Eric Lynch, B2B Copywriter

Yesterday, we talked about Geoffrey Moore’s Technology Adoption Life Cycle. The TALC is the paradigm that describes their prospects’ mindsets your sales staff is likely to encounter as they market your products and services. I also promised I’d talk a little bit about the different individual segments of this model - and how I write copy to address each of these segments to maximize lead generation for your firm.

Technology Adoption Life Cycle

 

Innovators: The Earliest Market

Innovators are the first market you’re likely to encounter when marketing high technology products and services. These are the people highlighted in the far left-hand side of the curve you see above. They love to be the first ones to jump on a new technology. And for good reason: they’re technologists, themselves.

These technology enthusiasts sometimes go by other names. Things like “techie,” “computer-nerd,” or “propeller-head.” They’ll appreciate your technology product simply because it’s cool. Oh, and if it happens to have an advantage over what they’re using now, so much the better.

As Geoffrey Moore says in “Crossing The Chasm,”…

“They [Innovators] will forgive your ghastly documentation, horrendously slow performance, ludicrous omissions in functionality, and bizzarely obtuse methods of invoking some needed function - all in the name of moving technology forward.”

You have to market to innovators before you can get the attention of the early adopters. And it’s a good thing: these guys are technology savvy enough to give the early adopters the thumbs-up.

So by all rights, this group should be a pretty easy one to market to. Yet I see high-tech companies miss the boat all the time when marketing to them.

 

B2B Copywriting: Getting Innovators’ Attention

Innovators care about technology issues first. If they care about business issues at all (admittedly, few do) they weigh in at a very distant second. So business benefits won’t get an innovator’s attention.

What will get his attention is new technology - “new” is the operative word. They want to be the first to get a new widget that accomplishes something cool that has never been done before. They’re happy to sign your non-disclosure agreement, as long as they can be among the first to get their hands on your widget.

Innovators have the most advanced brains in the company (really, they do), and they know it. So tell them so in your copy. Paint them a word picture of themselves being part of an exclusive group of advanced engineers who truly appreciate what your breakthrough technology means to the unsuspecting world.

One other thing about innovators: they know they have to live within the confines of corporate America. But that doesn’t mean they have to like it. Though they may not admit it outright, they have a sharp disdain for the “suits” who limit their creativity by demanding something so mundane as a return on investment.

So when I write lead generation copy addressed to innovators, I might start out with something like this…

Dear Fellow Engineer,

This invitation isn’t for managers, CFOs, or tie-wearing meeting-moths who are afraid to get their hands dirty by actually writing code that runs.

No, it’s for the rest of us.

It’s for those of us who develop the apps that keep the lights on. Day after day. It’s for us guys who can uncork the hairiest Java integration problem to keep the company running - because we’re the only ones who can.

For you and I who fit that description, XYZ Company has a new Service-Oriented Architecture wizard using Ajax-Interop that will change the way everyone in the company uses web applications. We’re talking everyone from the receptionist to the guy in the corner office (you know, the one who thinks he understands technology).

Why are they doing this? Because they need your advice. They need some truly brilliant engineering minds to have a go at their new wizard and make give their honest opinion - while it’s still in the early stages of R & D. Your feedback will be used to drive the direction of this breakthrough technology.

And because you’re one of the few who ‘get it,’ you can be among the first to get your personal download - along with the UML diagram and Open API to get you started quickly and easily. Once you see it the first time, the possibilities will just overwhelm you…

This copy works because it gives the innovator something every human wants but nobody gets enough of: recognition. The reason I know this is because I am one, myself. When I was writing code for a living, I never felt like I got the recognition I deserved. I knew darn well I single-handedly saved the company on two different occasions. But nobody else knew - or appreciated it.

And there’s no better way to tell an engineer you appreciate him than by asking his opinion. Trust me, he’s got one. And he’ll gladly give it to you if you’re willing to acknowledge his superior intellect (trust me - he’s got one of those too).

Now, please don’t think I’m pandering. I’m not trying to give any tips on how to “fool” highly intelligent software engineers into doing something they wouldn’t otherwise do. I just want to make sure you don’t target the innovator market segment by touting business benefits. Innovators don’t care about those. That’s the mistake I want all my clients to know to avoid whenever I take on a new B2B copywriting assignment.

Innovators represent the first market segment your high-tech product must penetrate. Remember, they love technology for it’s own sake. So keep your message focuses squarely on them and the pride they take in a pure technology advance. And make sure they know they’ll be recognized as having the genius to forsee a breakthrough before anybody else did.

We’ll talk more about other segments of the Technology Adoption Life Cycle…and how to target them. So keep your feed reader pointed here at ericlynchcopywriter.com.

Tags: High Tech Copywriting, Lead Generation

Tags: High Tech Copywriting, Lead Generation //