Welcome to ReferralHero, where referrals are the fuel that gets our engines revving. Shift into high gear and get ready to drift into marketing bliss.
You wouldn’t market a tool in the same way you market a game. The core audiences are different, and they are invested in different things. I’m not necessarily worried about how long my UNO deck will last, or how high quality its material is.
Expert marketers will be able to tailor their style to the product or service they are marketing. Software is no different.
There are specific tips and tricks of the trade that apply to software marketing alone, and today I’m going to give you a peek behind the curtain so that you can hit the mark every single time.
Types of Software Marketing Campaigns
When any marketing team sits down to create a plan, they are going to come back to a few tried and true campaign styles.
Your company has already created a fresh and innovative software. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to your marketing.
That isn’t to say that your marketing should be boring. The best part of these campaign models is that with a little finesse, you can turn them into something just as exciting as your software.
Paid Campaigns
These are the bread and butter of software marketing. Organic traction is strong and resilient, but a well planned paid campaign can bring you results fast and leave a lasting presence.
From banner ads to pay-per-click, paid campaigns will get your software in front of a lot of people. The key is making sure it stands out enough to make a conversion.
Know your target market, and focus your resources on the places they get their information. You want your message to go to someone who is interested and who can act right away.
Organic Campaigns
Organic campaigns sometimes take longer to see results, but they can give you more valuable leads overall.
Not only are their results often more relevant (because they are triggered by something that the user specifically searched for), but they can also cast a wider net.
Some examples of successful organic marketing strategies include
- Content Creation - Writing blog posts or making videos that answer common questions from your target audience can attract invested people to your website
- Influencer Marketing - Reach out to key social media influencers in your industry to help spread the word about your software
- Social Media Outreach - Spread the word about the software on social media networks and engage with potential customers
The key to organic outreach is that it takes time and patience. Your team will see more conversions if you continually create quality content that resonates with your target market and carefully engage with potential customers.
Referral Campaigns
A well structured word of mouth campaign has the potential to change the landscape of your software. People already trust their friends, and wider network more than any advertisement they might see.
Focus on creating a culture of advocacy by building a community around your software. Encourage happy customers to leave reviews and spread the word. Create useful, shareable content, and reward customers who refer their friends.
Ultimately, getting people to talk about your product is the MOST EFFECTIVE way to build visibility and trust.
Software Marketing Best Practices
Once you know what structure your campaign will take, or decide on a combination that works for your budget and team, it’s time to focus on the marketing itself.
While there’s an infinite number of factors that lead to a successful marketing campaign, these are a few points I’ve found particularly important.
Tip One: Put Effort Into Your Website
Chances are, if any of your efforts are successful you’ll be pushing people towards your website. The last thing you want is for an advertisement to work, only for a laggy or disorganised landing page to scare your lead away.
It's important that your site be
- Optimised for Mobile - This means designing for accessibility on smartphones and tablets. You never know where your audience is coming from
- Fast - 53% of visitors will leave sites that take longer than three seconds to load. Make it fast, or risk losing over half your customer base
- Easy to Use - Keep loading times, transitions, navigation, and design consistent and up to date
- Engaging - Have imagery and videos that tell your story, to better inform and engage users
Remember: First impressions count, and your website will set the tone for every interaction going forward.
Tip Two: Deliver Valuable Free Content
Offering freemium versions and free trials is a great way to drive interest in your software but it’s not the only thing you should offer.
Tiny useful pieces of your software, white papers, and exclusive how-tos can go a long way to prove your abilities and drive brand awareness. Try to think about what types of content your users would value.
Most users don’t have the same depth of understanding as you do on your product, so try to think about things you could give away to educate them.
Start-up blog posts, ebooks or mini-courses, if done correctly can be the perfect gift for potential customers, without sacrificing much of your time or resources.
Tip Three: Leverage Social Media and Influencers
Social media is a great place to find potential customers and drive traffic back to your website and software.
Every industry will have influencers that you can collaborate with. You just need to know where to look. When you conduct your market research, note where your audience spends most of their time online and see if any voices rise to the top.
Whether they create a review, a full advertisement, or simply share your software with their followers to get the word out there and drive more exposure, utilising their influence can cut your marketing costs and give you a greater return on investment.
Tip Four: Diversify Your Marketing Strategy
Chances are, you aren't going to get your perfect campaign the first time. It's important to dive into data and try out different approaches.
Try experimenting and mixing up your campaigns. Use a combination of ads, influencers, organic search, content marketing, and more. This will both help you reach more potential customers and let you know which campaigns are most effective.
Don't forget to track your data so you can see which is most successful and cost-effective. Doing this can help you determine which techniques to continue using and which ones to kick to the curb.
Designing A Software Marketing Funnel
There are several steps that a potential customer will take before they finally invest in your software. A savvy marketing team will have strategies in place across each level of this “funnel”.
Awareness
This phase is also known as first contact. There are so many ways that people can be introduced to your software for the very first time, and in an ideal world you would have control over those first impressions.
There’s a big focus on education at this stage, as they may not be aware of the problem your software solves.
Some great ways to take control of this stage include
- Creating Helpful Content - Keeping a blog or video series that answers the questions your future users are likely searching for can help boost your discoverability
- Social Media Ads - Targeting your customers while they scroll can be effective, Get creative: optimise for brand awareness, video views, or lead generation
- Partner with influencers - Never underestimate the power of referral. Getting an influencer in your software’s niche to promote your software will help with both trust and credibility
Ideally, you'll have quick and easy channels available for people to move on to the next phase. Once you get the ball rolling, the last thing you want is to lose momentum.
Interest
By this point, you're cooking with oil. Users in this stage know that they're on the hunt for a software, all you need to do is convince them that yours is the right fit.
This is a great time to break out the trusty email campaign, just so long as you keep it fresh and engaging. If your content borders on spam, you'll chase away any hope of a conversion.
You can also brainstorm ways to build up social capital. This is where testimonies, reviews, and even referrals can make all the difference.
If people see that everyone else really loves what your software can do, they'll be primed and ready to make the jump.
Action
Once the time comes to take action, you want users to feel safe and valued on their journey. If that's not the case, your efforts will have been in vain.
This is the perfect time to deploy a free trial or a product demo, because it shows people exactly what they’re missing if they wait any longer.
The Bottom Line
Getting your software in front of the right people at the right time is the biggest factor in its success. Knowing how to craft the perfect marketing strategy and guide your users through the conversion funnel can make all the difference.
Work with your team to understand what gets your target users excited, and find as many ways to connect with them as possible. This will take effort, but with patience and a little bit of luck, your software will be in the hands of those who need it most before you can say Uno!
.png)
