10 WAYSTO GET NEW CLIENTS FOR

IT SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

specializes in online marketing for IT companies

FeaturesIT Software Development Market

B2B-orientation

Services are provided to other businesses

Sales cycle usually lasts 3-12 monthsThe later companies start marketing activities, the more they delay the moment of signing a business contract with a prospect

4

Feedback from the target audience to improve service offerings, pricing strategy and positioning on the market

High-quality traffic convertible into leads

Lead generation

Marketing Goals

Lead GenerationKeypoints

The same marketing tools in the same period of time will bring different results to the largest system integrator IBM and world’s leading retailer Walmart

B2B marketing strategies and tactics

differ from those used by B2C companies

1

Chances of “winning” 6-figure

projects cause bloody

competition in the industry,

including budget wars

2

$$

Business reality – in which big jackpots are up for grabs – presumes no silver bullets and no genius ideas allowing to outperform competitors instantly and get customers regularly with little or no budget

3

Customer acquisition in the IT industry requires

systematic tedious efforts put in various

marketing channels and experiments with them

4

10 MediumsTo Consider for

IT Software Development Companies

Google AdWords Search Advertising

#1

Targeting location =

U.S. & Canada

Keywords are

expensive!(high CPC

bids)

What IT companies should know

A limited volume of

highly tailored queries

More time to collect statistically significant

data and correct the plan of actions

A finite amount of high-quality website traffic

Recommended minimum monthly budget for AdWords: $5,000+

The stats for the ‘software development company’ query in the US Google in SEMrush

Google AdWords Remarketing

#2

Previous visitors or users can see ads as they browse websites that are part of the Google Display Network.

1 Reaching people who have visited the website or used the app before

Users will see company’s text, image or video ads as they log in to Google account, YouTube or Gmail with their emails.

Targeting ads to users from the corporate email database2

Google AdWords Gmail

#3

Gmail promoted ads allow IT companies to

target people receiving Gmail messages from

their direct competitors (by

specifying @competitordomain.co

m as keywords)

Goal: «catching» competitors' customers

Bing Search Advertising (Yahoo & Bing

Search Engines)

#4

According to the stats in August 2015, Bing share on the US search engine market was 20%, giving way only to Google with its 64%.

Bing share in Canada and the UK was 6-7%.

Competition is still high in Bing, but lower than in Google

What IT companies should know

Approximate monthly budget starts from $1,500-$2,000

Targeting location = U.S.

Email Marketing

#5

Goals

• increasing the number of touchpoints with decision makers in prospects' companies

• acquiring leads

#1 StepCreating and enhancing the database of decision-makers

(do not forget about segmentation!) #2 Step

Launching campaigns: writing privately-colored emails with call-to-action

messages

#3 StepAnalyzing results (Open

Rate, Engagement, Response Rate), sending out

follow up emails

Email Marketing Steps

LinkedIn Advertising

#6

LinkedInallows IT companies to target particular decision-makers of any

kind by:

Specific company (Company name)

Industry(Company Industry)

Position, duties and seniority(Job Title, Job Function, Job

Seniority)

Members of certain LinkedIn

groups

What IT companies should know

CPC bids on LinkedIn start from $2 and rise up to $10 for someindustries.

Social Media Advertising

#7

We recommend IT software companies to consider Facebook and Twitter after they create the database of decision-makers. Companies can use their email database to show ads to decision makers while they are browsing through social media.

What IT companies should know

SOCIAL MEDIA

#8 Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing works in the long run and assumes the following:

o IT company creates valuable personalized content using blog, for example

o Content gets distributed by marketing specialists over various marketing channels

o Marketing team puts efforts into converting attracted website visitors into leads by gathering their contact information.

What IT companies should know

Blogging will be a waste of time without aiming it at a proper Buyer Persona and their interests.

Content creation is just one step of the inbound marketing. Companies write and promote blog posts to attract website traffic with a purpose of converting it into leads.

Guest Blogging

#9

Getting in touch with reputable bloggers & opinion leaders (like

Mashable and TechCrunch) and

publishing posts on their websites helps driving the target audience to

the company’s own website and has a positive effect on

corporate reputation and image.

Post topics may cover: In-depth analysis of the

industry trends Market research with

infographics Unbiased product

reviews Interviews with tech C-

level executives Avoid blatant

advertising!

Webinars

#10

Webinars enhance communication with the company’s target audience by diving deeply into their interests and demonstrating company’s expertise.

There are various ways of getting new customers for IT software development companies including PPC advertising, social media advertising, email marketing, inbound marketing, guest blogging and others. There’s no silver bullet in lead generation for B2B. Each traffic channel should be used wisely if IT companies do not want to lose money. Also business growth assumes investments and regular marketing activities rather than one-time actions with no or a small budget. The best marketing strategy for IT software development companies would be experimenting with several promotional sources, picking up the most efficient one and scaling it.

Thoughts to take with

irina@kraftblick.com

www.kraftblick.comPrepared by Kraftblick

team

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