IT Marketing: A Complete Guide to Marketing for IT Companies in 2024

For the past two years, the technology industry made headlines for mass job cuts. Combine overhiring during the pandemic with an economic downturn and the layoffs aren’t unexpected. 

Shrinking teams are also often accompanied by a change in mindset. Not only are companies no longer actively growing the size of their teams, but growing their online presence also takes a back seat. 

However, it’s during times like these that marketing plays even a more important role. A solid IT marketing plan will help you to get back on track. Whether you’re running a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company or selling IT services like network security, here are over 10 IT marketing strategies to help secure your future again.  

 

Why Your IT Company Absolutely Needs Digital Marketing

According to the International Trade Administration, the global information technology market is valued at $5 trillion. The United States boasts the biggest slice of the pie, accounting for a third of the market. 

The information technology (IT) market industry accounts for $1.9 trillion of US value-added GDP (10+% of the national economy) and over 12 million jobs.

While the market is massive, so too is the competition. According to CompTIA, there are over half a million software and IT services companies in the US alone. 

Not only do you need to compete against hundreds of thousands of other companies, but you also need to find a way to explain a complex technology product in a way that’s easy to understand. It requires a different skill set than advertising a visually striking product like a pair of shoes. Hence, the reason to work with a technology marketing agency that understands the jargon. 

With a team of specialized IT marketers, you’ll also be able to:

• Build a Credible Brand: When you’re marketing an IT solution, brand credibility is crucial. You need to communicate the value of your product or services while at the same time establishing yourself as a thought leader. 
• Attract More Qualified Leads: Using data-driven optimization and better targeting, IT marketing agencies can attract high-value leads. 
• Improve Your Return on Investment (ROI): IT marketing agencies use advanced tools to track the success of marketing campaigns. Then, by implementing data-driven optimization, they can reduce customer acquisition costs and increase customer lifetime value.

Key Features of IT Marketing

Effective IT marketing uses a wide range of marketing strategies and activities to sell their services and ideally build long-term client relationships. 

Your business website will be one of the key features of your marketing strategy. For an IT company, a well-designed, mobile-friendly, secure website is even more crucial as clients will use this to base their software or technology services on. Basically, it serves as proof that you’re at the forefront of digital technology. 

IT marketing strategies will also rely heavily on content marketing. Buying an IT product or subscribing for a monthly software service calls for more research than purchasing one-off trending products like a cellphone cover. Customers choose to be more informed. From a two-hour morning webinar to a short FAQ section, there are various types of content that you need to include in your IT marketing strategy.                                                                                            

How to Create an Effective Marketing Strategy for IT Companies

• Identify your marketing goals: Not every marketing activity needs to be done with the goal of adding a new client to your list. In fact, any B2B technology marketing agency will tell you that the B2B marketing funnel requires more patience. Compared to selling directly to consumers, it takes more time. You’ll first need to boost your online presence so that you can attract more leads. Only then will you be able to start educating potential clients about your services. As such, you can have many different marketing goals. One campaign can focus on lead generation, while another one’s goal will be to convert leads into freemium users, for example.   
• Understand your clients and their needs: Aside from identifying your typical client’s demographics and their purchasing habits, you also want to find out more about their pain points. Social media listening tools and surveys can be used very effectively to answer these types of questions. 
• Create a roadmap and content calendar: Once you know what your IT marketing team must achieve, you can create a strategic plan for how you’ll go about reaching those goals. Be sure to include timelines so that your IT marketers can plan accordingly. Creating a content calendar can be very effective for plotting activities. 
• Track the results and optimize: It’s too late to start measuring results after your campaign has concluded. For example, if you’ll be running paid ads (a key component of IT marketing strategies), this becomes even more essential. By keeping your finger on the pulse during the campaign, you can switch to another channel, saving money and time. This, though, doesn’t replace the need to measure the results after a campaign too. 

Best Marketing Tactics for IT Companies

Utilize SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) remains a key marketing strategy for any industry. It requires a balanced approach — you need to focus on offsite as well as onsite SEO. 

Offsite SEO focuses on securing high-quality backlinks. Aside from helping your website to climb the search engine rankings, it’s also crucial for establishing yourself as an authority in your field and a credible source. This is foundational to successful IT marketing as you’ll see. 

To help you with your offsite SEO efforts, consider trying your hand at guest posting. Identify credible blogs in your niche and reach out to them to offer a guest post in return for a backlink. 

Onsite SEO involves conducting thorough keyword research to identify the terms and phrases that your potential clients are using to search for IT solutions. By optimizing your website content, blog articles, and case studies with these keywords, you can position your services at the top of the search engine results, making it easier for your target audience to find you.

Landing pages, in particular, can help tremendously for SaaS SEO which requires that you create content around specific use cases and features. You can, for example, create a targeted landing page for each of your main services or features. This traffic can then be strategically redirected to specific pages on your website. 

Invest in Content Marketing

Content marketing goes hand in hand with SEO. To create high-quality backlinks, you might have to dabble in the art of guest blogging, for example.  

In the same breath, content marketing is so much more than SEO as it’s not limited to long-form blog posts or keyword-enriched website content. It also includes content pieces like email newsletters, infographics, short, social media posts, and bite-sized videos.  

Infographics in particular can be used very effectively. Aside from the fact that we typically respond to visuals better, visuals can also help to explain technical aspects much easier, solving one of the major challenges linked to marketing for software companies. 

The emphasis is on value. By producing informative and insightful content — such as how-to guides, blog posts on industry trends, informative videos, whitepapers, industry studies, and case studies — IT companies can establish themselves as thought leaders in their field. This not only builds trust with current and prospective clients but also enhances brand visibility and credibility online. When IT firms share their expertise in a way that adds real value, they can attract a more engaged audience, generate quality leads, and ultimately convert those leads into loyal customers easier.

That being said, it’s not about you. The trick is to answer your target audience’s questions, requiring that you identify the user intent (also called search intent) behind the keywords. 

Basically, why is the potential client Googling that search query? Is it to find more information about an IT service like security or are they ready to take a specific action like booking a consultation. You should create a wide range of content pieces so that you can address the different reasons why clients will need Google’s help.    

Valuable content pieces like how-to guides are also great lead magnets. As touched upon earlier, the challenge, though, is that your audience is typically CEOs who aren’t always familiar with the nature of technical services. This means that you’ll need to ensure you find a way to explain the technical nature of your services so that they are easy to understand. 

If you think that it sounds like a lot of work, you’re right. That’s why companies generally have a dedicated content marketing team or outsource it to a software marketing agency that includes content marketing in their list of services.  

That said, it’s also about working smarter. You can repurpose your content so that you can grow your reach on multiple channels. That’s why it’s so essential to choose an agency that’s versed in the nuances of a variety of platforms. Also, it is a good idea to contact an outsource seo agency and optimize your website with content for search engines.

Engage in Social Media Activity

For social media marketing, you’ll need to use your company’s profile as well as those of key players within your company. B2B companies, in particular, find that individual accounts gain more traction. 

Unlike content marketing, where you’ll create an array of pieces, social media marketing requires a more targeted strategy. Identify the key platforms that your target audience use and focus only on those. 

In the case of social media marketing for IT services, you’ll find that LinkedIn and X (formerly called Twitter) will probably be the best place to start. Educational pieces like case studies and white papers can be shared on LinkedIn, for example, to educate your audience about IT services. 

X’s fast-paced nature makes it ideal for sharing industry news, updates about IT services, quick tips or tech insights. Hosting chats using X Spaces on trending topics in the IT industry can further engage the community. 

In addition to sharing content, you can also engage in LinkedIn groups and participate in industry-related discussions. It might not earn you a backlink, but it can also elevate your brand’s voice as a thought leader. 

However, guard against creating the impression that you’re only engaging to sell. Your interactions should be to add value and not to increase your revenue.  

Invest in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

SEO is a vital long-term strategy, but it takes time to build organic search visibility. PPC advertising, in contrast, offers instant visibility. It also simplifies targeting and tracking, increasing the effectiveness of your paid campaigns but at the same time giving you the info to prove it. Campaigns can be started, paused, or adjusted at a moment’s notice, allowing IT companies to respond to changes in their own product offerings or market trends. 

What’s more, the insights gained from PPC keyword performance can inform your SEO and content marketing strategies. You can use this data to refine content creation and optimization efforts for better organic search visibility too.

That being said, compared to other industries, the tech industry’s average conversion rate for Google Ads is lower, while the cost per click is also quite high. According to WordStream, the average cost per click (CPC) for the tech industry is $3.80. It’s almost $1 higher than the average cost per click across all industries. 

Source: https://www.wordstream.com/

Develop Email Marketing

One of the benefits of throwing email marketing into the mix is that it lets you directly communicate with your audience, bypassing the noise of crowded social media channels where you need to plan around algorithms. What’s more, personalization, which is easily achievable with email marketing through segmentation and targeted content, significantly increases engagement rates.

As such, it’s a great way to market to previous clients. A quarterly email newsletter will remind them of the value that you’ve offered. This way, if they need IT services again, your company will be one of the firsts they think of.

It’s also a way to put specials or new services in front of them. The key is maintaining a balance between providing value and not overwhelming your subscribers with sales-driven content. 

Use Video Marketing

Another way to simplify complex emerging technologies is via video. Explainer videos can make great marketing assets. When creating your product marketing strategy, you can create a series of product demo videos to create product awareness and communicate your unique selling proposition (USP). 

You can also reach out to clients and ask them if they would be willing to record a video testimonial. In fact, according to statistics, testimonial videos are the most widely used for marketing purposes. Nearly 40% of marketers use them. 

Source: https://www.statista.com

Implement Retargeting

Basically, retargeting refers to displaying ads to leads in your database and users who have already shown interest by, for example, browsing your website. While 75% of consumers know what a retargeting ad looks like, about half are neutral or only somewhat concerned. 

To implement retargeting successfully, you need to target users based on specific actions they’ve taken on your website. For example, in the case of IT marketing, it could mean creating an ad that zooms in on a specific IT service like cloud storage and displaying it to website visitors interested in upgrading their storage or offering discounted annual pricing to freemium users. 

Offer Trials and Free Plans

If you’re developing a SaaS marketing strategy, offering a trial period and/or free plan is one of the most effective ways to grow leads. Most software firms offer some form of trial. These are typically for 14 days. However, it can range anywhere between seven days right up to 30 days, if you’re feeling particularly generous. 

A free trial becomes an effective lead magnet that a SaaS marketing agency can use to grow qualified leads. What’s more, leads can also experience your product’s capabilities first hand, helping them to get a real feel for what you can offer and how it can fit into their daily routine. 

Another way that you can grow leads and product familiarity is by offering a free plan. Unlike trials, free plans typically limit the features users can try out. While this approach can also be used effectively in your IT marketing strategy, the challenge becomes to turn freemium users into paid subscribers. In fact, according to First Page Sage, the conversion rate for turning freemium users into paid subscribers is less than 3%. 

You don’t necessarily need to choose between offering a trial or free plan. Software companies will often structure their pricing in such a way that users first experience the limited-time trial for their top-tier plans. 

When going this route, you have the option of requiring users to share their payment details beforehand and automatically convert them to paid subscribers at the end of the trial. The benefit of using this opt-out trial method is that it has a very high trial-to-paid subscription conversion rate. Users often forget to cancel their trial, which means that – by default – they become paid subscribers. To avoid that it blows up in your face, you’ll need to ensure that you clearly communicate the Ts and Cs as well as send them a reminder email about their trial set to expire in a couple of days. 

The issue with this approach, though, is that you have a much harder time getting visitors actually to sign up for the trial. If you’re new in the IT market, it’s better to go the opt-in route where credit card payment details don’t have to be shared.  

Either way, encouraging users first to sign up for a trial works best. If you do it the other way around and let users first sign up for the free plan, they might never know what they’re missing out on. You run the risk that a huge percentage of users will find that the free features work just fine. 

First Page Sage reveals that the trial-to-paid conversion rate is generally higher than the conversion rate for turning freemium users into paid subscribers: 

The trial-to-paid conversion rate for cybersecurity, edtech, proptech, and medtech range between 21.9% and 24.8%.

As marketing a SaaS product or service requires a different approach than IT marketing for one-off services, it’s best to work with a SaaS marketing agency that will help you navigate these finer details. 

Host Webinars and Online Events

Hosting webinars from time to time is a great way to boost your online presence. The content should be educational and exciting at the same time. To help with the latter, try to make it interactive. 

In addition to webinars, you can also host other types of online events like podcasts. It requires less planning than a webinar and is more interactive — a double win.  

If the idea of playing host sounds like too much work, see if there’s a podcast or other type of online event looking for guest speakers. You don’t necessarily need to create your own platform to share your thought leadership. 

Webinars and online events are there to market your IT product or services, but in order for that to happen, you’ll need to market these events actively beforehand too. This involves:

• Sending direct invites to target audience members
• Following up with emails to remind them of the event and build excitement
• Creating an optimized landing page
• Leveraging the networks of your speakers or partnering with influencers

One of the big benefits of hosting these types of events is that you can also share a recording afterwards. This way, you can continue to reach your target audience after the actual event. 

Collaborate with Influencers

Influencer marketing isn’t just limited to brands selling beauty products and kitchen gadgets. With the right IT marketing strategy and influencers, the IT industry can also use it to put their product or service in front of their target audience. 

In fact, according to Influencer Marketing Hub’s The State of Influencer Marketing 2024 Benchmark Report, over 85% of the 3,000+ brands that they interviewed plan to dedicate a budget to influencer marketing specifically in 2024.

Further influencer marketing research results reveal: 

59.4% plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2024.

When creating your strategy, ensure to include YouTube in the mix. According to a report looking at the consumer tech industry, it has the highest number of tech influencers. Here, the influencers also boast the biggest followings with the highest number of engagements, making it well suited for IT marketing.   

As for the type of content that you can create, you can, for example, partner with influencers to create user-generated reviews. They can, for instance, compare two technology firms (one of which is yours). If you offer a free trial or plan, influencers can also encourage their followers to sign up and post their own reviews. This way, you can get even more user-generated content which can be used as social proof. 

Source: https://influencermarketinghub.com

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for IT Marketing

There are dozens of KPIs that marketing teams use to track the efficiency of their campaigns. In the case of IT marketing, KPIs like average order value (AOV) and cart abandonment rate will offer no value. Instead IT marketers will look at numbers like:

• Customer leads
• Cost per lead
• Conversion rate
• Customer lifetime value

Customer lifetime value, in particular, is an essential KPI for IT marketing. The premise of SaaS marketing is to convert freemium users into paid subscribers and then encourage subscribers to renew their subscriptions. To know if you’re succeeding, you want to track the average revenue that you can generate over their entire lifetime of their account. 

Then, to measure, the efforts of SEO efforts specifically, ensure that you track:

• Keyword rankings
• Backlinks
• Organic sessions

And, if you’re going to leverage paid ads, you’ll want to track the return on advertising spend (ROAS) and cost per acquisition (CAC). As mentioned earlier, the average cost per click for IT marketing is higher than average and so you’ll want to keep a close eye on how much these ads are costing you. 

Maximize Your Potential in the IT Sector with NetShopping

Effective marketing for IT companies takes a comprehensive approach. It combines a handful of strategies like SEO, content marketing, and paid ads. As you’re mostly targeting C-suite executives, it becomes critical that whichever type of content you create portrays you as a thought leader in your field. 

Another key goal for your IT marketing strategy is to use formats like video strategically to break down the complex features of IT services and products in a way that’s easy to digest and understand. 

That said, you’re not limited to product demos. User-generated reviews and client testimonials can be used effectively to communicate the value that you have to offer in a tone that others will understand. 

The team at NetShopping is experienced in all the services needed to create an effective IT marketing strategy. We’re completely comfortable to take a multi-channel approach that leverages multiple strategies including more traditional methods like SEO as well as less conventional approaches like influencer marketing.