According to Philip Kotler, known as the “father of marketing”, marketing is the “science and art of exploring, creating and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit”.
In this way, it means that there is no point in having a product or service to offer if potential buyers do not know it exists. Plus, it’s even worse if it doesn’t present a value proposition to the customer.
In this scenario, marketing has become increasingly important for strategic planning. Including the competitiveness of companies in the market. With that in mind, we present in this post seven essential marketing tips for IT companies that you should not lose sight of. Check out!
1. Creating personas
The first step in executing marketing strategies that can bring effective results to your company is knowing who your audience is. For this, creating personas is an excellent tool.
Unlike the target audience, which encompasses a large number of people according to socioeconomic, demographic and behavioral issues, personas are much more specific. In this sense, the goal is to have a clearer and more direct definition of who your company’s ideal consumers are.
For example, your target audience could be doctors who are between 35 and 50 years old and have clinics in São Paulo. The persona, on the other hand, would be focused on the consumer’s habits and needs in a specific way.
In this sense, a persona could be Oswaldo Ramazzini, 40 years old, who owns a clinic and needs an IT company that responds to his calls quickly to avoid downtime.
To define the persona, you can do research with your current customers and look for information, such as the media they access, places and events they attend, how your company solves their problems, among others.
2. SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis, also known as SWOT, is another very important tool for the strategic planning of any company. SWOT is short for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats.
Through it, you can study the internal and external environments of your business to make strategic decisions and achieve your goals. To do this, just make a 4×4 matrix with the strengths and weaknesses of your company, and the opportunities and threats of your market, which involves aspects such as customers, competitors, and suppliers.
By analyzing the matrix, you can define marketing actions focused on amplifying strengths, reducing weaknesses, taking advantage of external opportunities, and defending against threats.
3. Sales funnel
The sales funnel is a strategic model that represents the customer’s journey from the first contact with the company until the sale is made. This tool allows you to know the interest levels of the potential consumer at each stage of the funnel to develop marketing strategies that best suit each situation.
The funnel is divided into three parts. At the top of it are those consumers who still don’t know they need your product or service. Your focus, in this case, should be on materials that help the persona diagnose that they have a problem. An example of a problem is the customer only relying on an IT provider when services are unavailable.
Halfway through the funnel, the customer already knows they have a problem, and your role is to come up with solutions they can consider. In this sense, one option would be to hire a managed services provider. Finally, at the bottom of the funnel, the client already wants to hire an MSP (Managed Service Provider) company. Therefore, it is time to show that this company can be yours.
4. Mailing creation
The mailing is an email list of potential customers and current customers. This is one of the best tools that can be used in marketing. Because, by sending strategic emails, the so-called email marketing, your company can relate to personas.
For this, it is necessary to plan actions that allow the capture of emails and use good sending practices so as not to be invasive and lose the customer. In this sense, to capture data, you can use forms on your website, even in exchange for materials such as e-books.
Good sending practices include not sending emails to people who have not authorized the sending, being careful with the frequency of emails to avoid becoming spam, creating attractive titles, and sending quality materials such as tips and tutorials, among others.
5. Content Marketing
Content marketing aims to create high-value content to attract, engage and educate customers, create a positive image of your brand with consumers, increase the chances of closing sales, and much more.
By producing and sharing content that is of interest to potential consumers and current customers, you can make your company stand out from your competitors and become a reference in the field.
To define the topics that can be addressed, remember your persona. If she has a business in the law field, for example, you can share information about technology, law, and entrepreneurship.
You can either produce the materials — such as the e-books that can be downloaded in exchange for the emails as mentioned in the previous topic — or you can curate content, sharing materials and articles from sites that are referenced in their areas.
6. Social networks
Anyone who thinks that B2-B businesses cannot benefit from a presence on social networks is wrong. Many of the biggest companies in the world are on networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. Therefore, you must know which ones your potential customers are in and take advantage of the channels to get to know them, present your business and strengthen the relationship.
For that, you must bet on creativity and agility, characteristics of these media in which people are looking for quick entertainment. Presenting your company behind the scenes, sharing useful information, doing sweepstakes and promotions, and interacting with your customers are some tips you can follow.
7. Offline Strategies
If you want to use marketing tools to grow your business, don’t forget about offline strategies. Find out where your customers are also off the internet and go to them.
If you serve companies in one or a few specific sectors, for example, identify which events — such as congresses, fairs, and lectures in the area — your potential client usually participates in and attends them as well. In addition to being an opportunity to close deals, you can learn a lot about your persona to develop marketing strategies.
In this post, you have checked out some essential marketing tips for an IT companies. By putting them into practice, you will be much more likely to differentiate yourself from the competition to reach and retain customers and grow.
