The digital age with it brings merry tidings for technology-driven companies. The advent of the internet has brought to most organizations a way to connect with their customers on an omnipotent and ever-present platform. And as someone who head’s sales for a digital marketing company that is currently busy trying to shape bits and pieces of the internet to its client’s needs, it is my solemn duty to help as many people as possible to learn about how they can use the viles of the digital world to their advantage. In this article, I walk you past the how, what and why of creating marketing strategies for Technology driven companies. So put your light sabres and coding glasses away and put your thinking hats on.
How to Create Digital Marketing Strategies for Technology-driven Companies?
I think it’s only right that we start with the How. Almost all important discoveries and improvements were triggered by this question “How can we make this easier or better?”. And for us to know what kind of marketing strategies might work best for your SAAS or software development company it is absolutely essential to know how to come up with an ideal marketing plan for your team to follow. Below I have put down key pointers which will help you understand the steps we need to take before we chalk out a marketing approach.
Know Your Business Goals
Even before you can plan on spending a single cent on marketing, it is absolutely essential for you to know the goals towards which you are working. Each business is different and so is the audience that they cater to. The objective of a product based B2C company is very different from a B2B company that is working in the SAAS space. Understand what is a priority for you. Here are a few examples for you. Our goal is to-
- increase our Revenue by ___ Percentage by 2022
- Improve Employee Retention by ____ percentage by 2022
- To make sure our visibility increases by ____ Percentage by 2022
- To drum ___ Percentage of revenue from existing customers by 2022.
Each of these goals will lead you down a different path. Also, make sure that your business goals are SMART.
- Specific – state clearly what you want to achieve
- Measurable – set tangible measures so you can measure your results
- Achievable – set objectives that are within your capacity and budget
- Relevant – set objectives that will help you improve particular aspects of your business
- Time-bound – set objectives you can achieve within the time you need them
State Your Marketing Goals
It is important for a company to understand how their marketing goals co-relate to the business goals that they have set. These marketing objectives that you have in place will spearhead all activities that you would have planned. It is always best to split your marketing objectives between long term and short term goals. I have put down below a couple of examples for your perusal
Short Term Goals:
- Increase app downloads to ___ by 2022
- Increase the number of leads too _____ by 2022
Long Term Goals: - Increase organic searches to ____ by 2022
- Increase number of website visits by 2022
Research your Market and Profile your Potential Customers:
To have a great marketing model it is important that you get this part right. Understanding your market and who your potential customers are would help you decide on what type of marketing communication would work best for them. And the more specific your communication is the better the quality of the people you can connect with.
Now there are multiple ways of going about this, but the easiest way is to first understand what kind of a segment you want to cater to and then build a buyer’s persona for your ideal customers. At the same time, it is essential for you to list out the different kinds of products that would entice different customer bases. The products can be further classified into easy-to-buy products, primary products, and high value products. Also, if you are looking for a format for a buyer’s persona, we have you covered. You can find the same here.
Profile your Competitors
To make sure that you are able to leave a dent in the market, it is very important to learn from your competitors. Be it a differentiating factor or how price competitive you need to be. There is always something you can learn from the people who are catering to the same audience that you are trying to connect with. Learn about the platforms they are available on and how optimized their website is. All these insights will help you build a better marketing strategy for your company.
Develop your Strategy and Test your Ideas
Now comes the fun part, we get the chance to develop a marketing plan that you think would work best for your business and test it out. Below we will discuss in detail what kind of marketing strategies work best for technology driven businesses.
What Digital Marketing Strategies Work best for Technology Driven Companies
Marketing strategies are subjective and developing an effective plan takes time but it’s always best if you know what your long term and short term approaches are. In this part of the blog we will break down your plan so that you can clearly understand what kind of efforts drive what kind of results.
Short Term Approaches:
Here our primary focus is to get immediate results. These approaches are more aligned towards helping drive traffic to the website or your social media accounts using paid mediums. These activities will help us drum up attention quickly but will not be very effective in the long run. Below I have given a few examples of methodologies we can use to connect with our audiences.
Social Media Ads
Running ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn is definitely the way to go when it comes to connecting with your audience in the digital world. These avenues not only give us the opportunity to show a particular creative to an audience but they also help us understand who are the people that are interacting with our content. This also further helps us by giving us an option to remarket to people who are interested in our services or have visited our website, which in turn leads to better quantity and quality of leads.
Google Ads
Google Ads are a great way to connect with a high intent audience that is looking for your products or services. Running ads for specific keywords is a great way to drive a lot of paid traffic on to your website, where you can further convert them into leads. There are multiple other ways of using Google Ads like the Google Display Network which is an exceptional tool for remarketing.
Content Syndication and Third Party Content Network Ads
Content Syndication is a great way to connect with industry experts and create viable backlinks for your website. Your content has the power to influence people. It would be a crime to limit this content to channels that are only owned by you. Have constant outreach with the shakers and movers in the industry. Use this outreach to get your blogs on as many websites as possible.
Another thing to remember is that the world doesn’t end with Facebook, Google or LinkedIn; there are multiple third party websites that will help you promote your content to a specific audience. These websites specialize in specific niches and have spent years building specific audience bases.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is a key method of capitalizing on the platforms and audience bases built up by others. If you have a blogger who already has a grasp of the segment that you are trying to target then incentivize them to divert more traffic to you by using Affiliate Marketing.
Long Term Approaches:
When it comes to digital marketing for Technology Driven Companies, long term approaches are the real money makers. This is where you will be able to use content to your advantage to create multiple channels for lead generation. Here, more than anywhere else it is important to clearly understand what your niche is and to start creating content along similar lines. This will not only provide value to your audience but will also help you in increasing your organic ranking.
Search Engine Optimization
Speaking of organic ranking of your website, one of the best ways to improve it is to deep dive into the expanse of SEO. For search engine optimization to be effective we need to understand that work needs to be put into both the on-page and off-page part of it. Backlinks can only get you so far. Good content with high keyword density and great value is what your customers are looking for.
Content Marketing
Content Marketing sets the base to all your marketing activities. The strategy here is to align the needs, desires and problems of your customers to the content that you are creating. It is also important to remember that content marketing is not specific to blogs but it’s also about video content and even a podcast for that matter. The objective is in lay terms to get your material to every possible channel that your audience is on.
Social Media Management
Social Media is a very important tool for SAAS companies. This is because it caters to 2 segments. One is to a customer that is evaluating you and the other is to potential talent that is looking to work with you. An active and engaging social media page will not only increase closing rate by helping with credibility but it will also help in improving company culture and getting in the right people. One thing you do need to keep in mind is to understand which platform may work best for you.
Why Digital Marketing Strategies Work best for Technology-Driven Companies
The question “why” is always the deal closer. It is completely true here too. Why use digital marketing for your Tech company? The simple answer is that it works. There are proven case studies with facts and figures that say just that. But if you want me to summarize the reasons in a neat little bullet point format then you will find the same below.
- It’s a scalable marketing method
- It is ROI Driven and tracking of spends is very tangible
- Targeting can be super specific to your niche. So only the people relevant to you will be your audience.
- And it helps in building trust and credibility.
- It drives results and helps you nurture people who are not just yet ready to buy
So there you have it, the how, what and why of digital marketing for Technology-driven companies. If you would have any questions or If you would just want to chat with us about digital marketing in general. Then feel free to drop me a line at [email protected]