Now is one of the best times to reconsider your company’s marketing strategy. Here are some marketing tips which work successfully for technology product or technical services companies such as biotech firms.

Create a Marketing Rulebook. Be consistent. From the president of the company to the receptionist, all should have the same idea of what your company is, and how you present it to the outside world.

Research your marketplace before spending. It’s amazing how many companies spend marketing dollars in a wasteful manner. This is why it is important to research your marketplace before you spend money on a project or campaign. There are many online tools that help you determine the wants and requirements of your target audience. For example, SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang are both online survey tools, which can help you get a feel for what your target audience needs. These systems range from free for up to 10 questions to for unlimited questions.

You should determine your ideal prospect profile. You can use a more pricey service such as Hoover, which generates a complete list of all the companies you might want to target. However, there are also other free options, such as ReferenceUSA. In order to access this business database you first need to create an account with your local library, and in turn they will allow you access to multiple databases, including ReferenceUSA. InfoUSA databases are also usually available for free through a library service.

Set a marketing budget. Once you have researched your market, establish a twelve-month marketing budget.  Create a gold, silver and bronze budget in terms of budget amount and then you will be prepared if you have to lower or augementbudgets throughout the year.

Make sure your messaging is clear. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to figure out what a brand is all about, and finding out in the end that the product or service is not the one you wanted. In addition to being precise in what you are selling and to whom, is important to capture your target audience’s attention. As a technology company, your branding should also align with your current and future product/services roadmaps.

Clearly articulate your technology products or services. In order for your clients and prospective clients to understand what you are truly selling, then you must be clear in your presentation. This is especially important for technical professional services.

Harry Beckwith, author of Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing, writes that services are not like a actual product that you see before you pay. Thus, it is important to let your clients know the details of what you will be providing, in order to satisfy their questions.

Get testimonials and endorsements. In order for potential clientsto validate your offerings it is imperative to have your customers vouch for you through testimonials. It is very simple and sometimes overlooked. Testimonials are easily accessible and all it takes is a short quote. Online video testimonials are now easy to produce and even more effective than written ones.

Practice word-of-mouth. Whenever you see a movie you like or try a new takeout jointthat was amazing, you usually pass this information on to a friend or acquaintance – why not tailor this technique to marketing your products? Word-of-mouth marketing is a not a new technique, but it is one that has been overlooked by many marketing professionals. There are many websites that can help you identify what word-of-mouth is and how to use it to the best of your advantage. Empower your customers to share their experiences with your company.

Use sponsored search. The Internet is an efficient and inexpensive way to reach your audience. Tradeshows and print ads can be expensive and are aimed at passive buyers – people that are simply browsing with no intention of using your services. For example, a full-page advertisement in a trade magazine can cost between four to five thousand dollars, compared to pay-per-click (PPC) campaign that costs about $500-$1,000. In addition, by using the web you can reach your targeted audience and your target audience can reach you.  Try using exact keyword matching instead of broad match for even bigger bang for your buck. When you have mastered exact keyphrase matching campaings, try the embedded match option in Google Adwords.

Ask for referrals. If you know your customers are satisfied, which hopefully they always are, then you should ask if any of their friends, colleagues or partner companies need your services. Referrals are also very simple because all it takes is one simple question to your client. Although this sounds simple, many companies do not do this, and lose potential business. This is a very useful marketing technique because your customers can be the best persuaders, because they know your work first hand. There are many firms that even automate referral reminders and gifting.

Integrate your marketing efforts. Diversification is a key to more than just stock portfolio success. To reach your target audience you must use many different marketing techniques at once. You should be using different forms of marketing in parallel such as Internet marketing, public relations and advertising.

Analyze your leads. To increase your profits figure out who is hitting your website. This can be useful in many ways. You can send intro or welcome emails to the companies hitting your website in order to increase your in-house mailing list. Also, you are able to see what words people are searching for in order to find your product or service. This can help how you title your articles or name web pages in efforts to rank well on search engine ranking pages.

The free services, Google Analytics and StatCounter, do a good job at this. While these services are free you do have to manually search which people looked at your website unless you create custom scripts. Nevertheless, it is a top choice for a free customer base service. Other services include LeadLander, Visitortrack by NetFactor or LoopFuse. They are more pricey choices, costing $1,900 to $4,800 per year; however they provide you with customizable automated detailed lead reports, as well as ties into Jigsaw and LinkedIn databases, and customized email alerts.

Test customer satisfaction on an ongoing basis. Get critical feedback about the positives and negatives of your products and services. This can be a simple phone call with customers or an anonymous survey on your website. A phone call or email is more personal, and your client will know that you value their opinion and business. An anonymous survey, on the other hand, allows you to truly know how you conducted your service or how your product worked for your customers. To get the best results you should consider conducting different types of customer satisfaction tests.

The moment to re-assess your technology company’s marketing department is now.  The marketing tips presented herecan help your technology company think about marketing in new ways.