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Marketing is one of the most difficult hurdles for IT companies. We show you the six most important steps for successful software marketing.

Table of contents:

1. Software marketing is not rocket science
2. 6 simple steps to successful software marketing
3. Example of a 6-step-plan: How to implement it successfully
4. Ideas for your software marketing
5. This is how much marketing budget you need
6. Conclusion

The most important things in a nutshell:

• Marketing is first and foremost a strategic process
• Always align your software marketing with the desires of your target audience and identify your strengths relative to competitors
• Use the strengths of different marketing channels to create content dispersion

Software marketing is not rocket science

Innovative ideas pay off and secure you a strong position on the market. That’s one of the reasons why software development has surged in recent years, especially in the area of mobile applications and business process automation (e. g. in accounting and marketing). But just like with any other product or service, software companies first have to find buyers / clients, and this is where one of the biggest challenges becomes apparent.

→ Marketing is the be-all and end-all in any industry, because without buyers even the greatest ideas remain undiscovered and the software sector is no exception. 

With this article we follow the goal to help IT businesses develop their marketing strategy. Many companies fail to win Clients because they make fundamental mistakes in the marketing process. And we are not talking about too little financial investments or choosing the wrong marketing channels, but about an insufficient strategy, poor positioning and wrong communication with the target group.

Many people think of marketing in terms of search engine optimization, social media or web design but these areas follow only after strategy development.
First, there are six important steps to follow to lay the foundation for successful software marketing. These steps will not only help you target the right audience, they will also save you resources.

6 simple steps to successful software marketing

To develop a good marketing strategy, you need to answer the following six questions first:

• What are my strengths compared to my competitors?
• Who is my target group and how do I address them?
• Which communication channels do I use for my marketing?
• Who is responsible for implementation?
• What is the best way to spread our marketing presence?
• How do I measure the results of my software marketing?

The implementation only takes place after you have worked out every single aspect of your strategy. A good marketing strategy will not only help you to plan your resources and approach, but will also give you a better overview of the required effort and the time buffers that need to be planned for implementation.

Position yourself

Every software stands out from its competition in its own way but your target audience may not be aware of these advantages. To use channels like social media or blogs effectively, you need to recognize your strengths in order to communicate them. But being aware of your weaknesses also has its advantages because it allows you to recognize potential for improvement and what possible objections your target group raises or what possible disadvantages they see in your software.

But don’t only focus on objective advantages of your software but also on how it meets the challenges of your target audience and what subjective needs your company addresses with its marketing strategy. When analyzing weaknesses, you should ideally consider the opinion of your team because it is often difficult for you to remain objective and even identify possible weaknesses in your own software.

Know your target audience

Many software businesses make the same mistake and explain any technical terms on their website or via their social media channels. But why? Your target audience probably are people who are familiar with the application areas of your software.
There are benefits of using a good glossary or encyclopedias to explain certain terms, especially if they are very technical, but don’t treat your audience like clueless people who need a primer on the subject first. Instead, communicate the advantages and which use your software promises. Also, creating informative as well as unique content should help position your company. 

This “I first need to explain everything” mistake is due to poor target audience analysis. Every company has an idea of its persona but still commits communication mistakes. As a result, it’s not uncommon to miss the mark, which means no sustainable growth and no leads will be generated.

Depending on your target audience, you need to consider different criteria when communicating. In the case of a B2C target audience, information regarding price or characteristics such as motives or personal preferences play a primarily role. In the B2B sector, on the other hand, solution-oriented approaches, industry and return on investment matter the most.

It should also be mentioned that every company has several target audiences which in turn are segmented into different subgroups – therefore, you should never focus your software marketing on only one group of people.

Buyer Persona: Profile of a fictive customer who represents the target audience

The right communication channels

It’s well known that social media and blogs belong to the best marketing channels. However, this does not answer the question of which exact channels should be used, how often and with which content. It makes a big difference whether your company is targeting a B2B or B2C target audience, as channels need to be selected accordingly.

The following table shows which (social media-) channels are particularly well suited for each target audience:

Consider that the industry plays an important role as well. For example, Twitter is not bad for B2B businesses but it hardly offers any advantages for software companies. On the other hand, the platform “Reddit” has proven to be an insider tip because millions of people search there everyday for advice on different topics – with knowledge of software development, you can position your business extremely well.

But choosing the right channels isn’t everything, because that doesn’t answer any questions about posting frequency or the type of posts. In order to create a working content strategy, you should therefore clarify the following questions in the team:

• Which channels do we use?
• What content do we post?
• When do we start with social media postings and blogging?
• How often do we post on social media or our blog and what time buffer do we allow ourselves?
• What are potential challenges? (e.g. copyright in image use for blog articles)
• How do we achieve broad content distribution through different channels?
• Are our blog articles and website aligned with search engine optimization (SEO) criteria?
• How do we use your content to generate leads and retain them?

Are you looking for an exclusive content format that guarantees competitive advantages and triggers a lasting “wow effect” with your target audience? Then you should take a look at the advantages of digital signage!
Our software offers you a wide range of functions, starting with image playback and ending with interesting additional features such as the display of Facebook postings or YouTube videos. Of course, you can also use FRAMR as a presentation medium to communicate the benefits of your software. We promise: Your target audience will be stunned!

Internal vs external expertise

Blogs, social media, SEO, SEA (Google ads) – with all the given possibilities it’s difficult to find the necessary expertise internally, even when specifically choosing marketing channels. But that’s not necessary either, because through freelancer portals and Google research you can easily find a freelancer or even a big agency for your software marketing.

Both internal as well as external production of marketing content have advantages and with the following table we draw a comparison:

External labor requires good delegation. Don’t get it wrong, you don’t have to control every process in detail but working with freelancers or agencies is only purposeful if good framework conditions are created. For this, the first step is to clarify the following questions: 

• Who is responsible for which activity and what is the goal?
• Which deadlines do we set?
• Which information and materials does the freelancer or agency need?
• How well does the cooperation work and what can be improved?

Scattering

In the third point we have already mentioned content distribution – but why is this important at all? The answer: Many companies fail with implementing their marketing strategy and end up rearranging everything or plan all over again.

For successful software marketing, you have a variety of channels at your disposal, be it social media, SEO, SEA, PR or blogs. But just because you have so many options doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use the advantages of the different channels. Instead it’s better to set up multiple channels right from the beginning to see what content resonates best with your target audience and what content format gets good results. 

But make sure to ask yourself to what extent a good and broad content distribution is possible with the available resources because it doesn’t make sense if you have one person available for marketing, but you want to play ten marketing channels at once.

Metrics for measurability

Every company wants to achieve goals but surprisingly, this part of the marketing strategy in particular is treated quite superficially. Common goals are “growth” or “reach,” but no one mentions exact numbers or what metrics are used to achieve them. 

To measure the success of software marketing, you have several metrics at your disposal, be it website traffic, Google Analytics stats, social shares, newsletter signups or number of purchases or bookings. However, don’t make the mistake of focusing too much on the number of website visitors because even if high reach is an indicator of good marketing performance, it says nothing about the quality of your visitors.
Our recommendation: It’s best to use two metrics to evaluate the success of your marketing, for example website traffic and number of newsletter signups.

Don’t forget to use the results as a foundation for further development of your strategy. For example, if Facebook insights show that your target audience is mostly active between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m., these numbers should guide the time of your future posts. Similarly, you should remove content types from your strategy if the metrics show that they are performing poorly.

Example of a 6-step-plan: How to implement it successfully

Below, we give you insights into FRAMR’s marketing strategy so that you can get a feel for how to implement the 6-step plan.

1. Positioning: At FRAMR, we focus on speed and agile processes. This is because the Linux operating system starts even when power is lost and does not require a license. In addition, no complex installation is necessary and our cloud service guarantees permanent availability ofthe services. This flexibility also ensures constant expandability and good runnability on all platforms. We see potential weaknesses in the established market position of our competitors. Since we are competing with big companies like Sony or Panasonic, we have to position ourselves with good content and address our target group effectively.
2. Target group: We specifically address B2B customers with our digital signage solutions. We don’t discriminate on industry or company size, instead our marketing agenda aims to convince the target audience with the benefits of digital signage and position ourselves as innovative pioneers in entrepreneurship.
3. Communication channels: Besides our blog, we primarily use B2B channels because they best fit our target audience. We communicate via LinkedIn, use cases, workshops, and the FRAMR blog.
4. Internal vs. external expertise: We rely on both internal and external expertise. With internal strengths we ensure fast communication within the team and with external marketing support we “buy” the necessary know-how to do so.
5. Distribution: Two up to three articles are published on our blog every month. In addition, we post one LinkedIn post per week, publish guest posts on other websites for link-building, have already published case studies and regularly participate in knowledge-sharing events.
6. Metrics: To measure the success of our software marketing, we consider website traffic, number of purchases, and completed subscriptions.

→ What are use cases? Definition and examples

Ideas for your software marketing

• Blog articles on industry-specific topics
• Use case studies to show results of your work
• Explainer videos
• Google Ads campaigns with keywords targeting the search intent of the target audience
• Free use of your software for a certain period of time
• Live webinars to explain your software
• Postings on Google MyBusiness
• Digital brochures

Looking for more sustainable ideas? Then be sure to read our blog article on the best content formats – you’ll find valuable tips and tricks for implementing your software marketing strategy and which tools will help you do it.

This is how much marketing budget you need

The cost of good marketing has skyrocketed. Before digitization, people were less able to get information and it was correspondingly easier to sell products or services. But in the information age, different rules apply and your target audience has several touch points with your offer before they even develop interest. This is partly due to the growing competition, but also because access to information through search engines like Google is now available and your target group uses this offer. Because of that, you need to provide your audience with good content to spark curiosity, answer important questions, and get them to interact with your business.

How much budget you need to allocate to your marketing depends on several factors, including which channels you use or whether you cooperate with a freelancer or agency. Experience shows that the set-up phase with strategy development, setting up social media profiles, web design with texts and logo creation already costs well over 10,000 €. In addition, there are monthly costs for content, SEO and social media, which costs between 2,000 € and 5,000 €, depending on the factors mentioned.

Conclusion: Software marketing unfolds your potential

There is no question that marketing is one of the most important areas for the successful implementation of a business idea. There are high investments involved, but the long-term goal is a positive return-on-investment and most companies achieve this by working out a good strategy in the first step.

But that’s exactly the point: The first step requires a good strategy to set the stage for successful software marketing. The six steps from this article will help you establish your innovative idea on the market and set you apart from your competitors.

Pictures: © Canva.com

Content is king, every company is aware of that these days. But how do you use content formats to reach your target group?

In this article:

1. How content rules the world of marketing
2. Why businesses should expand their content strategy
3. Which content formats are there?
4. The versatility of content using the example of digital signage
5. Important questions for a goal oriented content strategy
6. The best content marketing tools
7. Our final advice
8. Conclusion 
9. FAQ

The most important facts about content formats summarized:

• There are a wide variety of content formats that combine their strengths
• Which content formats companies use best depends on the target audience
• Special marketing tools help to implement the content strategy

How content rules the world of marketing

Different trends dominate marketing depending on time and the circumstances. For a long time, print advertising was considered the best marketing method and every company took advantage of beautifully designed posters and flyers. This trend then was followed by TV commercials as the best advertising medium. Especially on TV shows with high audience ratings, businesses wanted to place their commercials to get more attention. Then there are the timeless advertising methods, such as word-of-mouth or trade fairs. However, during the times of the corona crisis, a rethink took place and trade shows in particular were not possible for about two years or could only be implemented under strict conditions. For a few years now, a new trend has been emerging as a result of digitalization, namely content marketing and because of the pandemic, more companies than ever before are relying on the strengths of dynamic online content.

Content: Part of every successful marketing strategy

No matter if social media or websites, businesses provide their platforms with content on a daily basis and use different kinds of content formats. Classic marketing methods such as trade fairs and print still belong to their portfolio but in the past years the trend developed in a different as well as clear direction. Blog articles, videos, designs, podcasts – good content has many faces and we will show you how you present content to your target audience.

Why businesses should expand their content strategy

A good content strategy has developed into a relevant competition factor in the past years. Companies with a strong online presence, be it through blog articles, podcasts or videos, benefit the most from the advantages of digital marketing. One of these advantages is the desired first page of google and other search engines. For many years it is known that google prefers websites which regularly post new and high quality content. But this rule doesn’t only apply to search engines, even the algorithms of platforms like YouTube prefer channels which regularly publish long and high quality videos. Content isn’t only about regularity, but especially about quality. 

The right strategy ensures versatility when using different content formats

The steadily growing competition makes it kinda hard to establish a business in the digital world. Only about ten years ago there wasn’t any competition on keywords / google search terms and advertising content through paid ads (e. g. facebook) was much cheaper. But that belongs to the past because what matters in 2023 is a good strategy, variety, unique selling propositions and regularity. Businesses are in the position to provide their target audience with innovative content and not only to rely on proven strengths.

Moreover, content is the motor for automated marketing processes. Newsletter subscriptions or bookings for online courses always require content in the first step to build reach and to gain your target audience’s attention. Lead generation without the right content is impossible.

Which content formats are there?

Claims of the target audience are growing and businesses are in the position to think about innovative ideas to not provide generic content. The different content formats ensure variety to win over the attention of the target audience and to expand the online performance of your business.

Visual content

Nothing sticks in the minds of the target group as well as images or videos. They communicate emotions and the learning effect of informative content is bigger than with texts. The biggest advantage is that pictures are almost always used in combination with  different content formats or are at least useful – only through visualization social media posts unfold their effect, when reading blog articles the target group is provided with viewing material and even boring statistics get a nice optical makeover. The disadvantage of pictures is that content, which requires explanation, can’t be displayed. This is why we recommend a combination of text and pictures to combine the strengths of both content formats.

Videos come with a completely different disadvantage: The effort. Appealing videos require a good set-up, high quality equipment, safety in front of the camera and a final editing.

Advantages of visual content

• User friendly
• High learning effect
• Emotionalizing

Disadvantages of visual content

• Not barrier free
• Displaying complex content almost not possible in picture format
• Videos are very time consuming

Blog articles and text

When reading about the term “content” most people think of blog articles. That’s no surprise, because especially texts improve performance of a website, thus ensuring a good google ranking. That’s actually the reason why many businesses hire copywriters or even create jobs for that. Blogs are known for being the strongest medium to expand reach because the integration of the right keywords increases visitor numbers on websites and businesses win more customers through that.

An often overlooked advantage of texts is the accessibility of videos and pictures – web builders like wordpress come with the function to enter an alternative text as picture description which is read out in the event of charging difficulties or in the event of impaired vision.

Disadvantages appear with very extensive blog articles with poor content structure. Although search engines like to see informative blogs with good SEO, usability often gets lost when the table of contents is missing or there is no option left to go directly to the desired section. One example for that are websites with cooking recipes: Many bloggers expand recipes to holistic articles but don’t add a table of contents. Readers have to find the recipe by themselves and have to read through the complete text. This increases dissatisfaction with the blog, which in the worst case increases the bounce rate and worsens SEO performance.

Advantages of blog articles and text

• Informative
• Barrier free
• Detailed presentation of complex content is possible

Disadvantages of blog articles and text

• Not emotionalizing without pictures or videos
• Bad navigation when table of contents is missing

Podcast

In comparison to the other content formats, podcasts were added relatively late, but are still part of the marketing portfolio of many businesses. At first, we want to clear up with a prejudice: Podcasts aren’t only good for storytelling or for freetime-stories because they communicate important information and knowledge on a very personal level. The speaker appears to be reachable for the target audience and through interviews listeners gain additional insights and hear different perspectives to a specific topic.

Podcasts are captivating and communicate knowledge in an almost entertaining way but for business growth they are less appropriate. There are exceptions as well but in most cases, a podcast isn’t part of a content strategy because listeners only rarely go from a podcast to the website and take advantage of a company’s offer.

Advantages of podcasts

• Listeners build up a personal connection
• Podcasts are entertaining
• High learning effect
• Longevity of content

Disadvantages of podcasts

• Bad for conversions
• High reach primarily in entertainment niches

Social media posts (engagement posts)

Social media combines the content formats text, pictures, videos and audio. On the different channels there is one separate content format which promises additional attention, namely so called engagement posts. The goal of these posts is to win the attention of your target audience through interaction. The social media channel instagram, for instance, makes it possible to ask surveys or to let subscribers participate in quizzes. Engagement posts signalize the target audience that you are interested in hearing their opinion. Other than that, you increase the engagement rate which has a positive impact on the social media performance and you get further insights into the wishes and desires of your target audience.

Advantages of social media engagement posts

• Target audiences recognize that their wishes are considered
• Good basis for market research
• Provides for variety and more interaction

Disadvantages of social media engagement posts

• Your target audience might recognizes that you only use engagement posts to collect more information about their user behavior

The different advantages of content formats

You shouldn’t start producing content right away, you should rather first think about which target audience you speak to. Blog articles, videos and freebies all work for most businesses but the desired goals are different. Blogs build reach in the first step, freebies on the other hand are for people who have already been in touch with businesses.

With the other content formats, you have to carefully weigh up to what extent they are worthwhile. Live events or webinars are primarily for B2B customers and podcasts are more interesting for a younger audience which place high value on variety in content.

The versatility of content using the example of digital signage

How dynamic and varied content is, can be shown on the example of digital signage. The technology of digital billboards ensures the display of different content formats, no matter if it’s audio, video, picture or text. Applications differ and depending on the target audience, there are different opportunities. Restaurants show contents of a menu, clothing stores advertise their products and administration offices provide their staff with information. What matters at the end is the target audience – therefore, it’s less about which content format a business uses, but which persons they target with it.

Important questions for a goal oriented content strategy

• Who is my target audience?
• Is the goal of my company to expand reach or to generate leads?
• Which content format normally works for my niche?
• Which personnel do I need for the implementation?
• With which costs do I have to calculate?
• Which content marketing tools are used
• How big is my team and what are its strengths?
• What are current trends and how can I consider them for my strategy?
• Does my content strategy consider eventualities and possible changes in trends?
• How often do we post new content?

The best content marketing tools

To provide your target audience with good content, the right marketing tools are necessary. The palette reaches from design tools to applications for keyword research. The diversity of applications is growing and promises businesses the opportunity to execute their plans in content marketing. Following, we have listed the best marketing tools and how they can help you to execute your marketing strategy.

Overview of the best content marketing tools:

• Canva
• Photoshop
• Illustrator
• Ahrefs
• Audacity
• Later
• Vegas Pro
• Asana
• Google Drive

Canva: The design tool for everyone

Most design tools require specific knowledge and pose a great challenge, especially for beginners. The developers of the service Canva had an innovative idea: To transmit the concept of a website builder to the creation and design of content. Canva doesn’t require installation and you don’t have to create designs out of nowhere – instead, the application works directly through the website and there are thousands of design templates available for inspiration.

The best thing about the tool: Canva is user friendly and intuitive. Designs for social media posts are provided in the right format and can be shared directly through canva.

Adobe illustrator and photoshop: The design tools for pros

Canva is known as a solution for everyone who doesn’t design a lot. The modular format expands regularly, but finds its limit when creating certain content (e.g. logos). The programs of Adobe still count as the biggest challenge for designers and give a lot of space for creativity. Photoshop is mainly used for picture editing, illustrator for logos and vector graphics. At first, these applications require some practice, but once you are trusted with the programs of Adobe, you will create stunning and unmatchable designs.

Ahrefs: Keyword research made easy

Experienced texters know that nowadays it’s not enough to choose a topic and work on its content, because it is the keywords which matter the most. Ahrefs is a good solution for that because it’s a user-friendly and professional tool for keyword research. During research you are suggested many different keywords and W-questions, furthermore the tool offers the opportunity to analyze websites and their integrated keywords and to compare the performance of your own website with the one of your competitors.

Audacity: Editing audio files uncomplicated and for free

Podcasts inspire people – they communicate emotions, are accessible from everywhere and listeners can expect exciting content about specific topics. There are many programs to edit audio files but one of them has particularly proved itself: Audacity. The application is for free and ensures fast as well as uncomplicated editing of audio files. And don’t you dare to think that a free-to-use program can’t be good – Audacity provides you with all needed functions, no matter if it’s changing volume or reducing background noises. The only weakness lies in editing the details of an audio file (e.g. frequency settings or sound features). Those who don’t want to miss that out rather use a chargeable software such as Adobe audition.

Later: Plan your content

A good editorial plan is especially helpful for businesses with a long term and extensive content strategy. To ensure that you don’t lose the overview, a planning tool such as Later is recommended. The application allows precisely timed planning and sends reminders, so that you won’t forget to upload a post on social media channels. The biggest advantage is automation because with a membership you’re provided with the advantage to upload social media posts without having to do it by yourself.

Vegas Pro: Videos with style and quality

Among free-to-use software for video editing there is not a lot you can choose from. The well known Windows Player isn’t part of the integrated programs on microsoft computers anymore and doesn’t provide any mentionable editing functions for videos. With Vegas Pro it’s a different story. At first, the tool might cause you some troubles because of all the different things you can do. However, once you get familiar with the program, you don’t want to use a different one to edit your videos.

Asana: Organize your team

Complex content strategies involve many different parties – you need someone for design, social media texts, blogs, SEO and websites. To make sure that there are no overlaps, centralized organization through a project management tool such as Asana helps you. The main advantage is that all involved parties can easily communicate with each other, have access to all to-dos and get a precise overview of all the deadlines to meet. For a team of two or three, tools like Asana aren’t really helpful but for bigger projects it’s almost a must.

Google Drive: Save your data uncomplicated

Cloud storages such as Google Drive make working in a team easier. Before the times of cloud services, the parties involved in a project had to send the content to each other and save it on their end device. When there were problems with the device, content was gone as the worst case scenario. Thanks to cloud services like Google Drive this isn’t a problem anymore because the content is stored in an area freely accessible to all involved parties and can be accessed from everywhere.

Our final advice: Consider the details

Creating content and using the right format is not everything. To produce good content, you need an eye for details – the wrong picture format leads to a loss in quality and if you choose the wrong color channel in photoshop, you show your social media audience group a faded picture. We recommend you to double check your content before you publish it. Not only optical mistakes cause problems, grammar mistakes or maximal lengths of videos might cause trouble as well. It is best to deal with the requirements in advance and finally check everything again.

Conclusion

Without content you limit your chances of performing successful marketing. Through social media and the variety of websites, users get in touch with different types of content everyday, which wins over their attention and delivers added value. Businesses are in the position to provide new and innovative content, also to save a better position in search engines such as google and bing. But even in different areas, digital signage for instance, different types of high quality content are the key to win over your target audience.

FAQ

Lastly, we will answer some of the most frequently asked questions about content formats and how to attract your target audience with it.

What is a content creator?

A content creator handles the creation of content for a company’s marketing. This includes blog articles, designs for social media and videos.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is a branch of marketing and deals with the creation as well as the publication of qualified content. The goal is to get attention of one’s target group through content and to convey added value.

What is canva?

Canva is a design tool in a modular format that is used directly from the website. Users have a variety of templates at their disposal that they can use and edit.

Pictures: © Canva.com