Brand promotion for IT

A company that wants to take a leading or at least visible position on the market is obliged to produce a quality product and increase sales. This may not be enough, given that the competitors do not sleep, any idea can be copied, and new technologies quickly become yesterday’s day.

IT-market companies invest in marketing and branding. It is necessary in order to create additional value in the eyes of clients, which increases the value of the company, and accordingly, its products and solutions. Intangible factors, which include customer loyalty and product recognition, are transformed into tangible factors, increasing profits not only for the company, but also for its employees.

In order to stand out from the dense lineup of competitors, it is necessary to create a name – a brand.  It creates a positive image of the company in the eyes of partners and customers.

A strong brand brings not only financial, but also other advantages, including the search for highly qualified employees. This means that only the best and most promising applicants get on the team, some of whom are experts in their own niche.

What does the brand of an IT company consist of

Visual and verbal elements influence brand recognition. The former include a developed, recognizable corporate identity and established advertising communications. The latter represent the legend, the mission and the goal set by the company. The task of brand promotion is to demonstrate how it can change the life of the user.

Branding aims at building an image of a successful, expert and user-favorite IT company. For this purpose, guidelines are developed to help unify all the visual aspects in advertising. First of all, when creating a visual range, a unique image is thought over. For its proper perception, fonts are selected, combinations of colors, and a logo is created.

Be sure to take into account the positioning of the company, it is displayed throughout the development of the brand, emphasizing its individuality. In this case the employees understand what is the company’s task, how the connection with clients is built, and consumers understand what is their benefit from the purchase of the brand products. The narrower the market niche, the easier it is to develop a strategy.

Positioning comes in:

• competitive, i.e., it is based on opposition, and the marketing strategy uses the unsatisfied desires of consumers;
• by category, when the brand is promoted as a leader within the goods of a certain category (this type of positioning is most successful in new markets and for unique/innovative solutions);
• by consumer, when an advertising campaign is designed for a specific segment of the target audience, and a product – for a particular category of buyers.

Most companies in the IT sphere take into account the factor of availability of software solutions when positioning. The company’s slogan always emphasizes positioning.

How to promote a brand in the IT market

To promote a company from the idea of a positive ROI is not easy, because there is a struggle for each user as a potential client. Classical ways of promotion with the output on social networks, using remarketing and email marketing, contextual advertising on low-frequency queries, link building bring effect when there is already a steady flow of users and allocated a significant budget for promotion.

If the IT product under development is of high quality, then it is worth focusing on studying the needs of the target audience to retain the first customers. It is necessary to understand what exactly the user wants. It is important to get insights to check and optimize product development.

To promote a brand, it is necessary to demonstrate what it is interesting to the market. It is necessary to be constantly “on everyone’s lips”, to be present in all available information channels, to penetrate into all spheres of human life. High cost of leads, availability of many competitors suggests that IT-company will not rely on standard ways of promotion, but start looking for a special approach to its target audience.

To create and maintain a brand image it is necessary to use digital technologies such as blogging, viral advertising and classic techniques of Internet marketing – SEO-promotion of the corporate website, context and media advertising, participation in offline events, increasing the expert status. In addition, it is necessary not to forget about SERM, to fight with the negative and to turn the clients’ feedback to your advantage.

The image from scratch is formed by working on reputation. For a branded query in the search engine, the company must be at the top. Word of mouth and advertising without online reputation management can stall the flow of customers. The brand should be registered on word of mouth, find satisfied customers and get their feedback, increase recognition and push companies with similar names out of search engines.

Reputation management starts before the competition! Customers should learn as much as possible positive about the IT-company, see the expert information content, try the product (solution) and leave the first reviews. In order for everything to work out successfully, you also have to:

• clearly communicate the brand message to customers, telling them about complex products in simple language;
• Involve opinion leaders within niche communities, discuss products according to a content plan drawn up in advance;
• fill out cards on geoservices and reviews.

A good reputation is reflected in search results, distrust is minimized, and brand loyalty grows.

To promote your brand, it is important to become known on the right specialized resources, get noticed at meetings, conferences, and podcasts. You can share your experience, both positive and negative, in thematic communities, to tell about your work on interesting projects. Such stories without a marketing ploy interest other participants in the IT market and create an image of an expert.

Participation in offline events allows the brand to get noticed in news feeds, videos and articles. Speeches at external thematic conferences add weight to a company and make it interesting for specialists and users. In fact, speeches become hidden advertising, especially as mitaps and conferences imply the presence of stands, which give information about the company, its developments and products.

Video clips are effective for brand promotion. Live people who work in a company and tell about new developments – an excellent marketing move. It shows the company “face”, demonstrates the level of employees. Such openness has another effect – the work in the company is perceived as an achievement, as an opportunity to improve own professional skills.

A good motivation for staff is not just a high salary and good working conditions. The steeper the work on an IT-product is, the more exorbitant the perceived level of the specialist is. This also works for the company brand.

Marketing an IT brand

The marketing strategy takes into account four factors: the product, the cost, the sales channels and the promotion methods. It is based on a value proposition, explaining how the company works, what it produces and how it can be useful. The goal of the strategy is to achieve a sustainable advantage over competitors.

Marketing seeks to promote an existing product, win market niches and expand the target audience. When creating a marketing strategy for an IT brand, you need to:

• conduct a SWOT-analysis, determine the strength and weakness of the company, the possible risks;
• define the value proposition aimed at solving the client’s problem;
• set an achievable and measurable goal;
• to understand the aspirations and pains of customers, to collect information about the target audience from different platforms;
• analyze the IT market and competitors, assess market gaps and unmet needs, promising ideas
• choose promotion methods;
• define indicators that will be used to compare and analyze the effectiveness of the brand promotion strategy.

Effective channels and tools for IT-brand promotion are video content, work with Influencers, content marketing, participation in events, use of interactives.

Without brand promotion, it is difficult to promote a complex IT product. If you use comprehensive promotion, the number of clients will only increase, and the company and its products are guaranteed to take a place at the top of search results.