How to Write So Systems Integrators Listen

If you market to systems integrators, reaching them is a challenge. They’re not easy to target through traditional means. We know firsthand— ours is a small marketing company that works with commercial integrators.

Once you do reach the right integrators, there’s a second challenge: how do I get them to pay attention?

Without a clear message that tells your customers what’s in it for them, your marketing is dead in the water.

Don’t make them think

How do I get integrators to stop what they’re doing and absorb my message?

Most companies go wrong by making their marketing confusing. Integrators are having to think too hard about what’s in it for them. A message is clear when your customers don’t have to think.

When they immediately get how they benefit, and why they should learn more. So how do we make the value obvious and easy to understand?

In two words: shift and simplify.

Shift your perspective

Start by evaluating your existing marketing. Whose perspective is it from? Yours, or your customers’?

Are you talking about what your product does? Or about the ways your customers’ lives will be better when they work with you?

The first step to writing so integrators listen is to make clear: “What’s in it for me?”

Don’t make them guess — even if it seems obvious to you, spell it out. Benefits are worth reiterating.

Write from their perspective (not yours).

Related: Content Marketing And Public Relations: Similar, But Different

Instead of listing the features of your software, describe how it makes their life easier. Instead of listing the specs of your product, describe how it solves a particular problem. The features and specs have their place, but they come later.

To capture someone’s attention, you need to paint a picture of a transformation: our product takes you from [frustration] to [relief].

But don’t try to come up with this transformation in a vacuum. Instead, talk to your customers and use their own words.

Talk to your customers

Customer interviews are gold for your marketing, and customers are happy to share their perspectives.

Armed with the language they use, your marketing content will be easier to read and more compelling.

Here are a few questions to ask your customers that can help get their perspective:

• What frustrations or painful problems were you dealing with before coming to us?
• What had you already tried to solve that problem? (Competing products? Clunky workarounds?)
• What “symptoms” was that problem causing you? Describe the day-to-day frustrations.
• What do those frustrations look like now?
• What are a few things you no longer have to do thanks to our product/service?
• What goals did you have when you partnered with us/bought from us?
• How has working with us changed your day-to-day? Listen for specific benefits. They can be practical benefits (easier installation) and/or one-layer-deeper benefits (happier clients, freedom, peace of mind).
• What objections/concerns did you have before working with us?
• What has kept you working with us over time?

Your customers’ answers to these questions will give you the language you need to connect with more customers like them.

You’ll also notice trends in the problems they wanted to solve, and the benefits they see in working with you. Use those trends to understand different parts of your audience.

That way, you can avoid trying to speak to everyone at once, which dilutes the power of your message.

Simplify to stand out

The goal is to weave insights into a story that explains a transformation.

Before coming to you, your customers face a problem and related frustrations. After, those frustrations are gone, and life and work are better in these specific ways.

But a compelling transformation isn’t enough. It also needs to be simple.

Your audience is smart. They don’t want to waste time reading convoluted text. They want to understand what’s in it for them with as little effort as possible.

That’s why the quickest way to lose your audience is “Dilbert-Speak.” Everyone offers “superior service” and thinks of themselves as a “value-add.” But those phrases are meaningless to your customers.

Your customers care about how your product solves a problem, and how they’ll benefit by solving it. Your competitors are filling their marketing with jargon, platitudes and buzzwords. They’re losing their audience with each unnecessary word.

You can stand out by opting for simplicity. Call out the problem you solve and why it’s worth solving — and cut the rest.

Speak their language

For an integrator to pay attention to your message, they need to understand how they benefit — without having to guess or think.

Speaking to people in their own language makes this easy and builds connection. By interviewing your customers, you can shift to their perspective and language. The way they describe your product is the way you want to describe it to others.

Resource: State Of Content Curation & Repurposing

By simplifying your language, you’ll stand out and keep integrators’ attention. Shift and simplify your marketing and you’ll attract more of your ideal customers.