Sell aspiration not anti-perspiration – a philosophy for software marketing

Imagine the scene. A TV ad for a world famous anti-perspirant, where our hero is just about to make the rock climb of their life. Picture the director, sizing the dramatic perspectives that show the peril of the route in-frame and the atmospheric shots of the climber’s preparations. Edit-in the adrenaline-inducing ropes and apparatus – and the climatic joy at the summit. You get the picture.

Now imagine the ad where the focus is just the anti-perspirant and its ability to reduce sweaty arms. It’s a passion killer isn’t it. Well, this is much like the state of software marketing – where there’s a lack of craft and flair in blending perspiration with aspiration.

New models in software make things worse

Software has been core to the tech industry since day one. And as decades have rolled by, the delivery model has changed radically – and more recently the software supply chain and operating models have been turned on their heads too.

But in all that time, software has been engineered to fulfil specific roles – such as office tasks (Word/Excel etc.), processes (SAP/Oracle etc.), horizontal functions (Workday, Adobe etc.) and many more. All are positioned to make things easier, save time, improve accuracy – and fulfil basic needs in our workday lives.

But these binary messages/measures are now table stakes and not enough to express the real value of modern software applications to a business with zeitgeist challenges.

Modern architectures, APIs and AI bring massive potential to what software can do and achieve. And now (as tech marketers and b2b tech agencies) we need to place more emphasis on presenting how it’s going to change the business – rather than the basic performance it achieves. The potential and accomplishments of our erstwhile climbing hero need to be evident and authentic.

Software needs to dare to dream

We’re now talking about new messages and yardsticks – accuracy of experience scoring, quality of predicted outcomes, performance of virtual behaviours – the list goes on.

All these messages are visionary, and all yardsticks were unthinkable just a few years ago. But what principles should be applied by modern software marketers to make sure they’re on the right track?

The modern software marketer checklist

Here’s how to achieve the right level of pitch for the software or app:

1. 1. Don’t think that the traditional high-touch nouns of agility, flexibility and productivity are enough these days. Break beyond these barriers into fresh air. Go beyond the blah, blah, blah
   2. Get up close and personal with the customer use cases to extract the most valuable essence(s) of the application.
   3. Get empathetic and imaginative in equal measure and apply your own ‘language translator’ to create and pitch a story for business managers/leaders, users and the IT function. All use different languages and have different care abouts.
   4. Loosen-up a bit – apply some b2c thinking (even in b2b propositions) to enforce a fresh perspective and brand expression that buyers and users can relate and buy into.
   5. Finally, don’t over-egg it! Make sure there’s authenticity and reality around the dream you’re selling to the customer. Overdo it and you’ll damage your brand and reputation.

The comfort in aspiration

The above 5 points take patience, rigour and high standards in knowledge extraction and message elevation to achieve the right results. But they sure feel like a breath of fresh air when you get there! The aspiration feels real, sweet and attainable.

The result. You end up with a differentiated, engaging and enduring pitch to your software play. And you’ll feel like our climbing hero from the outset.

The Rubicon Agency has 30-years’ experience in marketing software and applications, working with many of the leading vendors and engineers

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