Advertising for IT

In order to sell an IT-product it is necessary to explain to the target audience in simple and clear language what its value is and why its purchase will be a good investment for the future. This is possible if you can competently run advertising in the market.

The complexities of advertising in the IT field

It is not easy to advertise products and services in the field of information technology; marketers must take into account the limitations and specifics of the market.

• The complexity of the perception of the product. Promoting a company is easier than advertising an expensive and incomprehensible product. Often to create the image of an expert, texts or the USP are stuffed with specialized terminology, as a result of which only a select few will be able to understand the message.  IT people choose a product, but the decision to buy it is mostly made by people who are far from IT. They need to understand how business can benefit from, for example, software or website optimization.
• In order to demonstrate realized cases, a customer’s consent is required. Not everyone is ready to share information. This is a security issue. Often, even if you have permission to publish data or a case, you must understand that it can be suddenly revoked.
• Clients want a ready-made solution, and it does not matter for them what methods or platform it is implemented on. To make a choice, the client will search for information, listening primarily to recommendations and reviews.
• Diversity of the target audience. Development and purchase of software, website promotion, service and technical support is needed for everyone. The product or service must be adapted to the needs of each sector of the target audience.
• High price and competition. Specificity of the product leads to the fact that each client needs an individual approach. When promoting an IT solution or company, customer care triggers, such as 24/7 tech support, must be implemented.
• Selling software has a stretch in time. The customer may hear about the product, but will test it first, compare it, and only then make a decision to purchase.
• An IT company’s Web site is a “showcase.” Customers evaluate how perfect the corporate blog, the website is. Who will turn to a company offering to create web resources if their own site is constantly slowing down or the “most recent” articles are dated the year before last?

Why IT advertising?

Often an IT company has innovative developments, excellent products, it employs professionals, but there is no promotion strategy. The company makes ends meet, but there is no significant profit. This means that the end user is little informed about the products and services.

The business owner may see the problem as the product not being perfect enough. The problem lies elsewhere – with competitive price and quality, visual and meaningful packaging is lacking, SEO is undervalued, customers are not “warmed up” enough, and end up going to those who know how to present themselves.

Advertising is aimed at brand development and increasing sales by placing information in various media and on the Internet. In fact, these are specific actions taken to promote IT services or products, to build long-term sales.

For the successful promotion on the market it is required to launch the advertising campaign and to apply the marketing tools. IT companies are more often ready to make bold experiments and use innovations. You should create viral videos, place an emphasis on 3D-projections and video format to present information.

Be sure to combine advertising online and offline. The advertising of the IT-company, its products and services should be made also at the specialized conferences and exhibitions, involving market experts, partners and consumers of the products.

The main driving force in advertising is brand building. Increasing customer loyalty for a product or service, leading to an increase in sales, is the goal of advertising.

Since the target audience “lives” on the Internet, it is necessary to promote and advertise on the territory familiar to users. The main “whales” of promotion are search engine optimization, presence in social networks, contextual advertising, CPA-marketing, retargeting and remarketing, publications in industry media.

For advertising they use:

• A blog, including a corporate one, is the “content face” of an IT company. The main emphasis should be placed on successful cases, fakaps, educating people in their field and showing the effectiveness of the company’s solutions for business. As a rule, such an orientation of the materials brings a stable interest and leads to the growth of reposts and references, i.e., to the popularity of the blog.
• Website. Its task is to be informative, useful, relevant and reader-oriented. It is the very first, perfect case, which clients will see and be guided by.
• Media publications with a link to infopods. Infopods should not be abused, only in this case, the press releases will have the desired advertising effect on the audience.
• Posting on social networks. The task of the content is first of all to be noticeable, and only then – to be informative.
• Telegram Channels. An excellent platform for creating a loyal audience. It is the quality of subscribers, not their quantity, that matters.
• Video hosting with thoughtful content. Sometimes it is easier to show a complex IT-product in action.

To launch advertising campaigns and increase sales in the field, managers must have an excellent understanding of the products. Only then will they be able to explain in simple words and examples the benefits of implementing a particular solution.

The hardest part of selling in IT is getting your first customers. For advertising to hit the exact target, you need to know the needs of each group of customers and understand how to retain them.

SEO

Presence in the information space leads to recognition. Search engine promotion makes a company visible in a saturated market. People are looking for information and recommendations on the web, and search engines provide ready answers that are as relevant as possible.

For an IT company, a presence on the Internet is a must. Potential clients, as well as competitors, are technically literate. Lack of optimization leads to lower rankings and fewer leads, which plays into the hands of competitors.

SEO is a guide for creating the perfect web resource, taking into account the user experience and the requirements of search engines.

The advantage of content marketing

Content (text, visual, audio podcasts) creates an emotional message to the customer and explains the purpose and benefits of the product. To create an information space in which the IT product and company dominate, it is necessary to make the content as accessible to the user as possible. It should be understood by IT people, PR people, and company executives alike.

Contextual advertising

Promotion of both the product and the corporate blog, even personnel and customer searches, can be launched with simple ads. This helps boost active sales by quickly alerting the CA about new products, releases, and discounts.

Review sites

An IT company, as well as its products, are most often chosen by recommendation. To increase the number of clients, you need to register on information portals, search engine maps, review sites, create real customer video reviews, and respond quickly to negative reviews.

Participation in online and offline events

In the B2B sphere, personal contacts and communication are extremely important. In order to build up contacts, show your level of expertise, and find potential clients, you should participate in various events and activities.

Emphasis on the expert

Nurturing an expert is a slow but effective way to promote an IT company and product. To create an expert, you have to grow a community, support speeches, messages and undertakings, confirming that a particular expert is really the best in his business. First the company works on his image, then his expertise on the company. In the end, he advertises the company and its products, and this advertising is perceived as useful advice “from a professional.

Guerrilla marketing

A labor-intensive, complicated, but free way to make yourself known. Possible tools include memorable promotions at other people’s events, creation of mega-cool newsletters, viral pictures, videos, etc. It will take the enthusiasm of employees, an adventurous attitude of management, and an understanding that the result will be guaranteed, but delayed.

Attractiveness of the company for employees

In addition to advertising aimed at the external consumer, it is important to strengthen the personnel structure of the IT-company, to attract professionals to work. If a company becomes known in its niche, it begins to be mentioned in the media and mass media, it becomes prestigious to work there, and employees get a powerful impetus for their own development. This is also advertising, only designed for internal consumption, but eventually working on a business project in the long term.

In IT-sphere individual approach to the client is valued. Due to this it is possible to level out the high price, stiff competition and complexity of the product.

Preference when launching an advertising campaign should be given to a combination of publications in specialized press, participation in events and promotion on the Internet. Using a combination of contextual advertising, SEO and SMM helps clients make the right decision and choose your IT company.