The first half of 2020 hasn’t been an easy time for event organizers. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of most events scheduled for March and April. Many other events that had a bit of lead time were able to shift and become virtual events thanks to one thing: event webcasting technology.
We don’t have to tell you that, though. You lived it. As someone who spends their days trying to market event webcasting technology, you’ve seen the interest pick up, and you know that this is the time to be proactive. People want your services. They need technology like yours. You market was already a growing one—expected to be worth $800 million in just a few years—but those initial estimates are likely too small.
You want to claim a part of this growing market. But with so much competition, it’s going to take more than some haphazard marketing activities. You need to differentiate your business so you stand out from your competitors.
To do this, you need to establish authority in the industry. By positioning your company as an expert, your marketing efforts will be more effective and will generate more revenue. Here are the specific steps to take in order to establish authority and market your webcasting services.
The first step in your marketing is to get clear on who your ideal buyers are and developing a buyer persona. Once you have these personas, you’ll have the foundation you need to create the rest of our marketing strategy.
Before you say it, we know that you likely have buyer personas already developed. But what was your process for creating them? If they weren’t built based on in-depth conversations with your actual buyers but based on assumptions from your sales team then you may want to start over. There’s nothing wrong with using information from your sales team, but it shouldn’t be all that you base your buyer personas on. Your buyers will likely tell you things that your sales team couldn’t know.
In these conversations, talk frankly about your customers’ pain points and challenges. Ask what they are looking for in a solution. Ask them about any barriers to purchase, like the price or complexity of the software.
While you're interviewing, ask about you customers’ buying process. How did they learn about your product? Why did they consider purchasing it? How did they evaluate it? How did they make their final decision?
Once you have your buyer persona, you can create your targeted marketing message.
One of the ultimate goals of marketing is to build trust with your audience. Having a consistent message that you leverage through all of your marketing channels—including digital marketing, email, content marketing, social media, and ads—will help you do that.
Markets today are crowded, and for messaging to cut through the noise it has to be unique to your brand. This is why buyer personas have to be done first. They give you the information you need to create messaging that’s specific to you and talks to the benefits you bring not just about your product. For some companies that’s messaging around services. For others, that’s something around innovation.
Your marketing will attract leads and nurturing those leads and moving them down the sales funnel towards purchasing your product requires an inbound marketing strategy. No matter what your funnel looks like, the basic process is to attract, engage, and delight your customers by providing valuable content and building trust.
Attract customers with SEO and targeted keywords on your website, digital advertising, social media posts.
Engage those customers by communicating in a way that shows your value and makes them want to build a relationship with you. You can do this with email, workflows and targeted ads.
Delight the customers who’ve purchased from you to keep them happy, satisfied, and feeling supported. Chatbots, emails, and targeted content are good methods.
Reducing Friction in the Sales Cycle
The goal of your marketing plan is to help reduce the friction in the buying process. With a complex product like event webcasting, your sales cycle will naturally be longer. If it’s normally a year, that’s not going to change much. Even the most comprehensive marketing plan won’t significantly shorten the sales cycle. But it can make the conversations your sales team has with potential customers once they are ready to talk.
Establishing authority in the marketplace is essential to your company getting a greater share of the event webcasting market. Your targeted marketing gets the customer familiar with your company and what you have to offer. By the time they actually talk to you, your authority and marketing have helped smooth your buyers’ resistance and allows your sales team to have productive conversations with buyers. Overall, it makes the buying process easier on all the parties involved.
Your customers that invest in collaboration tools don’t miss a beat as the world evolves. They have tools that streamline communication and collaboration in the office.
So how do you engage with the companies who aren't as prepared for the virtual shift?
We love helping mid-market B2B tech companies like yours grow with purpose. If you are wanting to turn this moment into momentum, let us tell you how we can help.