The illustrator and marketer Tom Fishburne has said the best marketing doesn't feel like marketing: People get the information they need when they need it and, with any luck, in a way that's easy or even enjoyable to take on board.

Good marketing, for the customer, is useful. It's unobtrusive. It's natural. It's like getting a recommendation from a friend.

But right now, tech marketers seem to have forgotten that basic idea. They're doing the work; but often, that work isn't landing. Engagement isn't what it could be. And so marketers miss out on happier customers—and better ROI.

The problem relates to automation. It would seem to be bread-and-butter stuff for someone in the tech space. But, let's be honest, a lot of tech companies, especially B2B, aren't great at it.

Tech marketing tends to emphasize new individual products rather than putting data to work to make life and profits better. And it often ignores how best to categorize and target existing buyers—engineers in electronics, for instance—whose needs are predictable and easy to meet.

It's a cultural problem

Interestingly, marketers in tech are among the first to admit that automation isn't being used very well, when it could be a win-win. They know that they could do more with data. They know that there's low-hanging fruit ready to be picked and enjoyed.

But current ways of doing things are so entrenched culturally that it's tricky to go with a different approach. If you've ever heard the phrase "This is how it's always been done," you'll know what I mean. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is another classic.

Change is hard, and cultural change is even harder. But that's exactly what has to happen in tech marketing.

Bring down barriers

One way to shake up a culture is to bring down the barriers that divide it from the outside world. In this context, that could start with talking more to Sales. Again, that may sound obvious to the indoctrinated, but many companies fail to do it in a meaningful way.

In tech, as in most industries, sales professionals have a privileged understanding of the company's audience. They have a clear idea of who buys their products and why. If tech marketers spoke to Sales more, they'd quickly realize the people they're marketing to very often have completely different needs and wants.

What these needs and wants are will differ, of course, from company to company, and those needs and wants may not in fact mean extra work—it could be the opposite, in fact.

For example, often smaller customers are marketed to in the same way that big customers are. After all, they're all customers, right? Well, yes and no; as we all know, not all customers are equal. Often the needs of smaller customers, who will account for the majority of the number of sales (sales numbers not being the same as actual profit), can be met through a lighter touch, usually through automated processes, freeing up Marketing and Sales to concentrate on the big fish that will make a major difference to our profits.

Dig for data

Of course, Sales can only give you a rough sketch of who you're marketing to. To add some color to the portrait, you need hard data.

The problem is that no one likes giving out their personal information for no reason. We might not mind that much, but broadly speaking we want to know why someone's going through our proverbial drawers and cupboards, looking at our stuff.

So before tech marketers go mining for data, they need to tell customers why they need it. They need to explain that if they had that data, they could get those customers what they want and need when they want and need it is frequently enough to do the trick.

Keep it in the family

This doesn't apply to every form of tech marketing, but it's relevant enough to merit a mention: Marketing product families is often more effective than marketing individual products.

Many audiences in certain areas of tech, such as engineers, have no interest in the latest version of something; they just want something with the right features to do the job and a vendor they know they can rely on for years to come.

Too much emphasis on individual products directs resources away from where it might be better used, and often leads to the endless multiplication of products which, in some areas of the tech world, make finding information harder.

Put it to the test

The more you test, the closer you'll get to running an ideal campaign, delivered to the right people at the right time. So once you've gathered your information and designed a campaign, try it out. See if it lands, tweak it, run it again; and soon, you'll be moving in the right direction.

It's always better to get started than try to design, up front, the perfect campaign. No such thing exists.

It doesn't feel like marketing

Automation gives marketers more time and energy to do what they like to do best, which is to be creative and strategic. That should be motivation enough for tech marketers to rethink the way they use automation.

But beyond that, the outcome of automation, if executed well, is customers for whom marketing doesn't even feel like marketing. Informative content just turns up when they need it. And those are the kinds of customers who'll buy from you again and again and again.

More Resources on Marketing Automation

How to Build Marketing Automation Campaigns That Prompt Desired Behaviors From Your Leads

How ABM Automation Can Change Your Sales Process Forever

How to Prepare for Marketing's Flexible Future: Automated Marketing Processes

Seven Marketing Automation Campaigns That Should Get You Promoted