Marketing Joint

Back to Fundamentals: Invest in AR, Revive Influencer Marketing

In response to my last posting on analyst relations (AR), Barbara French of Tekrati asked if it were “somewhat unrealistic for startups to spend much money on industry analysts?” referring to an earlier suggestion of mine that startups must spend at least $60k or so on AR. My feeling is that it is absolutely realistic. I think Barbara is referring to the tactical startups that spend money on analysts as a matter of routine and put it into auto-pilot only to see nothing positive come out of it ... and, turn off the faucet altogether. If so, yes, I see a lot of that going on, as well. These companies see it as spending (vs. investing).

ARe You Sure? Analyst Relations in 15 Minutes

There is little doubt in my mind that nothing in technology marketing is more misunderstood, ignored, and underappreciated than analyst relations (AR). AR is an area I call “unfair leverage” or what some may prefer to call competitive differentiation. Differentiation is not exclusive to products. A great marketing team leverages effective AR to pounce on its competitors and win mind- and market share quickly. I’ll present some of basic AR insights in a Q&A format below. We’ll go into various execution aspects of AR with future blog drill-downs.

Q: What is analyst relations?