Substance beats the Next Big Thing

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By its very nature – increasingly weird and wonderful – technology grabs people’s attention, but it also falls victim to hype. Look beyond generic headlines of the “This technology will revolutionise your business” variety to find more surprising angles: bust a few myths if you can. But don’t be contrary for the sake of it: our second tip always trumps this one when you’re talking to business leaders.

Match form with content

Be creative – if you’re selling analytics that offer real-time visualisations, for example, creating content based guatemala mobile phone numbers database around those images will give it an immediate, dynamic feel. Real-time infrastructure-as-a-service company PubNub has some nice examples of visualisations on its site; video platform provider Kaltura, to take just one other example, provides much of its content in video form.

Invite business leaders to the discussion…

Beware a ‘technical disconnect’ — the natural wariness felt by people who aren’t technologists towards those who are. If you’re trying to sell technology to business leads, ask them what they want: interview them as part of your research process, engage them in discussions and brainstorming sessions, and include their perspectives in your content.

But don’t leave the CIO out of it

CIOs can feel increasingly left out of important technology discussions. But ultimately their buy-in is essential if you want to sell technology to their business. So include links in your thought leadership content to more technical material for those who want it. Don’t forget: CIOs are people too — and many will have intriguing and even radical stories of their own.