How to Market Your IT Start-Up

Most IT start-ups struggle to develop a marketing strategy that will deliver quick results but won’t cost a fortune. This is a challenging task, which requires an implementation of the brand’s new promotional ideas.

There are, however, some basic approaches that will help companies like yours land their first clients without spending through the roof. Let’s check out how some of these tried-and-true methods work in practice.

Offer Valuable Perks

The hardest part of getting your start-up off the ground is landing your very first clients, so at first, you should be ready to work for free. Until your company has developed a solid reputation in the business world, target audiences can’t trust your services.

To break the ice, try providing your prospective clients with free trials. Also, you might launch a promotional offer – a 6-month premium account for the first 50 customers, for example. You may not earn money immediately, but you will get something potentially more valuable – a great reputation, brand loyalty and positive reviews, all of which will attract new clients.

Optimize Your Website

A website of your IT start-up is a visiting card, which should make an impression on visitors. You must ensure that all textual and visual content is relevant and useful for your target audience so that people won’t leave your webpage too soon.

If you think your site currently lacks high-quality content to draw in potential customers, you should address the problem. You could create a blog and regularly publish fresh articles. The more posts you write containing interesting and relevant content, the more real customers you will get.

While composing fascinating texts for your target audience, keep in mind that your content should also meet SEO requirements. It’s also important to create highly readable text: keep sentences and paragraphs short, don’t overuse the passive voice, choose adequate keywords and write proper meta descriptions. If you customize every page, you will significantly improve your website’s ranking.

If you want to market your IT start-up effectively, don’t hesitate to utilize the most advanced tools and services:

• FlashEssay. This company provides editing and proofreading services, which you can use to polish web content and make it error-free.
• Yoast. This is one of the most popular WordPress plugins, which is responsible for accurate search engine optimization. It has a user-friendly interface, which allows separate editing for every page.
• HotEssayService. You can use this service when you need to optimize existing content for SEO. Professional writers will create texts according to the absolute rules of readability.
• Google Analytics. When you launch a website, you should set specific goals you would like to reach. Use this platform to track progress and identify any issues.

Use Influencer Marketing

One of your primary tasks is to build credibility online, and you can speed up the process with the help of niche influencers. Target audiences trust niche influencers, so one recommendation from a highly influential person can bring you more customers than any paid advertising campaign.

Digital influencers can also help you reach editors of such reputable sources as Mashable and TheNextWeb. By suggesting articles, you can, in turn, share information about your new service. There is no doubt that publications on these popular platforms will significantly increase the reach of their target audience.

Use Social Media

Today, social media is one of the best marketing instruments, which companies can use to reach their target audience. We cannot live without our smartphones, Wi-Fi and social networks, which means we are always on the lookout for new and interesting content. For this reason, IT start-ups should develop a killer social media strategy, which will create online buzz and attract attention to their product.

Every Facebook post or tweet or Instagram post should be 100% unique and authentic. Your mission is to create valuable content for users to comment on and share. There are a lot of helpful tools which will help you market your company on social networks in an effective way:

• SupremeDissertations. Check out this service if you want to hire professional copywriters for social media content. They will help your IT start-up by creating regular posts.
• Upwork. If you are looking for an SMM guru, you can use this popular platform to find a talented freelancer.
• Buffer. This service automates the scheduling and publishing of all kinds of content. Appropriate timing significantly drives engagement, so make sure you post new content during the peaks of user activity.
• Keyhole. This tool helps marketers track trending hashtags and keywords, collect user-generated content and find the industry-related digital influencers. Moreover, it’s a handy tool when it comes to analysis of a campaign’s reach and impressions.

Build a Network

If you want to help people get to know your start-up, you should be an active participant within the tech community. It’s important to be passionate about networking by attending high-profile IT events. Being an invited speaker at a global conference or a generous guest at a small charity party are different ways of building your network and making your mark on your new community.

Amanda Sparks, a marketer at EssaySupply and contributor to GoDaddy and SemRush, states: “You should feel free to speak your mind in order to build a reputation as an expert in your niche. This is your chance to get the community talking about you, your business and your product.”

If, on the other hand, your life is too busy for face-to-face networking, you can always network online. You can join groups on social media and discussion topics that are interesting for your target audience. This is another great way to make meaningful connections with your potential customers.

Establish a Referral Program

Modern customers always read reviews about the products and services they are considering buying. However, many of them also understand that some of these extremely positive comments are fake. For this reason, people still value the honest recommendations of friends and colleagues.

If your IT start-up has at least a few satisfied clients, it’s time to launch a referral program. You can encourage your customers to recommend your services to other people by offering a discount on their subscriptions or other exclusive benefits.

“This is the most cost-effective approach, which helps in acquiring new real clients on a regular basis,” explains Daniela McVicker, a technical content writer for RatedByStudents.

In Conclusion…

The point is that you can effectively promote your IT start-up even if you have no master’s degree in marketing. You should be in love with your business and your product and share your passion with the world. With the help of advanced technologies, you can easily find customers who will help your company not only to stay afloat but take off.