In It to Win It: Here’s 5 Things That Every IT Marketing Company Should Know to Be Successful
As an IT marketing company, you know that how you connect with your customers online makes a huge difference.
You know that you need to come up with an effective marketing strategy, but you’re just not sure how to make that happen. After all, with so much competition out there, it can sometimes feel overwhelming.
Still, you know you have the quality of service and commitment to excellence in IT marketing that would make even the toughest and most demanding client happy.
In this post, we’re sharing some of the most effective IT marketing strategies that will help you to take your company where you’ve always dreamed it could go.
Read on to learn how to get the kind of attention you deserve, from the clients you’ve been waiting to work with.
1. Local Doesn’t Mean What It Used To
We know that you’ve worked hard to create a strong local marketing strategy for your IT company.
But, as with any technology marketing trend, location-based marketing is almost constantly in flux.
You may have heard of the concept of “hyperlocal marketing,” but you still have questions about what exactly that means.
As the name implies, hyperlocal marketing is about getting as specific as possible — we’re talking within a mile or so — of where a potential customer is currently located.
This means your keyword phrases will need a bit of a makeover. Instead of a keyword phrase like, “best IT services New York,” you need to switch to things like, “IT services upper west side” or “IT services near Empire State building.”
So, instead of referencing just your city or state in your location-based keyword phrases? Make sure that you focus on talking about the name of your street, your neighborhood, and even landmarks and tourist attractions within your service area.
Remember that, as consumers have more options when it comes to IT service providers, location plays a huge role in their final decision. They’re often looking for the company that’s closest to their company, which is what makes hyperlocal marketing so important.
You should also attempt to hyperlocalize your content.
For example, when you’re creating a blog post, why not do a write-up of a local IT conference, a volunteer cleanup day at a local park, or another community event?
You could even go live (more on that later) at a local music festival.
It’s not just about gaming the system when it comes to local SEO.
Hyperlocalization proves to your target market that you keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in your local community.
2. Offering a Variety of Services Is Key
Another important thing that you need to take into consideration when creating a solid IT marketing plan?
Make sure that you offer as many different services as you can.
After all, you want your market to know you can help them with social media, blogging and content creation, web design, and much more.
For example, Be Structured Technology Group offers lots of different solutions that use a variety of technology in marketing.
Follow their lead and offer services like email campaign management, cloud-based services, managed hosting, and of course, data backup.
The truth is that the more you can pitch yourself as a “one-stop-shopping” place for a business to get all of their IT needs taken care of, the more successful you’ll be.
Of course, you want to ensure that you’re only offering services that you have experience with, and the right people on staff to make it happen.
While your ultimate end goal should be to expand the types of services you offer to consumers, there’s absolutely nothing wrong by starting out serving a smaller niche market.
3. Take Your Reputation Management Seriously
You know that your company’s reputation can make or break your success in the IT marketing business.
The problem?
Right now, you feel like you don’t have any sort of a reputation at all! You need an effective way to get the word out to your target market about your services.
One of the best ways to make sure you’re building up a brand reputation is by claiming your listing on review sites and apps.
But especially if you’re a smaller and newer IT marketing company, a few bad reviews can cause serious damage to your reputation.
You need to make sure that you get out ahead of the bad press that a few unhappy customers can often bring.
One way to do just that?
Make sure that you read your company’s review page every day, or at least set up an alert that lets you know when someone has posted a new review to your page.
You need to respond to every review that you can, whether it’s positive or negative. Doing so proves to your market that you care about the satisfaction and opinions of your clients and that you’re always looking for ways to improve your business.
Of course, it’s important to keep your cool.
Never lash out or get defensive when it comes to negative reviews. Instead, thank them for the feedback, and let them know that you’re planning on following up with them in a private message.
4. Re-Marketing is Non-Negotiable
The concept of re-marketing has quickly emerged as one of the most important marketing strategies of the moment.
In brief, re-marketing is the concept of re-connecting with leads that viewed your website and clicked through your services list, but for whatever reason, never set up an appointment or made a purchase.
By having ads for your IT marketing company show up in their social media feeds, you send a gentle “nudge” to your target market to complete their transaction or send you a message.
The best marketing technology companies understand that re-marketing is non-negotiable if they want to stay ahead of their competitors.
In fact, studies have found that a whopping 98% of consumers don’t end up buying anything at all the first time they visit your site. So, if you don’t take re-marketing opportunities, you’ll only make about two percent of the sales you could be.
Of course, we understand that you might have concerns about whether your leads could see re-targeting as “hounding” them, or even as an invasion of privacy.
The good news is that only around 11% of shoppers say they’re annoyed by re-targeting — meaning that most would prioritize getting a good deal.
In other words?
Re-targeting is definitely worth the (negligible) risk.
5. When in Doubt, Go Live
Over 90% of consumers say that watching a video about a product or service has helped them to decide whether or not they want to do business with a company.
But the truth is that, just as with location-based marketing, the world of video marketing has changed drastically since its inception.
This is partially because YouTube is now the second biggest search engine in the world, meaning that videos about technology marketing services need to be indexed for SEO.
However, the types of videos that people are the most likely to watch have also changed. In other words? That quick tutorial video or 15-second ad about your IT marketing firm is no longer enough.
Instead, we suggest that you embrace live videos and livestreaming.
This promotes an enormous sense of trust between yourself and your consumers, as it shows that you’re comfortable speaking off the cuff. Live video also allows your leads to get answers to their questions in real time and promotes direct interaction between your company and your target market.
This is an excellent way to make people who are on the fence about your IT company convert into customers. Plus, going live is an excellent brand-building strategy.
You can hype up your live video on your social media accounts, send out email reminders, and even have your employees wear branded clothing while they chat.
After the video is done, you can save it and optimize it for SEO. This way, even those that missed the livestream can watch it — and it’s not a “one-shot” marketing tactic for your IT firm.
Make Your IT Marketing a Success with These Tips
We hope that this post has inspired you to take your IT marketing company to the next level by understanding the best ways to connect with consumers.
Remember to embrace video marketing, offer as many different services as you can, and get serious when it comes to reputation management.
Of course, there are countless other ways to improve your SEO score, increase your conversions, and make genuine connections with your target market.
When you’re ready to learn more about how to make all that and more happen, keep checking back with our blog for the latest marketing tips and tricks you need.