Have you ever read a review about a new tech product and thought how amazing it is, but have no idea how you could actually use it? Or worse, do you ever find yourself opening up a new application, taking the tour of all its capabilities, and then not using any of the really cool features you just learned about because you don’t know when or why you would use them? The technology is there for the taking, but you just don’t know how to apply it to your needs.
How do we bridge the gap between knowing what a product does and how to apply it to a customer’s needs?
Oftentimes, the complexity of using content to sell technology solutions is that the content is too focused on features and benefits, and doesn’t integrate real-life scenarios. This leaves customers to figure out how to use the technology they know they need, but maybe can’t quite figure out how to optimize its full potential. A good content story needs to be more adept at leveraging the strength of third-party experiences that can help define the problem and give examples of how they solved their problem. If a customer can see a solution in action, they can relate it to their own experience.
When we ran the CyberSecurity Journal we had the good fortune of interviewing the FBI Chief of CyberSecurity, M.K. Palmore. We discussed the 2017 hack on Equifax, and heard his thoughts on building an effective Cybersecurity solution that covers the different paths that a hacker may take to disrupt a business. Listening to Palmore, organizations can draw parallels between his thoughts and experiences and their own organizational needs.
PartnerOn provides content from third-party publications that helps define needs, challenges and how organizations use the technology. We make it even easier by providing industry-specific streams that focus on SMB, enterprise, federal, education, and collaboration needs. These streams help build the story around the need and then deliver on the solution. Third-party content is a core element to a successful content storyline. In fact, our stats show that consumer engagement with streams that promote third-party content is often much higher than streams that do not. Partners and vendors who focus solely on product or technology content are losing sight of how to keep customers in the flywheel. The end goal is to encourage relatability which will lead to more engagement and ongoing dialogue about desired solutions as well as delightment when you can provide them with answers, which we all know is what keeps customers coming back.