I recently spent about six months doing marketing consulting and copywriting for a high-tech firm. Although I’m a seasoned pro — as all my readers know :=) — I didn’t have the depth of knowledge in already in place to really serve this client as well as I wanted.

So, I did my research and dug deep. I found some excellent resources which I’ve detailed below — and lucky for you, there’s a teleseminar next month that if you work or may work with hi-tech clients, you’ll want to check out. (Pssst, it’s co-hosted by this guy!)

But more on that in a second. Here’s my personal library of reads for working the hi-tech world. I read them all and found them very valuable as a marketer and copywriter. (Good stuff here too for anyone working in the B2B world, as well.)

Maven Transparency Alert: Amazon affiliate links

• Lead Generation for the Complex Sale: Boost the Quality and Quantity of Leads to Increase Your ROI

  By Brian Carroll. Excellent resource on lead generation, marketing matrices, etc. This one gave me a strong overview for multi-step lead gen. I referred and referenced it often, and suggested my client do the same. (Good stuff here even if the sale isn’t all that complex, as well.)

• Selling to Big Companies

  By Jill Konrath. Although sales is not the same thing as marketing - tho they’re part of the same process - I find sales-centric resources very useful, especially for lead-generation marketing. Understanding how the sales process works after the lead comes in will help you craft stronger marketing materials upfront.

• Copywriting That Sells High Tech

  By Janice M. King. Unlike one or even two-step marketing where the sale closes relatively quickly and doesn’t require a committee to get to "yes!", hi-tech marketing involves getting lots of different folks on board, each with different agendas and needs. You have the user who’s usually the tech person … you have the executive who will make the final call … and you have the purchasing person who’s main job is to make sure that the company gets full value for the pending investment. This resource will show you how to reach them all effectively. A must-read for copywriters who want to work in this area!

If you’re wondering where white papers fall into the marketing/copywriting mix, here’s news about that March teleseminar I mentioned …

Writing to the Techie (Tips on Persuading Technical Readers With White Papers) (aff link)
Michael Stelzner and special guest Bob Bly discuss the secrets to influencing the influencer.

Here are just a few of the topics these two major mavens will tackle:

• What are proven strategies for writing to technical readers?
• Do techies only care about technical details?
• Can I persuade someone who knows more than I do?
• Do I need a technical background to write to technical people?
• What are some simple steps to convey complex ideas?

Duration: 60 minutes
Date: Thursday, March 15th, 2007
Time: Noon Pacific Time (1 PM Mountain, 2 PM Central and 3 PM Eastern)

Cost is just $29. (Imagine how much Bly and Stelzner get for an hour’s worth of their time anywhere else!) Can’t attend? Get the transcript and audio for your listening pleasure.

And just like the resources I mentioned above (which I paid good $$ for), I’ll be paying to listen in, too. For less than $30, it’s a great opportunity to fill in a few holes in my hi tech knowledge so I can move confidently when the next hi tech client comes a calling.

Sign-up and details here.

Maven’s Maxim
You don’t have to know everything about everything when a client calls. Just know where to go, what to read, and who to go to when they do!

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