Technology companies in the B2B sector, such as niche software companies, often struggle to connect with the important decision-makers on the right channels to move them into the sales funnel.

Marketing is key for any business, but niche software companies need to take an innovative approach and leverage tactics that produce results. Strategies that engage decision-makers by demonstrating an in-depth understanding of the challenges they face – while showcasing the unique solution – are vital to positive ROI.

Here are 3 simple marketing strategies that actually work for marketing “niche” software companies.

1. Tell a Great Story

People love a good story. Even if your software is robust and complex, it’s the story that matters. Use opportunities to tell a story like highlighting how the software helped a customer solve a big problem, talking about the development of a specific feature, or going “behind-the-scenes” with the tale of your company’s founding.

Keep it simple at first. You can go into specifics when you have sales calls with clients. Here are some ways you can offer stories to prospective customers.

Content Marketing

Content marketing offers endless options for how to share information about your company and product. You can use product demos and tutorials to showcase your solution, webinars and newsletters to discuss industry trends, and “how-to” style videos to help customers get the most out of your product. Animated infographics are helpful for bringing statistics to life and holding the audience’s attention.

Video Marketing

Video content is a prevalent marketing tool for virtually every industry, including technology. While you may not be able to go into detail in a short video, get creative and use fun videos to promote engaging content. Just because you’re a tech company doesn’t mean you need dry and technical videos.

Showcase Value

However you choose to tell a story, make sure it has value for your audience. Don’t just talk about your product and how great it is – put it into context to help customers see how it benefits them in the real world. All of your content, video or otherwise, should be directed toward helping your customers.

2. Leverage Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing isn’t just for B2C brands. Leaders and decision-makers often look toward other experts in the field for new technologies and reviews. As a result, more and more tech companies are partnering with influencers to increase reach and credibility.

Leveraging influencers also helps you “cut through the noise” and reach audiences that have become immune to advertising. Influencers build a following by being trustworthy, and that can help your brand reach entirely new audiences in an authentic way.

But not just any influencer will do. Here are the steps to creating a powerful influencer marketing campaign:

Identify the Target Audience

Before you can look for influencers, you have to develop buyer personas to understand your audience. You may have personas for the CEO, the IT team, the sales and marketing teams, and more. These personas all have different expectations, pain points, and goals, so you have to address them accordingly.

Find Tech Influencers

Once you have your audience, you can identify the ideal influencers for your campaign. See who your target prospects are following or what groups they belong to. Follow those influencers, share their content, and eventually, you can reach out about a brand partnership.

Position Yourself as a Thought Leader

Along with prominent influencers, you should establish yourself as an independent thought leader in your industry. Develop content like whitepapers, webinars, and blog posts to lay the foundation and build your reputation. Make sure to share your content – as well as useful content you come across – to add value and knowledge to the conversation.

Choose the Right Channels

There are so many marketing channels available, especially for digital marketing. You could quickly drain your marketing budget by trying to execute campaigns on all of them. For influencer marketing, stick to the channels that have the majority of your audience and focus your campaigns there.

Once you get some traction, you can branch out and experiment on other channels to expand your reach. But at first, it’s best to keep your efforts limited to a few channels and influencers to see how your campaigns perform.

3. Segment Messaging for Different Stakeholders

High-quality content will always perform better than content that’s churned out for the sake of it. But once you get the ball rolling, tailor your content to different buyer personas. Some of your content will resonate with some personas, but not all of it will be accepted by everyone universally.

Each Stakeholder Has Different Intrinsic Motivations

One of the challenges with B2B marketing is that there’s no impulse in the decision-making process. Usually, several stakeholders are involved in the purchase and they all have to be on board, but they all have different goals and pain points.

When you create buyer personas, you’re speaking directly to each stakeholder about their individual pains, goals, and motivations. For example, the CEO may care more about how a software solution streamlines efficiency and profitability for the company overall, while the IT leader may be more interested in how the software product minimizes IT burden. The CFO is likely going to be interested in the upfront costs, ongoing costs, and ROI.  

Target Content Based on Each Stakeholder’s Needs, Not Collectively

As mentioned, each stakeholder may have different goals in mind for software implementation. The content that you provide for each persona needs to address the interests of the specific stakeholder to show them how the solution helps with their own pain points.

If you try to produce content that appeals to all the stakeholders collectively, the message is too broad and vague. It won’t resonate with anyone.

Elevate Your Software Marketing

Marketing a niche software product or company doesn’t rely on impulse – multiple stakeholders need to buy in to close the deal. Using a combination of content, influencer marketing, and thought leadership delivers your value to the right stakeholder audiences at the right time. 

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Author Bio:
Michael Farino

Michael Farino, Founder of New Era Communications is a proven strategic marketing and communications executive with over 15 years of experience in lifestyle, entertainment and technology sectors, in both domestic and international settings. His company caters to high-tech computing hardware and software B2B and B2C companies like Hiperwall’s video wall software and others.