Marketing for IT products and services: best practices and tips

“Be sure until you invest in marketing — your competitors do it.”

Digital marketing for IT products and services is not an easy task

The priority tasks the business sets for them are to increase website traffic, increase contact points, and convert potential customers into real ones.

The modern digital space is very competitive. Even if you plan to enter the market with a new product or service, be sure you already have competitors. To achieve commercial goals, you must be constantly on the move and proactive. This is the only way to stay in the “game” and earn money.

Why your IT business needs a full-fledged marketing strategy

The marketing of IT products and services in the B2B sector today is very different from what it was a few years ago. Why?

More complex products and services. IT products and services have become more complex and detailed thanks to new technologies, AI, and customer requirements. Simpler is only sometimes better.

Dynamic portraits of customers. They follow trends and want to get new experiences and new emotions. An offer that completely covered his needs yesterday may be irrelevant tomorrow.

Longer purchase cycles. An increase in suppliers, more complex products/services, and more departments responsible for coordination. There are a lot of offers on the market, and to make a decision, you need to study all the recommendations to choose the best one.

It is also important to remember that marketing is a priority for your competitors. We remind you that for business growth, it is necessary to:

• Attract new customers;

• Receiving new orders from existing customers.

• It would help to have a marketing strategy for IT products or services to achieve these goals.

Later in the article, we will talk about proper practices and give tips on how to build an effective marketing strategy for IT products or services.

Study the market and the buyers

Study your competitors

Understand your target audience

Create a killer website

Create content. A lot of content.

Increase your social media presence

Interact with opinion leaders in the IT industry

Declare yourself with the help of PR

Don’t forget about existing customers

Integrate new technologies with marketing

1. Study the market and the buyers

We recommend not entrusting market and customer research to novice marketing agencies or freelancers whose results you do not trust — this guarantees months of lost time.

Research and analysis will benefit if they are carried out in a balance between speed and quality. It should take weeks, not months. The “paralysis” of market analysis guarantees the death of any marketing strategy for a business.

2. Study your competitors

First, identify three or four main competitors in information technology.

Then, take apart their websites, social networks, and other online or offline resources to the smallest detail.

How big are they? What kind of chips do they have? With what message are they doing this? Who are their main customers? What marketing and sales techniques are used most often?

If they are trying something new and different from the rest, it will be helpful for you to try something similar in your IT marketing campaign.

3. Understand your target audience

Build portraits of your target audience (i.e., your potential buyers). Collect feedback from the sales department — this information will be more valuable than trying to guess the needs and pains of customers.

Ask a lot of questions to find out about all the pain points. Where are they looking for information? What do they need before making a purchase decision?

The more you know, the more accurately you can adapt your points of contact and offer.

4. Create a fantastic website for IT marketing

Your website is the first impression that people will get about the company.

Indeed, you have met a vast number of sour, non-conversion websites in the IT industry. It’s not worth trying something like this, and we didn’t talk about it in the second council!

If you are developing IT products or services, this will be easy for you. Approach the issue of the site responsibly, and take the time to do so. You will not be able to convince the customer of the quality of your product if information about it is posted on a website with a design from ten years ago.

When developing, pay attention to the essential elements:

Design and UX. Use a stylish, thoughtful, and intuitive design to look like the IT company that you are.

SEO. Contact the professionals to set everything up correctly. High-quality SEO promotion ensures the site appears on the first page for key search queries. The more impressions there are, the more potential customers you will receive.

Think Mobile-First. More than 70% of website traffic is on mobile devices. When designing, consider how the elements will look on customers’ smartphones. If a website in a mobile browser scares them away, nothing will make them return to you again.

Speed. Search engines require sites to open faster. Users want to click on a link quickly. Do not wait until Yandex throws you out of the index or the person closes the tab. Optimize the speed of work as soon as possible.

5. Create content. A lot of content.

Buyers of IT products/services want to study all the details before making a final decision. Here, the leading player on the field is content.

Create different types of content that respond to the needs of your target customers. Then, use your website, omnichannel campaigns, and public relations to bring your content to your target audience.

Search robots are also very fond of content on websites! The more keywords the articles contain, the better the site will be indexed in the search. More traffic = more potential leads.

6. Increase your social media presence

Social media can become a crucial element of marketing for IT companies. But it needs to be done right; otherwise, it will save time and resources.

SMM needs to be fixed if you have only a few dozen subscribers, most of whom are your employees. To achieve an effective B2B or B2C social media marketing strategy, you need to:

Focus on the social media channels where your target audience is most active. For example, Telegram channels have recently become more popular.

Create and promote your content (lots of content). Everyone in your industry is an SEO competitor, especially the media. If the news section of your site almost wholly duplicates the news agenda of significant publications, expect a few conversions for your IT product or service. They come for a unique experience that should lead them to purchase your IT service or product rather than watching content copied from another site.

Offer something branded and valuable. Social media will lead to potential B2B customers and increase the strength of the brand’s presence in the media space. If someone wants to find information about your IT product, they should find it wherever it is convenient.

7. Interact with opinion leaders in the IT industry

B2B influencers are different from the type that teenagers follow on TikTok. Opinion leaders in IT marketing speak at industry events and create exceptional content on thematic portals (habr, vc, etc.)

It would help to get to know and keep in touch with these people. Just one mention of your company’s name by an authentic influencer can make a huge difference. This will increase brand awareness and lead to attracting potential and new customers.

In the IT field, people especially listen to the advice of experts and opinion leaders and only then make a purchase decision.

8. Declare yourself with the help of PR

Do not issue standard press releases about the offer of a new product, a change of management, or the opening of an office – these are drops in the information sea.

Instead, invest in professional PR services to make a splash and draw attention to you as the IT industry leader. The agency will help you highlight what makes you unique and special and then tell everyone about it.

9. Don’t forget about existing customers

Whatever you do, don’t neglect your existing customers by promoting your IT services or products.

Remind yourself on social media and in person. Send useful weekly or monthly emails to keep and maintain their interest. Include them in your marketing strategy, and it will pay off.

Create targeted campaigns with the sales department to offer new products/services or sell what you already have. Retaining existing customers through after-sales points of contact is much easier and cheaper than finding new ones.

10. Integrate new technologies into your marketing strategy

Remember that you are engaged in marketing for IT. Why not demonstrate your development skills by integrating the latest technologies?

Add convenient widgets or forms on your site, and use AI for chatbots. Show your customers that you are using what you offer. Or consider integrating it into your content and letting the leads get to know your company directly rather than reading about it.

Drawing a line

It takes work to keep up with the rapidly developing IT industry. You need more than just brochures and exhibition stands. Marketing for IT companies is constructing an omnichannel, integrated, and effective communication system with customers. If it doesn’t exist, your starting point should be creating a strategic marketing team.