The best marketing strategies for IT companies build trust. The organizational leaders who make decisions about hiring an IT company are putting their company's future in someone else's hands. They're often entrusting you with their security and reputation, their customer's data and privacy, and even how their business thinks and interacts on a day-to-day basis. That's an incredible responsibility to place in someone else's hands. It's why the most effective marketing strategies for tech companies build relationships that convey knowledge and develop trust at every step.
If businesses were simply looking for managed services, your job would be easy. You could offer your solutions and leads would develop on their own. That's not the way the world works, though.
Executives and managers are searching for solutions to very specific problems. It could be file and app security, operations management fixes, disaster recovery plans, information on data breaches, a specific ransomware outbreak, workflow solutions, what to look for in cloud services, help when migrating. There are as many unique searches as there are businesses looking for help.
Develop content that covers these more precise issues. Inform business leaders. Educate about the steps each subject entails, and the products that help them reach those steps. They're seeking out help, so the goal is for them to land on your content, come away feeling satisfied and more knowledgeable because of it, and think of you as a thought leader they can trust. The average conversion can take as many as 7-13 clicks, so they need to think of you as a source they want to seek out again.
Websites with blogs see 67% more traffic according to HubSpot. They have 434% more indexed pages according to Tech Client. Others will link and share their content. According to Business 2 Community, websites with blogs see 97% more links leading to their site. Two-thirds of purchases saw blog visits as part of the conversion path.
You need to convert those visitors into leads. How can you do this? The easiest way is to gate some content. Longer or more valuable articles, white papers, and webinars can simply ask that a conversion form be filled out. This means that they provide a little bit of information in order to access the content.
The longer the form, the more likely they are to click elsewhere, so only gather the information you need to follow as a lead. The more unnecessary the information, the more likely it is for a visitor to start distrusting your reasons for collecting it. Collect name, title, organization, and reason for accessing the content. This can later help you segment your follow-ups into different categories.
The best marketing strategies for IT companies build over time. This isn't like an impulse purchase on an online retailer. These are decisions that change the course of companies and inform how secure they are. IT services can be costly and they change certain ways a business operates. That's an investment in money, time, and personnel for an organization. They need to feel that they're making the right decision about how to grow, and that often takes time and analysis.
Once you develop leads, segment them by their reasons for accessing different content. This can help you direct an email campaign according to these categories. This is easy to automate, and assures that you're sending content to people who will find it most useful – and are thus more likely to respond.
Email marketing is surprisingly effective. It has a fairly low cost and a stellar ROI (4,400% according to Campaign Monitor). It can help drive more return traffic, and the more often someone returns to your site, the more they trust you. The more they trust you, the more likely they are to hire your services.
Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies for tech companies. It has to come from your leads, however. Simply purchasing a cold list isn't useful. Pursuing leads who have already engaged with your site and who were willing to provide more information means that they're already comfortable with your follow-up.
Is social media worth it? Let's put it this way: it's mostly either free or low cost. It doesn't take long to post your content and get more eyes on it.
Prioritize the social media that matters most. LinkedIn is going to be far more useful than something like Facebook. Generally, don't share your content on LinkedIn immediately. Give it a month. When you do share it, it's often a good idea to post a teaser with a link to your site. In other words, post part of the blog, with a link to your site if they want to read the rest.
Social media like Facebook and Twitter aren't as valuable...but it's still very low effort to share your content there. Just don't get too wrapped up in followers or likes, or in investing in sponsored content. The average conversion rate for tech companies on Facebook is less than a quarter of what it is for other industries.
The best strategy is to respond to comments. Really. It doesn't need to be a long response, but any serious question should get a response. Perhaps you have more content that relates to it. Link the commenter to that content. Be friendly in all your interactions and don't be afraid to police your page to delete spam and trolls. Just remember to avoid getting bogged down on these less business-oriented platforms. Everything you do there should be quick, friendly, and informative.
If you do get some engagement, shares, and clicks out of it, it doesn't cost anything to share your content there as well. You should not be relying on social media as your primary mode of developing leads, however. Even on LinkedIn, it's simply not effective enough to form the backbone of an IT marketing strategy.
Google AdWords is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to you. It offers so much information and customization options that you should not go into it without a goal and a strategy for how to get there.
The investment required to make retargeting through AdWords effective is substantial – around $3,000 a month. It is one of the most effective marketing strategies for tech companies, but if you're not familiar with it you need to find an agency that is.
THAT Agency is more than familiar with Google AdWords and the other IT marketing strategies presented in this article. Contact us today to find out how we can put our expertise to work for you.