Here’s a harsh truth. Nobody cares about your marketing technology.

No marketer adores the tools available to them — at least, not in the way martech vendors like to pretend.

And yes, I’m sure you’ve got a great customer satisfaction survey which proves that 92% of marketers love your product. But those surveys are bullshit.

Here’s a better survey to run. Without saying what company you’re from, ask your customers to list the things they value most at work. How far down that list do you think you’d have to go before they mentioned the technology they use? How far down before they mention working with your brand directly? Let me put it this way. You’re not making the shortlist.

The problem with MarTech vendors is they assume everyone’s as passionate about their products as they are. But your audience doesn’t share your passion, they barely even share your interest.

By way of an analogy, let’s say creative marketing campaigns are a five-star gourmet meal. You’d probably like to think your product is the chef. It’s not. It’s more like the frying pan the meal was cooked in. A functional bit of equipment that helped make something great possible.

In this light, your one and only job is to be the best frying pan you can be. Become the chef’s favourite, and nothing more.

So let’s cut all the nonsense hype and just be honest with each other. If you work in this field, you probably sell software that makes marketers’ lives that little bit easier. Maybe it helps them win a creative award, maybe it helps them justify their work to their bosses, and maybe it just helps them go home that little bit earlier.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of that!

As long as you’re honest with yourself and take ownership of what your product really achieves, then you can start building smarter, bolder marketing that actually adds value.

If Martech brands are ever going to breakthrough with their audiences, they’ve got to stop deluding themselves. They need to be honest. That’s the first step. “Nobody cares about my product”. Say that to yourself in the mirror every morning. Then you can start thinking about all the awesome things you could be doing to change that fact.

This blog post is an extract from Wildfire’s “Why martech brands suck at marketing” ebook. Want to learn more about how your martech brand can get noticed? Download the full guide for free!