Marketing for Software Companies: the Whats and Whys
According to Allied Market Research, the global digital software marketing market is expected to reach a staggering $181 billion by 2030. It is a major increase from the market’s current value of $48 billion. Software marketing services are in great demand, and marketing software companies have a great deal of work to do. At this point, it is important to have a deeper look at marketing for software companies to understand the difference between digital and traditional approaches, as well as discover key software marketing strategies to boost one’s business.
Digital and Traditional Marketing for Software Companies
When marketing for software development, it is important to use a mix of various channels. However, in contrast to traditional marketing approaches, digital marketing offers more benefits for software companies. At least three key factors show why digital marketing is a better option for software development than conventional marketing.
🟪 1. Broader Customer Outreach
The traditional marketing approach is rooted in the word-to-mouth method coupled with the direct mail strategy. While these techniques are still in use, they have a major flaw – customers simply cannot respond to your marketing approach unless they deliberately pick up a phone and call you. With marketing turning digital, companies started tapping into what the phenomenon offers.
The new era of digital content marketing for IT companies has arrived. In a nutshell, online marketing allows marketers to establish two-way communication with customers making it easier for consumers to vocalize their needs and desires. At this point, any marketing software company can help a business expand its customer outreach and make it more meaningful by granting consumers tools to respond to a marketing strategy.
🟪 2. Education Instead of Hard Sales
In the past, all marketing approaches focused on hard sales. It was about showing off the product and urging a consumer to purchase it. Now, digital marketing is much more than a hard sales approach. Digital marketers want to create better customer relationships to boost the entire purchase experience. It is when the factors of education and entertainment enter marketing for software companies. Marketers want consumers to know more about the product and have the desire to purchase it.
🟪 3. Faster Marketing Cycle
Within the scope of traditional marketing, marketers could have spent weeks designing and implementing a single campaign. Besides, several more weeks were needed to analyze purchases or issue a demo. With digital marketing, the entire cycle sped up dramatically. You can now generate hundreds of sales and create new leads in a matter of hours after launching a marketing campaign. Marketing software companies help businesses design and launch campaigns as fast as ever.
Key Marketing Strategies for Software Development
At this point, when knowing the value of digital marketing compared to traditional marketing, it is crucial to discover the most notable marketing strategies for software development. In short, there are three such approaches to mention:
- Free Demos Technique
- Branded Content Creation
- Pain Campaigns
🟪 1. Free Demos Technique
When entering the realm of digital marketing, many companies need help knowing where to start and how to create a marketing strategy that works. For such cases, offering free demos is a great starting point. With software most users prefer to try out the software before paying the full price. In such a case, when you run a digital marketing campaign, you must offer free demos to give consumers a taste of your product. You need to present a shareware version of the software, as well as think of a trial version.
Keep in mind that marketing for software development should include free demos users can easily find. This tool must be visible, often on your website, with a content strategy built around a free or trial version of the software product. In most cases, make your demos the ones offering access to only several or all the features for a limited period. As a result, free demos are a great marketing strategy when you know how to use them correctly.
🟪 2. Branded Content Creation
it is estimated that branded content offers a whopping 86% brand recall. The reason for such a great stat is that consumers always prefer to buy products from trusted sellers. To earn trust, you need to create branded content within marketing for software development campaigns. Essentially, branded content is about offering your customers useful information, even if it is not directly related to your products and services.
With properly designed branded content campaigns, consumers can use search engines to find your products through content resources. Besides, if they find the information you provide trusted, you can earn their trust, and your software products will be their primary choice. Digital marketing is branded content reaching consumers at the right time and place.
🟪 3. Paid Campaigns
Apart from free demos and branded content, you can consider paying for off-site campaigns. There are so-called pay-per-click (PPC) ads helping consumers to reach you. In short, when you have a PPC ad, a customer can find your product or services by merely using a search engine like Google. Besides, the best thing about such a paid campaign is that you need to pay only if a consumer clicks on an ad leading to your website.
Compared to traditional marketing, this approach is cost-efficient. You don’t pay for a message just being out there; you pay for a message that creates new customer leads. At this point, Google Ads is a great starting point for running a paid marketing campaign for a software company.
The Bottom Line
Marketing for software companies is unimaginable without digital marketing strategies. It is vital to have a fast marketing cycle and broad customer outreach in rapidly changing markets with fierce competition. At this point, free demos, branded content, and paid campaigns grant what traditional marketing cannot. You need to keep up with the latest marketing trends, ensure a direct line of two-way communication with consumers, and help customers learn more about your products instead of merely pitching the hard sales approach.
