even how the company views itself can impact both how a company is seen externally and their ability to get things done internally. Too often, marketing is saying one thing, while sales is saying another.
Company leaders should pay attention to getting everyone on the same page. Establishing a company is challenging enough in the adtech/martech marketplace. It becomes much harder if you do not have a consistent and uniform message going out to the marketplace.
We are an industry that can oftentimes lack vision.
Broadly, we are still working to solve problems from a decade plus. We often spend little time focusing on how the industry might evolve and then preparing for that future. We can also sometimes lack imagination or innovation. We tend to just look to solve things as they are rather than stepping back and considering how we might go about it all differently.
It is a very hard industry to truly understand.
I wonder how many people know how the ad ecosystem actually works and what role all the various aspects play and how they impact each other. I am often at conferences or read interviews where what is being cited as fact is just wrong. Decisions are being made and opinions are being formed that are sometimes based on misunderstandings.
This is an industry dominated by data, technology and methodologies, but ultimately, it is humans that determine its success and path forward. As a whole, I think we would do better to consider that human element more fully.