Product development and marketing for technical businesses
We help technical businesses define and market products in a way that speaks directly to their ideal customers.
Who we work with
We work mostly with businesses that make technical or industrial products for other businesses.
We are experts at sifting through the complexity to find the value propositions your customer is dying to hear.
CASE EXAMPLES
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Revenue between $1M and $50M, fewer than 500 employees, focused on 1–3 product areas.
Goals: Transition from mom-and-pop to world-class; expand market reach; prepare business for acquisition.
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Revenue of $50M or more, over 500 employees, multiple business units in similar or different markets.
Goals: Launch a new product or business unit; refine marketing for an existing business unit; maintain brand consistency.
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Funding of at least $1M, established leadership team, single product with limited variations.
Goals: Launch or scale up a new product; establish clear and consistent messaging; set and maintain brand standards.
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Corporate leadership at any company seeking ongoing marketing leadership or to fill a “fractional CMO” role.
Goals: Establish and maintain good marketing or branding practices; coach existing marketing staff; keep an outside perspective on hand to advocate for the customer.
HOW WE WORK
We divide marketing operations into three main phases:
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PHASE I
Product Development
Define products to achieve the best market fit and create strategic, harmonized messaging.
Even if your product has been commercialized for some time, a fresh perspective on the fundamentals can unearth valuable insights.
Core messaging is developed during this phase, setting the stage for all upcoming marketing and sales activities. Your messaging affects every other marketing asset you create, and we believe it’s the most important part of your strategy.
Technical messaging requires a careful balance between brevity, curiosity, and accuracy, and we are experts at threading that needle.
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A thorough and relentless mining expedition to learn everything about your product and uncover all the value propositions that may be hiding beneath the surface.
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Get an outside perspective on existing messaging for a product or service.
We perform a thorough review of messaging across various marketing channels and create a report with comments and recommendations.
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Create a collection of messaging pillars for a product or service based on target audience and other factors.
Involves a thorough review of existing messaging and the creation of a messaging matrix with value propositions and supporting statements.
EXAMPLE PROJECTS
PHASE II
Marketing Strategy
Anchor marketing activities to a consistent strategy for greater efficiency and confidence.
Your marketing strategy is a blueprint for deployment of your messaging. By planning your marketing activities in advance, you will save time and money and create a more consistent customer experience. We can help you identify marketing channels and tactics that fit your business goals, culture, and resources.
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Get an outside perspective on existing strategies and tactics for a product or service.
Involves a thorough review of activities across marketing channels and a report with recommencations.
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Create a 12-month marketing roadmap for a product or service that aligns with your goals, culture, and resources. We help you find the marketing tactics that you can sustain without overcommitting and burning out.
Involves a thorough review of current marketing strategies and creation of a 12-month marketing plan with activities broken down by channel and a list of marketing assets that will need to be created.
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Ongoing access to an outside perspective on your marketing.
EXAMPLE PROJECTS
PHASE III
Marketing Assets
Create marketing assets that generate demand and amplify the efforts of your sales team.
Marketing assets are the vehicles that deliver your message to potential customers. Technical concepts require a careful balance between compelling visuals and clear messaging while avoiding the dreaded “marketing fluff.” With over two decades experience, we are pretty good at creating content that lands in the sweet spot.
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Build a library of expert-level content that draws customers to you. Examples include monthly blog posts, quarterly white papers or ebooks, regular video series, and more.
Add an ongoing content marketing program to your marketing strategy to maximize your reach.
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Design aids comprehension, which can make all the difference when closing a sale. Show your customers you mean business with clear design that keeps the focus on your technology.
We’ve worked with everyone from the lab to the C-suite on websites, fliers, presentations, trade show graphics, folders, ebooks, and more.
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High-quality photos are a staple of modern website design and marketing collateral. Showcase your products, employees, and corporate events in a way that communicates your expertise and professionalism.
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Video is an incredibly powerful tool for explaining difficult technical concepts. Use it as a supplement to your written content campaigns or as a standalone marketing channel . . . or both! From simple projects with a single camera to full production crews, we have you covered.
EXAMPLE PROJECTS
Working with us
We begin new client relationships with a 90-day discovery and evaluation period. This gives us time to thoroughly evaluate your business and make the best recommendations for how to move forward. It also gives everyone a chance to see if we like working together and if you are interested partnering over a longer term.
FAQs
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We can’t speak for all other agencies, but we think the biggest difference is our relentless focus on the product development phase.
In our experience, marketing tends to be seen as a “coat of paint” that gets applied right before launch — long after all major product decisions have been made. This creates a big disconnect between the goals of business leadership and the message that’s being sent out to the world.
To solve this problem, we do a lot of digging and ask a lot of questions. This enables us to create messaging and marketing collateral that speak directly to your ideal customer
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Absolutely. If the product has already been commercialized, we simply apply the same methods we would use for a new product and do a “soft relaunch.”
Fundamentally, our work is about finding all relevant value propositions for a product or business and bringing them to the surface. This can be done at virtually any stage.
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Not at all! We like to begin all new client relationships with a 90-day discovery period during which we thoroughly evaluate potential opportunities. From there, we will make recommendations for how to move forward, and you decide if you would like to continue.
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Although we have done one-off creative projects in the past, we know from experience that effective marketing doesn’t happen in isolation.
To get the most out of any piece of marketing collateral, it needs to be part of a larger context. The product or business needs to be thoroughly understood with well-defined value propositions and messaging pillars.
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Discovery, ongoing consulting, and fractional CMO services are billed with a monthly fee.
Additional projects may be billed on a per-project basis or rolled up into a larger agreement as part of a long-term engagement.
Additional work (such as design or web development) that is not covered under an existing project agreement may be billed on an hourly basis.
We do not sell “blocks of hours” as a retainer.
Find the gold hidden in your business.
Want to know if there’s untapped potential in your technical business? Let’s talk!
Reach out to us with any questions or to set up a consultation. All inquiries welcome!