[Opinion | Channel Guru] Lost in translation: why so many tech partners struggle to market themselves

If you work in the tech channel - and if you’re reading this, you do - then you already know the familiar pattern.

You’re surrounded by smart people. Solid solutions. Strong customer relationships. Your team knows the tech. The business delivers. The customers are happy.

And yet, the business isn’t scaling how you would like, and the marketing doesn’t quite land.

It’s not that anyone’s doing a bad job. But somewhere between the capability and the messaging, something gets lost. The website sounds generic. The campaigns feel templated. And when someone asks what you actually do, the answer takes longer than it should.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

Because in my experience, most tech partners don’t have a marketing execution problem. They have a translation problem. And no amount of activity - campaigns, content, nurture programs - will fix that until it’s addressed.

The strategy gap that no one talks about

Marketing in many tech companies still isn’t set up to lead. Often, it’s inherited by someone who’s “good with Canva” and handed a vendor asset pack and a Mailchimp login. That’s not a dig at the person - it’s a reflection of how marketing is treated: as execution, not strategy.

Instead of asking “what are we trying to say?” or “who are we saying it to?” the focus becomes: What can we push out this quarter to get the vendor tick?

But beneath that activity, there’s often nothing holding it all together. No documented strategy. No target personas. No agreed tone of voice. No real understanding of values or market positioning. In fact, the foundational language of brand and strategy is often completely missing from the conversation.

When you don’t know who you’re talking to - or why you’re different - everything starts to sound the same. And when everyone sounds the same, no one stands out.

Vendor content is helpful… until it isn’t

Let’s talk about vendor campaigns. Yes, some of them are useful, and yes, it’s nice to be handed marketing-ready assets. But if everyone’s using the same messaging, nobody wins.

Your competitors are saying the same things, probably using the same toolkit, and targeting the same prospects.

And those prospects? They don’t care that you’re "platinum certified" or "committed to the customer journey." They care whether you understand their problems. They care if you can explain what you do in terms that are relevant to them.

This is where tech partners often default to familiar but meaningless phrases:
“We’re all about our people and our technology.”
“We’re different because we really care about our customers.”
“We tailor our solutions to each client.”

These aren’t differentiators - they’re expectations. If you’re not saying anything specific, you’re saying what everyone else is saying. And in that case, why would someone choose you?

So what actually makes you different?

Here’s a challenge: explain your value without using the words "trusted," "leading," or "tailored" and without using AI! If that takes more than 30 seconds of internal debate, you don’t have a positioning problem - you have a clarity problem.

The best tech partners I’ve worked with are the ones who take the time to define:

• Their target market – not just “SMEs” or “mid-market,” but actual buyer personas with clear needs, challenges and buying behaviours.
• Their value proposition – written in plain English and grounded in customer benefit.
• Their brand voice and tone – what they say in their marketing actually matches how their team shows up in real conversations.
• Their core values – and no, “integrity” doesn’t count unless you can explain what it means in how you operate.
• Their audience’s language – because marketing isn’t what you want to say; it’s what your customer needs to hear.

These building blocks matter. They form the foundation for campaigns, content, automation, and sales conversations. Skip them, and you end up with noise and confusion.

Automation is brilliant - but it’s not magic

I love automation. I recommend it all the time. But let’s be clear: marketing automation doesn’t fix unclear messaging. It just delivers it faster.

You can spend thousands on systems, journeys, and nurture streams. But if you’re speaking the wrong language to the wrong person with the wrong message - it’s just well-organised irrelevance.

Tech stacks are powerful - but only when paired with strategy, audience insight, and clarity of message.

What good looks like

When marketing is working in a tech business, here’s what you see:

• Sales, marketing and leadership are aligned – Everyone tells the same story, and tells it well.
• Messaging is sharp, relevant and repeatable – No buzzwords, no confusion - just clarity.
• The strategy is documented and used – Not in a forgotten slide deck, but actively driving decisions.
• Everyone knows the audience – Sales knows their pain points. Marketing speaks their language. Product builds for their needs.
• Your team can actually explain what you do – And it doesn’t sound  clichéd.

At Mogrify, our purpose is to translate business vision into marketing execution. Because that’s the bit so many tech partners miss. It’s not about doing more - it’s about making the right things clearer, and doing them well.

Final thought (with a British accent)

As a Brit living in Australia, I’ve learned to appreciate plain speaking - and the need for sunscreen year-round.

So here’s mine: if your marketing isn’t working, it’s not because you don’t have the tools. It’s because no one’s ever sat down and done the hard work of translating what you do into something your audience can understand, remember, and act on.

Do that, and you won’t need to shout louder. People will already be listening.

Melanie Unwin is the Co-Founder of Mogrify, a strategic marketing consultancy with end-to-end execution services. Mogrify focuses on helping tech companies translate vision into execution. With 15+ years working with tech partners, vendors and distributors, she specialises in helping teams sharpen their message, define their audience, and build marketing that actually moves the needle.

Melanie is also a member of the Channel Guru advisory team. Visit channelguru.com and register your interest to lock in early access and a special introductory offer when Channel Guru launches.