By Joanna Lees Castro

Developing an effective software marketing plan is critical to building and maintaining strong sales and a successful business. So do not make the mistake of considering it an afterthought. Taking a little time to write down your marketing plan will help focus your product or service planning, focus your sales efforts, and ultimately save the business money and decrease time-to-market.

Following the tips below will ensure you have a winning marketing strategy and are making the best use of your marketing budget.

1. Get to Know Your Target Market and Customers

It is always best to start with a thorough market analysis to understand the current state of the software/services industry and your niche. Do you target a specific vertical industry, or a horizontal segment? What is your target market, who are your target customers, and what is your specific value proposition for them?

Your value proposition must clearly describe your customer’s pain point and how your product or service meets that need.

You should also identify your competition by software product or service as well as by market segment, and assess their strengths and weaknesses.

2. Have a Strong Business Model and Pricing Strategy

It is critical to ensure that you have properly planned your business model and strategy to win in today’s marketplace. Which of the five possible software business models best fit your product and your customers’ needs?

* Single Software License
* Menu of Component-Level Software Licenses
* Subscription License
* Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
* Custom Software Consulting

3. Focus Your Messages

Your marketing messages must be focused and directed to your specific target customer. What is your company’s and your product’s biggest strength and main advantage against your competition? That is your unique selling proposition (USP). Keep it simple.

4. Focus Your Software Marketing Budget

You’ve identified your niche and your target customers, and you’ve got a solid business model and pricing/licensing strategy. One key thing to remember for your software marketing plan is to keep it focused. Don’t try every possible medium or mechanism to find or reach out to potential customers. In the best case, you’ll only swamp yourself with leads that don’t turn into actual business.

Start by putting yourself into your target customers’ shoes: What conferences do they attend? What publications do they read? What industry organizations do they participate in? Are there vendors or partners that they already trust that you should develop relationships with? Based on the answers to these questions, you can put together your specific marketing tactics to reach potential customers in the most cost-effective way.

The critical element of your marketing plan is that every strategy and tactic should align with your key value proposition. You should be reaching out to target customers who can realize that value. You should be communicating in a way that always reinforces your value proposition.

If you keep these four tips in mind, you will be able to write a winning marketing plan that will focus your marketing budget and maximize the impact to your business results.

http://www.software-marketing-advisor.com

Joanna Lees Castro is owner of Software Marketing Advisor.com, a resource for software and services companies wanting to grow their business strategy, marketing and sales capability in a services-oriented world.

For additional tips to help optimize your software marketing and sales go to http://www.software-marketing-advisor.com/software-marketing-plan.html

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