As a IT shop we are constantly barraged with an assortment of marketing efforts from manufacturers, software producers and distribution concerns. The problem with all this isn’t their products, but the nearly vertical approach to the marketing effort.
Like all small town IT shops, we are about as Horizontal as it gets in order to maintain a flow of revenue through the door. “Going Vertical” just isn’t an option in rural area like ours, yet everything I see from anyone marketing product is strictly vertical in the approach. Worse yet, it wastes our time. What good are offers for the top end products when no one in this county uses them? We have one enterprise organization in the area, the hospital, and they have their own IT staff.
Intel told us a few years ago that “we little folk”, the thousands of small IT shops, are the majority of their business. Too bad the rest of the market only seems to cast nets for the big fish, letting all us little guys through, or rather not seeing the forest for all the trees in the way.
If what Intel says is true and we little fish represent the majority of the market, is it the marketing engines (Ziffdavis/CMP/Etc) of the industry creating the problem, or is it the marketing divisions of these companies? How is it that we little folks don;t seem to be part of the movers and shakers that affect the industry.
If we little guys represent a respectable share of the market, where is the Intel advertisement on TV that promotes what we do for small town and small business America?
There is a huge untapped potential in the small IT shop market, but the challenge is how to actually get and keep my attention??
