Bring your software marketing, up to date with these essential tactics for 2022!
So you’ve got the next, best software product on the market! Congratulations! But how are you going to make sure the right people know about it, and how it can help them? With software marketing of course. Read on to discover the most effective and up-to-date strategies.
Your Website
Before we move on to the other most effective marketing for software firms, we must underline the vital importance of having a high-quality business website. Indeed, most of the other marketing methods discussed below work by referring potential customers back to your website, and in the software business if your site isn’t up to scratch it will affect your bottom line.
With that in mind, you need to attend to both UI and UX, ensuring that your site is stylish, cohesive, and easy to use and navigate. Of course, creating a high-quality site isn’t always easy, especially when you have the rest of your business to tend to. Luckily, by seeking a professional who deals with small business web design you make sure this gets sorted. All while you do what you do best create software and run your business.
Reviews, Ratings, and Testimonials
One of the most important marketing strategies is to build trust in potential customers. Then when it comes to making a purchase, they are much more likely to choose your software. The good news is that the internet is the perfect place to establish this trust.
Indeed, there are three important ways of doing this: Reviews, ratings, and testimonials. In essence, all three do the same thing, get someone to sing your praises that are independent of your business! Use independent review sites like G2, Google Seller Ratings, and display customer testimonials on your website for the win!
Ideal Customer Persona
Before we get too much further into this guide in software marketing strategies it’s important to mention the ideal customer persona. These are a tool that goes beyond defining your target audience and demographic. Instead, an ideal customer persona is even more detailed and deals with not only facts and figures but the personal experiences those most likely to buy your product will have. Indeed, this is the value of these ICPs, as by getting into the mind of your ideal customer, you can better understand how to solve their problems with both your software and the way you market your software!
Valued Content
Content marketing can be very effective for software companies for several reasons. The first is that by creating content that a potential customer will value you can establish both trusts in your brand, and your business’s place as an expert in your field.
Secondly, valued content, which in the field of software often means informative, or education material can also work wonders for your SEO strategy. Indeed, content marketing is the perfect place to host long-tail keywords that will get your firm to the top of search positions.
SEO
SEO is the act of maximizing the chances that your firm or software product will show up first in an organic search. It is also a marketing method based on quantitative analytics that those working in the software industry can get behind.
However, it is worth noting that SEO is not only a science but also an art, and a distinct specialism in its own right. That means rather than using up the valuable time and energy of your employees on an in-house software campaign working with a specialist is a much better option.
As the cost of advertising increases year on year, many software development companies are looking for alternatives to paid advertising, for more cost-effective marketing strategies to attract new business.
Include PPC
In addition to content marketing, and SEO software firms should also use PPC or pay per click. This is when you pay a search engine to host your ad and position it above the organic search results. Something that means anyone searching for the keywords you use will see your business’s link first.
Get Social
While you may not have considered social media marketing for your software products, it can be very beneficial. Again, the focus here should be on educational and information content, although presenting it in entertaining ways like cartoons can help the complex issues present in the software industry become a little more palatable.
Social media is also great for creating a sense of community around your product with a private invite-only Facebook group, for example. Something that can not only help to create more leads but encourages long-term customer loyalty as well.
Free Trial or Demo
In the software industry, free trials have long been used to convince potential customers of the value of their products. Indeed, combined with specific techniques such as offering full access in the trial version, and encouraging customers to subscribe to get access can be very effective.
However, there is another option to consider here and it’s a guided, in-person demonstration. This means you go to your customer in real life or online and show them precisely how your software can provide solutions for the problems they are experiencing in their business. Indeed, demos are particularly useful in this way because they can be customized to the needs of each client, and so increase the chances of them making a purchase.
Create a Smooth Customer Journey
No matter how good your product is, no one wants to have to work hard to access or use your software. Instead the journey from research and inquiring about your product, to signing up for it and using it every day needs to be as smooth, and as customer-friendly as possible.
The good news is there are several tactics you can use to ensure this is the case. For example, creating introduction videos for your onboarding process will make it easier for new users to get up and running. Similarly, contacting you for support should be fast, and responsive.
Referrals
Unlike reviews, ratings, and testimonials, referrals are a more active form of marketing. Quite simply a referral is when you get one customer to refer another to you. The advantages of which are that they are likely to be within your target demographic, and you will already have been talked up by your current customer, something that means conversion is that much easier. Encourage this type of marketing by offering discounts to current customers when they refer another.
Upselling
Another useful marketing tool for those in the software sector is upselling. Upselling is all about maximizing the opportunity you already have when a customer chooses to buy. After all, you have already done all the hard work, and gained their trust, so why not provide more value to them and maximize your income in the process.
A good upsell is all about offering clients additional products that gel with their current purchase. For example, if your software is designed to help clients with their business accounting, providing the opportunity for them to upgrade to offering invoices as well, maybe just what they need.
Vlogs and Pods
Vlogs and podcasts are also important forms of marketing that those in the software industry should consider for several reasons. The first is that there are many that focus on specific niches both concerning software and business, which means you can easily connect with your target demographic.
Secondly, vlogs and podcasts offer a unique opportunity to go into depth on a particular issue or subject. One that for the best marketing results needs to be related to a particular pain point of your ideal customer, and how your software solves it.