“Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.” This impressive quote by Joebhai Chernov hints that at the dead center of all marketing strategies lies the interest of the customer.
In fact, as the IT industry is found to be extremely competitive, customer-centric marketing solutions are the safest bet for every enterprise trying to outdo their competitors. Whether you are running a B2B or B2C business, there are tens of thousands of companies vying for new projects and leads for any technical service requirement or solution. The only way to differentiate your business amidst this chaos is through successful marketing that creates a loyal customer base and establishes a brand name for you.
Marketing is a very diverse and dynamic field and at its core lies creativity that constantly drives innovation and inspires marketeers to do things differently. With the inclusion of Digital, Brand, and Content marketing spearheading the industry, the field of marketing has evolved enormously over the years.
To boost your custom software development business, here are a few marketing tips and tricks that software development companies should follow to create a name for yourself in the industry and generate new clients.
Marketing Research and Analysis
While creativity and innovation are the core of marketing, market research and analysis are the base foundation on which the marketing strategies are built. It is an essential marketing step to determine your target audience before setting up strategy meetings. You need to figure out where your business stands amongst the competitors in the market and which customer base best intersects with the services and products that your company offers.
After locking in the demographics that best suit your business, you can then proceed to develop strategies that will effectively convert them into doing business with your firm. Marketing research and analysis can be pretty tedious, but it helps you know your target market better to devise strategies that will be most effective in gaining positive results.
Craft a Great Pitch- Offer Solutions
One of the most effective marketing strategies is to persuade customers of the need for your product without shoving it in their faces. Marketing pitches usually revolve around highlighting the benefits of their product, but why should other businesses care about how great your product is? Instead, try to incite a need for your product in the customers’ business and then highlight the additional benefits your company offers that make you a much better choice than your competitors. This can be done by simply pointing out the gaps that general software fails to cover in their business operation, all of which can be solved by commissioning custom software. Crafting a great pitch is the first step in gaining the trust of your customers that you will deliver on your promises excellently. Define the problem, offer your solution, sweeten the pot with additional benefits.
Invest In Digital Marketing- Inbound Marketing
The importance of digital marketing goes without saying. Everyone and their neighbors are online, so to reach out to a large number of people and businesses you need to be online too. A strong and active online presence re-assures customers of your reliability and 24/7 tech support. Through Inbound marketing you can create content and advertise through social media channels and emails. People can learn about your business and products and show interest or help generate leads. Inbound marketing offers high ROI on low cost and is more pervasive than traditional marketing methods. Given the nature of their business, IT firms typically stick to Inbound marketing methods as websites, blogs, and ads on social media make it easier for their customers to directly reach out to them. This marketing technique may be mainstream but it shows results.
Brand Marketing Through Story-telling
Catchy taglines and emotion-driven stories help brands distinguish themselves from their competitors. By letting the audience know what you stand for and what sets you apart from the thousand other companies offering the same service, you tell them that you care and will deliver to their expectations. Since customizing softwares is an abstract concept as it depends on the needs of your client’s business, you can showcase value addition as the strength of your business.
Investing in creating a marketing campaign by integrating the values of your business and its goals with the needs of your customers is a great way to flaunt your brand. Brand marketing often focuses on the concept of uniqueness and excellence of quality over cost. If your target market lies in an affluent sphere, brand marketing would be the most suitable way to promote your business.
Continuous Reform of Marketing Practices
We live in a fast-paced world, and it is vital for every brand and business to be in with the latest trends to avoid becoming invisible to the audience. By continuously refining your marketing practices, you optimize your visibility and increase the effectiveness of your digital marketing techniques. Refining marketing practices involves stepping back and analyzing what worked for you and what didn’t and why. This way, you can improve in the areas you lack and build on the ones that you perform best in. You can run each campaign for a limited period and then replace it with new content to keep the audience engaged and interested. Hyping up the concept of software customization also incentivizes your business and generates good leads.
To sum up, marketing is the step before sales that helps businesses take off and grow. It is a full-time job that requires good-eye for tuning in on the latest trends, gaining the attention of the audience, and riding its momentum to soar your business sales. The marketing strategies mentioned above will prove to be significantly helpful in generating better leads for your custom software development business when followed, but don’t forget that the key to good marketing still remains a good word-of-mouth recommendation that can only be achieved through excellent delivery and skilled software developers on your team.
