Marketing to tech-laggards
Examples from Xero, Upwork, StructionSite, and Zenput
Many industries are decidedly behind when it comes to using technology — either using paper-based processes or technology that is widely considered to be outdated.
Restaurant operations: using pen and paper checklists
Construction: using printed blueprints
Finance/accounting: using excel spreadsheets
Salons & barbershops: using phones and notepads to book appointments
You can probably think of many others
For the last six years I’ve worked for tech companies that are digitizing industries like these.
In marketing and sales our job is to show people how doing things a new way, our way, will solve problems and make their lives better. But when marketing to this type of audience, a key risk or outright failure is to treat this simply as a matter of education – that tech-laggards just don’t get it yet so we need to show them the light; when what we really need to do is understand their needs, priorities, and concerns, and why the choice to use technology might not be so simple – and use this to drive our marketing.
I saw a LinkedIn post recently from someone who had consulted for companies that market to tech-laggard industries. The key takeaway was that you just need to simplify your messaging – instead of jargon-laden statements about how your product improves profits, show how you will improve their lives, get them home to their families earlier etc. And the punchline was that simple messaging is actually the key to marketing in any industry.
This is true. But marketing new technology to industries, companies, functions, or people that haven’t gone through a “digital transformation” is a lot more than just finding the right words.
At PlanGrid (acquired by Autodesk) we marketed to superintendents that had worked on job sites for 30 years and preferred working from paper blueprints. You unroll the blueprint, draw all over it. You can feel it. Touch it. Really see it. There’s something about having it in your hand.
At Zenput we market to restaurant teams who often do work on paper checklists, where hand-written food safety logs are scribbled by a 17 year old onto a paper form that gets put in a drawer never to be seen again. We’ve all seen those cleaning checklists hanging on the restroom wall where the most recent cleaning date was days or weeks ago.
Personally, when I read a book I love holding it in my hands – there’s something about holding a book or flipping open a newspaper that feels like an important part of the experience that you can’t get with a Kindle or e-reader. I suppose I’m a tech-laggard for the literary industry.
We live in a time where there are still many people in the workforce who didn’t grow up with technology. There are also plenty of younger people who did grow up with technology, who are accustomed to the “older” ways of doing things because it’s what they were taught, it’s comfortable, or it’s all they’ve got.
Marketing your B2B technology to tech-adverse audiences
Let’s assume that your technology/software exists to address serious problems that come with doing things the “old” way in a particular industry. As a marketer you could create some provocative stats about how much money or time you save people; stories about how your tech makes peoples’ lives easier, create FUD or FOMO by showing how other brands/competitors are already using technology like yours.
For marketers to really break through to tech-adverse audiences though, we have to empathize with their situation and concerns — to understand what a change like this would mean to them and why it might be hard.
Here are six tech-laggard concerns that should influence our marketing:
People are uncomfortable with or indifferent to tech, and for veterans it’s like starting over. Many people/users are uncomfortable using technology and the idea of having to learn something new is daunting and intimidating. Imagine having 30 years of experience in your field. The introduction of new tech could feel like it’s putting you in the position of a rookie - learning the ropes all over again. They already know how to knock out their work with older methods that work just fine.
Leadership is uncertain whether or not their teams will use it. Decision-makers worry that their teams won’t adopt the new technology as a result of #1 above. That they’ll pay all of this money for a new tool, change all of their processes. Then, no one on the team uses the new software.
Organizational change is painful. Multiple processes and dependencies might be disrupted by adopting technology and moving on from the “old” ways – in most cases the scenario is a lot more complicated than buy software -> life instantly better. In the long run it might be for the better for the business, but it requires time upfront to think strategically about the right way to rebuild your processes with tech. There are expensive consulting firms and there is a lot written about “change management” in business for a reason.
Additional costs/investments might be needed. Using a great new app or system might require buying new hardware or systems: tablets, phones, internet connectivity hardware, device covers, data subscriptions, MDM systems, etc. Your SaaS solution is a $30k/year contract? With all of the extras it could double that or more, depending on what other systems they already have in place.
Fail-safe options if the tech fails. On pen and paper there’s never network failures or downtime. What do they do when it inevitably fails, even if it’s just for a few minutes?
Legal or liability concerns. In some industries, the “wet” copy is a standard that’s hard to get away from because of how laws are written, insurance liability, etc. Even today with the prevalence of eSignature apps like Docusign or Hellosign, someone somewhere often wants the piece of paper with a hand-written signature. If your marketing (and your product itself) don’t take this into account it could be a big roadblock.
The opportunity for marketers is to use this list and address each area in various forms of content: testimonials from companies or people that had used paper-based processes for decades but made the switch; simple how-to videos that show what before/after looks like; content that explains how to manage organizational change in your specific industry; buying guides to help prospects navigate a purchase like this for the first time.
4 examples of companies marketing to tech-laggard audiences
Zenput
For our audience of chain-restaurant leaders, at Zenput we launched a campaign this year to prompt curiosity with a key message: “The way restaurant teams work has changed”, with visuals that drive home the idea/reality that the old paper-based processes are no longer good enough to meet the demands of customers.
We also created an associated ebook titled “The Modern Operations Execution Handbook” where we provide real examples of what before and after looks like in terms of using technology for restaurant operations.
Upwork
With their “How We Work Now” campaign, Upwork aims to drive home the message that hiring full-time employees is the old way of working, and hiring freelancers is the new better way.
I found it an odd choice to alienate their audience for wanting to hire full-time employees, even if hiring freelancers is a great option. Either way its an interesting example of a company driving home the “old way” message.
StructionSite
For construction-tech company StructionSite, customers need to use 360° camera to get the most out of their SaaS solution (point #4 above), but they don’t actually sell those cameras. So what did they do? They wrote a 360° Camera Buyer’s Guide and made it available for free and ungated on their website. Genius.
Xero
For businesses interested in transitioning their finances and accounting from paper or from excel, Xero provides very digestible written guides to take their audience through key steps to do it.
