Marketing insights from a tech company
Recently I had the pleasure to share some insights on Marketing Strategy with Top Comunicación, based on my experience working at Fon.
Fon is a tech firm, present across 5 continents. Our core business is the development of WiFi management software. Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, as well as British Telecom and Deutsche Telekom are just some of our top-tier investors. Our clients are telecommunications companies and managed service providers that need to deploy, configure, manage and monetize WiFi networks in the most intelligent way. We also develop connectivity solutions in order to offer an always-best-connected experience to users.
To the Q, what is my vision for branding, marketing & communication?
From my perspective, to conceptualize, design, and bring a brand to life is a very exciting process. Even more so when you get to launch it to market. But what is truly enjoyable is supporting its growth, taking it to the next level, ensuring that it meets all business objectives… To achieve this, the brand has to be capable of evolving and adapting.
At Fon our marketing and communication plan is holistic. We plan all impacts across owned, earned and paid channels in an integrated manner. The objective of our plan is to guide prospects along a path towards the buying decision.
Our strategy is based on three pillars, the first of which is relevant content. We focus attention on our website, given that it is a universal point of contact, and is relevant to all of our stakeholders: prospects, clients, investors, employees, and press. Our editorial work helps us to demonstrate our industry know-how, and we distribute the content via our blog, social media, and forums. We also use the MK automation tool Marketo, integrated within our CRM Salesforce, to distribute content pills effectively. These regular bites of content help us to remain top of mind and move our leads further down the buying process.
The second pillar is related to the media, and our proactive reaction to the press. We create content to communicate corporate news and product launches, but we also generate pieces of creative based on industry trends and investigations that we carry out. We collaborate closely with media to write opinion articles, which help position us as thought leaders within the industry.
The third and final pillar is paid media, which for us includes sponsorship of events and conferences, as well as investments in Adwords, Retargeting, and LinkedIn. We like to think that anything you can measure can be optimized. For this reason, we regularly work with urchin tracking modules (UTMs) in order to have a clear visibility of the impact of each action in our monthly KPIs dashboard.
The technology sector, or more specifically, developing software technology, is very dynamic. Therefore it is really important to be flexible and to know how to plan and then re-plan when necessary. Additionally, sales cycles are extremely long, and successes are built on relationships. Therefore relationship marketing activities are key. Following this thought process, although we’re selling technological solutions, CMOs must clearly maintain the human-to-human component. We are speaking to and selling to people, not objects! The creative concepts behind each campaign should be focused on connecting with these people: They should be memorable, and should clearly translate the value and benefits of our solutions.
Our year really gets going at Mobile World Congress. It is the global mobile technology event of the year, at which we meet with the most influential communication service providers to talk about the future of WiFi. This year we launched a creative campaign focused on WiFi as an essential “element” for telecommunications. Through an ethereal image of liquid, tinged in our corporate colors, we constructed a metaphor for the ubiquity of WiFi. We achieved significant brand awareness with the campaign, as well as extraordinary results in terms of lead generation, which was our principal objective. Additionally, we achieved significant coverage in the press as well as on social media channels, with interviews published in El País, Silicon, Redes&Telecom, Mobile World Live, FierceWireless, LightReading, and Telecoms, amongst others.
Overall I consider myself very lucky, as I am passionate about every aspect of my role.
