Custom Software Development
No doubt, the demand for custom software development is on the rise.
In fact, the custom software development services market was worth US$ 21.96 billion in 2021 and is likely to grow at a CAGR of 8.2% over the forecast period.
Due to this rapid growth of the industry, the demand for skilled software developers having a certificate in software development is also growing.
If you are a custom software development company, then this guide will help you understand how you can market your software.
But before jumping onto knowing the top methods to market your custom software, let’s first understand software marketing and the problems you are likely to see while marketing software.
Software Marketing
Software marketing requires creativity as sometimes it becomes difficult to create content around software and find the right slogans.
Thus, in software marketing, three aspects are important to understand:
- Advertising content: why the audience should use your software and how it is different from others in the market.
- Means of communication: use different ways of promoting your software, such as video, infographics, e-books, and presentations.
- Distribution channel: tools to pass the content to end-users.
Challenges While Marketing Software
Here are 3 major challenges:
- You have to compete with software products that are easily available on the internet.
- It is easy to prepare a clone script of your software.
- It is difficult to promote your software on every website as many websites pose restrictions on software promotional content.
Now let’s understand the top five ways to market your custom software.
5 Top Methods to Market Your Custom Software
Here are the best five methods:
1. SEO
An effective SEO strategy can drastically increase organic visitors to your website. This further helps to convert those visitors into leads.
Therefore, it is highly recommended to give enough time to improve your SEO. While creating the SEO strategy focus on:
- Ensure that your website can be found by search engines.
- Ensure your website does not take time to load. It is an important factor in improving your ranking on search engines.
- Make your website mobile-friendly.
- Have a reliable and updated sitemap and site structure on your website.
- Pick the right and relevant keywords for your content. You can use tools, such as Ubersuggest and Semrush.
- Try to include keywords in your URL.
- Write content for the correct search intent.
- Blog on various popular websites and receive backlinks to your product page.
- Finally, publish your content on a regular basis.
For example, the CEO of Buffer, which is a social media management software, wrote around 150 guest posts to scale from 0 to 100,000 customers in just nine months.
2. Video Marketing as a Custom Software Solution
Video marketing is one of the most effective ways to spread awareness about your custom software as it catches a user’s attention in the shortest time span.
You can create video advertisements as well as explainer videos.
For creating video advertisements, there is no other program better than FlexClip online video maker.
In explainer videos, you can show how your software can be used by your audience, how it will make your clients’ lives easier, and how it will improve their working process.
In addition, you can also create video tutorials and guides, such as ‘How to’ tutorials and ‘Best practices’ guides. Try to create informative and problem-solving content through your videos.
You can also create videos in which creators share their experiences instead of simply talking about the product.
Thus, create videos that specifically stick to the features instead of blatant exaggeration of the product.
Here is an example of Growcer, which is a grocery delivery app. They created a video advertisement of their app on YouTube and described the features.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram can be used to market custom software.
You can include types of posts that are relevant, such as:
- Industrial news
- Informational articles
- How-to-tips
- Infographics
- Customer experience
You can also write tech-related articles or posts on LinkedIn, Reddit, and Medium.
Here is an example: QuickBooks, which is American accounting software, keeps its audience updated about the software by using social media platforms.
4. Paid Media Marketing
PPC ads on search engines have the potential to take your sales off the chart.
Here are the reasons why:
- You can bid for your direct competitor’s keywords.
- Allows you to select a specific demographic population.
- You can easily retarget the consumers who visited your website but did not convert.
- Give you access to analytical tools, such as Performance, Keywords, and Reach Planner.
- Allows you to refine your keywords.
In addition, you need to ensure that you write quality advertisements that persuade the reader. You also need to make sure that you are using exact match keywords for driving sales.
5. Influencer Marketing
Marketing is becoming competitive day by day. Hence, if you want to be heard, find the right voice. It means, collaborating with tech influencers related to your field.
Influencers help create buzzwords, and invent terminologies and thus, enable you to effectively engage with your audience.
Here are the types of tech influencers who you can collaborate with:
- Analyst firms.
- Innovators and early adopters.
- Independent analysts.
- Tech bloggers and authors.
- Trade press.
- Leading IT vendors.
But before you reach the influencers, ensure that you are clear about your objectives and the target audience that you want to reach. Moreover, understand their medium and plan and whether it is in line with your requirements.
Final Thoughts
Different mediums can be used to market your custom software, such as SEO, paid marketing, influencer marketing, or social media marketing. However, the focus must be on highlighting your company’s unique solution to a pain point through these top marketing methods.
The key to standing out from the crowd in the market is to know your customers’ problems and use that to guide your overall product development and branding message.
