How do I Promote My Tech Company?

You’ve had the brainstorm moment, seen the slightest of gaps in the market, the talks with like-minded friends, worked up the pitches and endured the endless crisis-of-confidence battles with yourself, but finally, after (hopefully) more than a little research and a strong resolve, you’re ready to take your business or MVP (minimum viable product) to market.

 The road of promotion and marketing your brand is a long and constantly evolving journey and, like baking the finest chocolate brownie in Christendom, many ingredients are required at the correct particular stages before you can stand back and fully appreciate the enormity of the task. And enjoy the cake too.

Brand Identity

To start with your new business needs a visual anchor, otherwise known as a logo – something to emblazon across everything your audience and potential investors will see. Assuming you’ve already decided on a name (you know, one that’s original, unforgettable and good for SEO), you’ll need to make a few decisions before you’ve got one that suits all eventualities. Firstly, it has to be something that not only encapsulates your brand, but also subtly communicates what you’re offering to those who see it.

Secondly, it has to work across a plethora of platforms, channels and products, everywhere from your website, letterheads, pitch decks, stickers, rucksacks, and those wholly useless 2-in-1 lanyard USB cables that absolutely nobody wants. The colours you use are especially important because, like your logo, they all have many different meanings. Creativebloq have a good guide on how designers use colours when considering how to brand products.

Your USP

With new startups launching everyday, you have to ensure your product or brand can hold its own amongst a saturated market. You obviously believe in your idea enough to go to market with it, but whatever you believe its point of difference to be, this has to be hammered home at every opportunity – on your branding, pitch decks, merchandise, signage, even on your logo.

 Part of this will be tied into your branding, but it’s worth remembering how even something simple taglines as “Just Do It”, “Every Little Helps” and “Proper Food, Proper Delivery” all serve to reinforce your brand’s position in the market, and help you become more distinct at every turn.

Tone of Voice

It’s quite possible that you’ve read the ever-so-slightly jocular descriptive text on the side of your favourite yoghurt, oat milk carton or vegan sausage packet. It’s refreshing (the text as well as the milk, of course)  but that’s the point – these brands have defined their audience and decided how to engage with them. It works for their product, but deciding how to apply it to your brand can be difficult.

 Straddling the right balance between unique, informative, compelling, cool and the opposite of dullsville, it encompasses everything from the words, language and jargon you use, to communicate what your brand is all about to your chosen audience.

Audience

While you might be concerned with promoting your brand, it’s important to focus on who you’re directing it at, or aspiring to engage with. Take a look at the brands who are similar to yours - who are its audience? Scout out the website and social channels as this can help you see what kinds of people are engaging with them, and help you build up a profile. Is the brand reacting to their posts or comments? If so, what is it saying?

 Finding out the type of people who like a similar product will all help refine your tone of voice and marketing strategy and help you build an audience, as you can, in turn, then target these people.

Marketing plan and assets

Apart from putting your plans into practice, there’s still one big push to ensure you can promote your brand effectively. You might have the logo, but ensure it’s sized and in the right format to fit on everything from customer-facing materials, to templates and pitch decks for potential investors and future projects or collaborations. Alongside the more everyday items like notepads, business cards and stickies (yes, really) you’ll need to design all the banners, and decide on the marketing collateral for all your social channels. Pictures (sized correctly for print and web) and various other forms of content (videos, social posts, canva templates) all have to be ready to deploy on your intended method of delivery.

 Once you’ve got a business account on your social channels, it helps to read the advice that they provide on what will help you flourish. Doing it for your personal account is one thing - dedicating the time and energy to run your brand account is a job in itself. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn are all dedicated to helping you grow your network and exposure on their platforms

 Finally, be active on these accounts - follow the most inspiring (and perhaps influential) people in your field. Engage and engage again with your audience, and use your tone of voice

Follow these up with an effective campaign and content strategy to consolidate all of your hard work so far, but remember that while most of this work will be in the digital realm, there’s still no replacement for being human.

Phable explains technology through innovative branding and content marketing. We combine expertise in design, copywriting, Video, Social media, SEM and computer science.

 We know this industry.

We create from a place of knowledge.

We are Phable – The creative agency for technology.