The software industry has always been strong and shows no signs of slowing per the past 12 months with growth outpacing the US economy!
Why has software always been and why does it continue to be big business?
Because people like to be productive and accurate whilst exerting a minimal amount of effort.
Software and “software as a service” applications enable them to do that.
Just because people love software doesn’t mean that your development team’s “next big thing” is going to make waves. In order to successfully launch your new piece of technology, you’re going to need to leverage software marketing strategies that can help you get ahead of your competitors.
Below, our team shares with you 8 awesome ways to do exactly that!
1. Incorporate SEO Into Everything You Do
Our team at Ranking Check talks a lot about SEO and for a good reason. SEO is the single most important factor when it comes to your digital marketing efforts.
Consider these two things… 1) Google fields over 5 billion searches on a daily basis. 2) The vast majority of the internet relies on search engines to connect them to relevant content they’re searching for.
SEO helps you get your content properly indexed by engines like Google so billions of people can find you online. Without SEO, you’re losing massive market potential.
2. Tell The Right Stories By Knowing Your Customer
Software marketing is like all marketing at its core. It’s about telling stories that resonate with your target audience.
The thing is through that different audiences identify with different stories. Knowing your audience will tell you what sentiments to lean on and will have a major impact on your marketing success.
So, who is your audience? What are their pain points? What themes speak to them the loudest?
In the same way that application management solutions discussed by this website help developers assess the viability of their products, you need to come up with similarly robust solutions to assess your customer avatar.
3. Focus on How Your Software Solves Problems With Practical Examples
Once you know who you’re selling to and what their problems are, focus your software marketing on how you can solve those problems.
A lot of software companies make the mistake of centering their marketing efforts on all of the bells and whistles their applications come packed with but don’t make clear how those features help solve real issues.
If your target customer is a small business owner who spends 3 hours every week logging his/her sales, show them how your product’s “auto log feature” turns that process into a 5-minute endeavor.
Be practical and down to earth when marketing your software and more people will identify with your offer.
4. Leverage Video Content
People love video. YouTube by itself is posting about a billion hours worth of views.
Given that love for video, you should try and make it a big part of your marketing efforts.
Don’t just talk about that small business owner your software helps, show that business owner. Let that business owner talk to your audience. Let them show people how your software has made an impact on their viability.
Telling meaningful stories to your audience through video will resonate better than making people read lengthy articles.
5. Conduct Free Webinars
Webinars are a great way to get a bunch of leads into a single place, hook them up with free value and then sell them on your product.
Figure out who your target market is and then start advertising a webinar that promises to fix a common pain point they experience.
Keeping with the example we posed in bullet 3 where a small business owner spends too much time logging sales, you could market a webinar titled, “Learn How to Save 156 Hours a Year in 30 Minutes”.
During that webinar, you can show attendees how your software saves them those 3 hours at the end of the week logging sales and you can then push a special offer on your product.
6. Dive Into LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn has a robust “groups” feature where professionals in specific niches congregate and share advice.
To give your software marketing efforts a major boost, join groups in niches that your software helps service. Once you’ve joined answer people’s questions, respond to their comments, and passively promote your software as a solution to problems when appropriate.
You’ll find that by interacting organically in LinkedIn Groups your software and startup company can gain a lot of credibility.
7. Leverage Paid Ads
It’s always worth portioning out some of your marketing budget for ad buys. Platforms like Google’s AdWords and Facebook are both outstanding marketing mediums that software companies see a lot of traction on.
Both platforms offer excellent tutorials on leveraging their tools so don’t be intimidated if you’re not sure where to start when building your campaigns.
8. Give People a Taste
In today’s crowded software market, trials are expected by consumers before they buy your product or subscribe to your SaaS application. Therefore, where possible, extend free trial offers.
Giving people a taste of what they’re going to get before they buy takes a lot of pressure off of them. It can also give you valuable insight in the way of feedback and could even result in testimonials you could put at the forefront of future marketing campaigns.
Wrapping Up Software Marketing Tips for Your Development Startup
Releasing a new piece of software as a development startup can be daunting. You don’t have the credibility of bigger operations and you probably have a lot riding on your software’s successful launch.
To give yourself the best chance of achieving success, we recommend leveraging our software marketing tips above. Doing so will allow you to expand your brand’s reach in an effective manner.
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If so, check out our rank checking tools and more of our educational material on Ranking Check today!
