Tech companies have more tools than ever to build a brand. AI can generate a website in minutes. Anyone can spin up a presence overnight. So why are most tech companies still invisible online?
We sat down with Zachary Ronski from Fello, a tech marketing agency that works with everyone from quantum computing startups to defense contractors to some of the biggest names in consumer electronics, to find out what’s actually moving the needle right now.
Opinion and experience are the new currency
What’s the single biggest shift you’ve seen in what works for tech companies online?
“It’s experience. Real, demonstrable experience. Google’s algorithm updates over the past couple of years have made it pretty clear that they want to surface real people with real takes. Not recycled keyword content. Not another ‘Top 10 Ways to Optimize Your…’ article that reads like it was written by a committee.”
So the generic content playbook is dead?
“It’s not just dead, it’s counterproductive. The tech companies gaining ground online right now are putting their people forward. Their founders, their engineers, their operators. People who have actual opinions backed by actual work.
We have a client that went from near-zero organic visibility to ranking on page one for competitive industry terms within months. The play wasn’t a massive ad budget or some technical SEO trick. It was publishing original perspectives from people who genuinely know their space. Interviews, editorial features, opinionated takes on where their industry is headed.
Search engines reward this because readers reward it. When someone lands on content and can tell immediately that the person behind it has been in the trenches, they stay. They share it. They link to it. That’s the flywheel.”
What’s your advice for companies still stuck in the old model?
“Stop asking ‘how much are we publishing?’ and start asking ‘is anyone at our company willing to say something worth reading?’ That’s the only question that matters now.”
Design is a trust signal, not decoration
You’ve talked before about how design separates serious tech companies from everyone else. What do you mean by that?
“Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most tech company websites look exactly the same. AI tools have made it trivially easy to stand up a site. Grab a template, drop in some copy, push it live. And it looks… fine. It looks like every other SaaS landing page, every other startup homepage, every other ‘we’re disrupting the industry’ brand that blends into the noise.”
So what does ‘good’ look like?
“Distinctive. Not trendy. Not flashy for the sake of it. The kind of visual identity that makes someone pause and think, ‘okay, these people are serious.’
We see it constantly. A well-funded tech company shows up with a template site and wonders why enterprise buyers aren’t taking them seriously. Meanwhile, their competitor with half the budget but a cohesive, intentional brand identity is closing deals because they look like they belong at the table.”
Why does this matter more now than it did a few years ago?
“Because AI raised the floor. The old baseline of ‘good enough’ is now trivially easy to hit, which means it’s worth nothing. Good design in tech is a trust signal. It tells a potential customer or partner that you sweat the details, that you care about how you present, and that you’re not cutting corners. When your product is complex and your sales cycle is long, that first impression carries enormous weight.
Stop treating your brand like an afterthought. The bar for mediocre just got a lot lower.”
Specificity beats broad messaging every time
What’s the most common strategic mistake you see tech companies make with their positioning?
“Going wide. The instinct for most tech companies is to cast the biggest net possible. ‘We serve enterprises across all industries.’ It feels safe. It’s also a death sentence for your marketing.”
So what’s the alternative?
“Go narrow. Pick a vertical, a use case, or a specific buyer persona and build everything around it. Your content should speak directly to that audience. Your case studies should reflect that audience’s problems. Your language should use the terminology they actually use.
This works for two reasons. First, specificity builds credibility faster than anything else. A defense technology company that speaks fluently about mission requirements and operational environments will always win over one that talks in generic ‘solutions’ language. A quantum computing startup that can explain its hardware in terms that physicists respect will attract more serious partners than one that waters everything down to ‘we’re building the future.’
Second, it’s a massive SEO advantage. Broad terms are crowded. Narrow, technical, vertical-specific terms are often wide open. The companies going deep on niche topics are finding organic traffic that their competitors don’t even know exists.”
Any final advice?
“You don’t need to be everything to everyone. You need to be the obvious choice for someone.
All three of these come down to the same principle: stop trying to blend in. The tools to build a generic presence have never been more accessible. Which means a generic presence has never been worth less. Have a point of view, invest in how you show up, and commit to a lane. That’s the whole playbook.”
