How IT Resellers Can Personalise their Content Marketing

In 2015, the IT reseller market is at a turning point. While technology and the world evolves at a rapid pace, it seems that for many old school industries, such as manufacturing and engineering, the thought of evolution is a scary concept. 

For IT resellers, selling new technology to pessimistic buyers is going to be an up-hill struggle. Your product isn’t unique to your company and so you can’t rely on product features alone to make a sale. Furthermore, the market is extremely crowded, making it difficult for IT resellers to differentiate themselves from the competition. Therefore, IT resellers need to successfully identify specific persona pains and use educational content marketing that presents their USP to solve them. The only way to achieve this is through implementing a persona-centric content marketing strategy that immediately highlights the value of your service.

Go niche or go home 

The transparency of the web and sheer accessibility of service providers has had a significant impact on buyers. With multiple IT resellers at their fingertips, many buyers aren’t interested in a generic service provider. While theoretically, it may be tempting to target as many businesses as possible, this isn’t the best marketing tactic. Unless you’re a global, well-established IT reseller, the market is too saturated for you to stand out. Instead, you need to focus on a specific industry or vertical market. Undoubtedly, there is a smaller audience to target when going niche. However, the chance of lead conversion is much greater because you are able to focus your marketing efforts solely on the specific needs of your niche audience. 

For example, let’s say a prospect is a financial director at an engineering firm. In the past few years, the company has undergone extensive growth, with more employees and clients to consider. Therefore, he or she has come to the realisation that his/her current financial software isn’t robust enough to efficiently plan, allocate and manage the financial resources of the business.

A generic IT reseller who sells ERP finance software will only be able to discuss the top-line benefits of the product itself in their B2B content marketing. Considering that finance processes vary considerably depending on the industry, this isn’t very useful. On the other hand, an IT reseller who specialises in the engineering industry will be able to optimise ERP software for the specific requirements of the engineering industry. Furthermore, this niche business will be able to confidently explain to prospects how their service and product benefits the engineering industry. A generic IT reseller will only be able to discuss how their service helps financial processes in general. 

Putting yourself in the shoes of your prospects: you have a boss to get on board, targets to meet and all within a constricted timeframe. An IT reseller that specialises in the engineering industry is therefore a much safer choice, as they have proven experience in your industry and will understand your firm’s requirements better.

Present your USP

Your unique selling proposition is exactly that: the thing that makes your company unique. For IT resellers, this can be difficult to define considering that the product you are selling isn’t unique to your company. Simply saying that your company offers a ‘great service’ or an outstanding product isn’t enough. You need to offer something that no other (or very few) resellers offer. This could a measurable USP, such as a guarantee to get software up and running within a specified time-frame that other IT resellers struggle to compete with. Another USP could be your company’s dedication to maintenance, offering 24/7 support throughout the year with skilled technicians on hand. Once again, specialised industry experience can be integrated into your USP, as generic IT resellers are unlikely to have as much in-depth knowledge of specific industry requirements.

Nail your personas 

A unique selling proposition is useless without a clear idea of the types of prospects you are trying to appeal to. This is why every IT reseller needs a persona. This is a semi-fictional character that encompasses your typical customer’s role, pains, responsibilities, demographics and any information that could influence what they want from your business. When creating content for your marketing strategy, your persona should help inform the content you create and the topics you cover. In IT reseller marketing, it is vital that you align your USP with your persona's pains, effectively solving these pains while offering your service as a solution.

Personas are not simply a box-ticking exercise – they need to be used consistently throughout your content marketing activity. It’s therefore vital that you get the foundations of a persona right. With our latest in-depth guide, you can learn how to create the perfect persona and how to implement this into your B2B content marketing.