Touchless Marketing: How I Sold Myself on a New NAS
The other day I bought a NAS. I picked it via content marketing. Zero sales, zero touch.
After I did so, I realized I'd taken a self-marketing path in the process. Marketed the idea, the product, and the purchase decision to myself. Hey, that makes for good blogging, let's write it down!
Now you have the result in front of you. Here's how the process went.
The Goal: Buy a NAS. Okay, What Do I Do First?
I knew the goal - locate a good NAS and buy it. Why? To store a bunch of files from multiple devices safely, so I didn't have to keep piling external hard drives in the closet.
A desire and a why. That's about all I had. To the research!
I started with a bunch of off-the-wall searches. Just gathering information about what's out there, what others use, and so on. Types of NAS you can get, brands, ratings of said brands.
This stage of my research parallels Top of Funnel/TOFU - Gathering information, learning about the problem (e.g. my ignorance of NAS options/capabilities/use cases).
I learned some interesting things at this stage.
- One, that FreeNAS had become TrueNAS. (Shows how long I've been in tech I guess.)
- Two, that some NAS models only work with their own OS, while others don't care if you use a third-party OS.
- Three, that you can build your own NAS pretty easily these days. I decided against this path for now, as I wanted to familiarize myself with using a NAS in my LAN now. Maybe I'll DIY something later.
Basic Parameters Identified. Time to Consider My Options.
Then I narrowed in on a few models, going back and forth between them (for a bit too long...the dreaded analysis paralysis kicked in. What if I buy X and it fails, like this guy on Reddit mentioned?)
Boy am I glad for search engines.
Not the best example of Middle of Funnel/MOFU, but it is what it is. I had more information and felt comfortable narrowing my options down. Using the experiences of others (basically case studies) to inform the narrowing-down.
Got the Basics, Got the Options. Decision Time!
Eventually I zeroed in on one specific brand, and picked one of their NAS models. At this stage, two main factors governed the decision - price, and estimated time of use (which I judged at about 5 years - plenty of time to justify the price).
Ta da! Bottom of Funnel/BOFU reached. Price did come up here more prominently than before, because the buying decision was now 'real.'
The Marketing Research, Codified
I did all of this research through content: websites, reviews, social/Reddit, etc.
Websites: I discovered NASCompares.com, as well as manufacturer websites (UGreen, Synology, QNAP, Terramaster, and Aoostar).
Reddit: /r/homenas, /r/homelab, and several more subs had threads discussing small home NAS use cases, hardware, even troubleshooting for known issues. Much appreciated guys.
YouTube Reviews: Hardware Haven, NASCompares, and a few other review videos for various models.
Why I Labeled This Self-Marketing 'Touchless'
Now, bit of a trick question here. At what point did I talk to a salesperson?
The answer is: Never. Zero. No conversations with the brands at all.
Why not? Because I hate dealing with slimy fast-talking salespeople, and that will only result in a pre-biased conversation (common perception, not necessarily true for all instances).
If I had a concern about a model: Reddit and videos. If I wanted to see a model in action: YouTube. If I wanted to compare a few models: All sources.
The Result: Completed Purchase, New NAS is Here
Here it is! A UGREEN DXP2800 with two 10TB drives in it. Runs perfectly.
Shiny! And very functional.
And thanks to my research, I'm already comfortable enough with the software that I can enhance it with things like Docker images.
It's not an exact mirroring of the buyer's journey we so often reference in content marketing. But once I'd finished, and had the NAS running beside my desk, the similarities struck me.
I've created much of the same types of content I referenced in this process. (Just for other products/technologies.) And I've seen good results for it...from people like me, out there consuming content, selling themselves on new products.
That's right, selling THEMSELVES. The marketing propelled the sales process. The future is here.
I'm weighing a return to a business social media platform (not LinkedIn - already there). Which do you prefer - X/Twitter? A Mastodon instance? Something else?