How to Market a Software Development Company

If I were asked to develop a marketing strategy for software development companies from scratch right now, where would I start? With the so-called commercial intelligence.

Commercial intelligence is the process of gathering, analyzing and transforming into insights (steps to implement) information on which the growth strategy will be based. Core elements of commercial intelligence are audit (financial, marketing and sales performance and customer analysis, as well as product portfolio analysis and resource analysis) plus solution.

ANALYSIS

1. Financial Data Analysis

• What metrics to analyze? ROMI, Profit Margins, Customer Lifetime Value
• What answers to look for?
  – What is the correlation between marketing spending and revenue growth? Negative? Resources are used inefficiently.
  – What is the correlation between marketing spending and customer lifetime value? Negative? There is the issue with customer retention.

2. Recent Performance Data Analysis

• What metrics to analyze? Website Traffic, Conversion Rate, Customer Journey Paths, Sales Data
• What answers to look for?
  – What are the trends in performance metrics? Are there any drops? Drops in website traffic → reduced brand visibility → lower brand competitiveness.
  – With which segments does the company work? (segmentation analysis)
  – What are the trends with these segments? Are they still with the company or not (means, shifting to competitors!)?

3. Customer Behavior Analysis

• What to analyze? Customer experience, Customer values
  What answers to look for?
  – Is customer experience (interaction with the brand) optimized at each stage of the buyer journey for each segment according to their expectations? If the TARGETED customer segment loves something (mobile access, trusts influencers, values products with sustainability commitment, etc.), does the brand delivers this experience consistently? If not, what about competitors? Do they?

4. Product Portfolio Analysis (vs Competitors)

• What to analyze? Best-selling products.
• What answers to look for?
  – Are there any seasonal trends?
  – Does the service or product have enough variations? What about competitors? Do their products have enough variations?
  – Does the service or product receive frequent updates that are in demand? What about competitors? Do they provide updates more frequently?
  – Does the service or product align with trends in consumer values (like ethical production, etc.?). What about competitors?

5. Resource Audit

What to analyze? Financial, Human, and Technological assets.
What answers to look for?
-Are there underutilized assets?
—MARKETING TECHNOLOGY. Are existing automation tools utilized to their fullest potential?
—HUMAN SKILLS. Are there skills among team members that are not being leveraged as effectively as they could be?

SOLUTION

1. Boosting Customer Engagement with Testing and Digital Analytics

1.1. Website optimization

• What is the goal? The highest conversion rates of design elements
• What is the strategy for this? A/B (Version A vs. Version B) and Multivariate testing (multiple elements simultaneously) to find the most effective DESIGN elements that optimize the conversion rate to the fullest
• What to do exactly? Test CTA button in different shapes and colors (rounded vs square, blue vs red), experiment with displaying customer reviews either below the product description or as a pop-up, experiment with variations in product image sizes (larger-smaller, etc.), experiment with call-to-action button text and experiment with the position of promotional banners (above the product title vs something else).

1.2. Social media campaigns optimization

• What is the goal? The highest-performing type of media (owned, earned, paid), marketing campaigns and the best-performing content format within it.
• What is the strategy for this? A/B testing to what resonates best with target segment.
• What to do exactly? Test, for example, an influencer marketing campaign (vs. another strategy), and then test what works best—for example, micro-influencers (high engagement) vs. macro-influencers (large audience). Also, test content style: video content vs. static images.

2. Resource Optimization

• What is the goal? Utilize existing resources to the maximum extend possible and allocate more resources where the ROMI is the highest.
• What to do exactly?
  – Allocate resources to an omnichannel strategy if it is absent: online (social media, website, etc.) and, if necessary, offline (events) channels to create a seamless customer experience.
  – Invest in tools (AI?) that allow real-time customer insights if such tools are not yet implemented to react swiftly to market changes.

3. Budget Optimization

• What is the goal? Implement data-driven budget adjustments
• What to do exactly?
  1 Add a set-aside (earmarked) flexible component to the marketing budget to adjust dynamically based on channels effectiveness (highest ROMI).
  2. Implement rolling forecast approach to budget planning (adjust budget monthly based on latest campaign performance) to make it responsive to real-time market conditions
  3. Implement scenario planning: best-case (viral marketing success, increase spending based on results), baseline (new product launches by competitors, focus on primary channels), worst-case (economic downturns, focus on retention).
  4. Use predictive techniques: time series analysis (how variable “Y” changed over time), and regression analysis (how variables “X” or “Z” influence variable “Y”)

4. Business Case Development

• What is the goal? To gain internal buy-in for increased marketing spend.
• What is the strategy for this? Cost-benefit analysis plus ROMI justification.
• What to do exactly?
  1. Name the initiative (mobile optimization, new product line, etc.). Show how it aligns with customer behavior trends and LTV. Compare costs of each to returns
  3. Predict ROMI: investing in the initiative =>% increase conversion rate for targeted segment for which this initiative critical => % increase revenue.

5. Critical success factors implementation

• What is the goal? Just control each strategic point.
• What is the strategy for this? Establish KPIs, Set Milestones for progress toward KPIs, Use Visual timeline in project management tool for each activity, Assign the Owner to each Activity.
• What to do exactly?
  1. Establish KPIs. Expected conversion rates, social media engagement rate (interaction vs rich), revenue growth from marketed products
  2. Set Milestones for progress toward KPIs. For example, achieve a 10% increase in traffic within 3 months. Adjust activities (not milestones) to meet those milestones more effectively based on performance.
  3. Project management.
  – Map out key marketing activities. Use Project management tools for this.
  – Assign the Owner to each Activity.
  – Report to the Marketing, Sales, and Financial teams regularly based on progress in activities

EXPECTED RESULTS

• % increase in conversions from a segment after optimization their customer experience
• % increase in sales from a new product with features that align with a segment‘s values
• % improved ROMI due to the smart resource allocation to high-performing channels