In today’s day and age, the digital market is oversaturated with tech companies, making it difficult for newer companies to find customers and for established companies to keep customers.
This is a problem for all businesses and corporations, but especially for technology and software companies because they are dealing with a smaller pool of prospects and competition on a global scale. Tech companies have to stand out against their domestic and international rivals, who can offer their services remotely and at a reduced cost.
The consumer has so many options that it can be hard to stand out among the rest. So how do you make sure your company rises above the competition?
A Note on Lead Generation
Before diving into our top lead generation strategies, it is important to understand what lead generation is for tech companies.
A lead is a consumer who has displayed interest in what your company has to offer, typically by providing contact information. Once you have a consumer’s contact information, you can begin nurturing that lead and really selling your product to them. But getting that contact information is the first step.
That is where we get into lead generation, which is near the beginning of your sales funnel. Lead generation is the process of finding viable prospects and attracting them to your business.
Why These Tactics?
With any lead generation strategy, it is important to keep in mind why this strategy is being employed. As it turns out, many tech companies fall into the same pitfalls, and so employing certain strategies can help mitigate the drawbacks that come with being another name in an oversaturated industry such as tech. All of the strategies recommended in this article will seek to accomplish certain goals, whether it be establishing clarity, familiarity, or looking at metrics.
In order to attract prospects to your business, you need to ensure that your message is clear and that the product or service you are selling is presented in a way that encourages understanding. Especially in the tech industry, messaging can become muddled and confusing, making it difficult for potential clients to recognize your product and how it could help them.
Additionally, by making your marketing as clear and customer-centric as possible, you increase your chances of converting prospects because they feel you are a company that cares about them. Establishing relationships with your prospects will go a long way, and some of the strategies we recommend will prioritize this.
There are also some lead generation tactics that focus entirely on metrics and data that your company has collected. By looking at the numbers and engagement, you can optimize your output.
Now that we have discussed leads, lead generation, and the basic goals of lead gen, let’s get into some specific lead generation strategies for tech companies.
Related: 7 Elevator Pitch Examples that Will Get Tech Buyers’ Attention
7 Tech Lead Generation Strategies
1. Landing Page
The most important step you can take to optimize your lead generation is to motivate prospects to take action. This means making your landing page easy to navigate and highly interactive. This is the first impression they get of your company, so you need to make sure that all the information they need is right there. You can also have multiple landing pages depending on your different campaigns or products. Each landing page should have information that highlights your product and provides a call to action. This call to action can be anything from a free trial to a link for more information, or even an interactive form to request more information. You want your landing page to serve as an avenue straight into your sales funnel.
Once you have your landing page, make sure it is also optimized for multiple platforms. A good landing page will be legible across multiple devices. You do not know what platform your prospect will be accessing your landing page from, and as much as we conduct business over computers, there has been an uptick in the mobile business in recent years. Making sure your website is navigable on a mobile device is a simple step that will expand your opportunities tenfold. With a mobile presence, your company is always an option, even on the go.
2. Free Trials
Offering free trials is a great way to generate leads because it allows potential customers to know exactly how your product or service will benefit them. For simpler services, this trial period could be a few hours or days, and for more complex products it might be a few weeks or months. Or a trial could be available for an extended period of time, but with limited features. Regardless of the route you decide to take with your free trial, make sure your customer is able to get hands-on experience with your product.
This provides several benefits. For one, it is an easy way to show exactly how your product works in their business. Metrics and data can only tell a customer so much, and they may struggle to visualize how a product will benefit them without firsthand knowledge.
3. Maximize Online Engagement: Webinars, Videos, and Surveys
Not everyone is a fan of reading. In lead generation, prospective buyers have to do a lot of reading to find the right business. Therefore, you can set yourself apart from the rest by breaking up the monotony. Provide audio experiences or interactive ones. Webinars are one great way to educate potential leads about your product in an interactive environment. There is a human touch to webinars that cannot be captured through text on a screen. Also, webinars can be recorded and made available for future viewing, allowing for this content to be reused to capture new leads.
On the topic of recording, video is also an effective way to net new leads. Because videos are easy and quick to consume, prospects can learn a lot about your company in a short amount of time. For every article you have about your business, try having a related video that summarizes the information. That way, prospects who have less time can digest this information quickly. Meanwhile, prospects who have more time can watch the videos to get a taste of your content and then delve deeper into your more complex articles if they are interested.
Finally, surveys are another way to get engagement while also providing an excellent metric for improvement. The first benefit of hosting surveys is that you can use them to collect a list of names and contact information from interested prospects. You can send out emails or have surveys available on your website, but the focus should be on what tech buyers want. By asking questions, you can optimize your marketing and get a better idea of what types of offers to make to prospects.
4. Spread the Word
Despite being in the tech industry, technology is not your only means of drumming up business. Word of mouth can be a powerful tool, and by introducing referrals, you can generate more leads for your business. Your customers that are having great success with your product or service will recommend it to their friends and colleagues, and if those colleagues turn into customers, they may do the same.
This can create a chain reaction of recommendations, referrals, and positive reviews that all boost your business’s reputation in the marketplace. By encouraging your customers to spread the word about your company manually, you will also see your brand awareness increase across the industry. Brand awareness and reputation are important, which we will expand upon in our next tip.
Related: How to Set Sales Appointments with CIOs, IT Managers, and Other Tech Buyers
5. Establish a Reputation
When potential customers are researching services, they will be comparing and contrasting several different options before making a decision. For this reason, it is important to make sure your business has case studies or whitepapers that showcase what makes your product unique. By supplying your prospects high-value comparisons with clear data, you also provide the path of least resistance when it comes to information. This makes your product or service more accessible to prospective customers who may otherwise struggle to wade through technical information.
Additionally, it allows you to build up your brand’s reputation yourself; you set the tone of the conversation and do not have to worry about the prospect finding the wrong information from secondary sources.
6. Address Pain Points in Your Marketing
On the topic of personalized marketing, you want to make sure that you understand your prospects, particularly their pain points. Pain points are burdens that you seek to alleviate with your product. Every prospect is going to have different issues in their current setup, but by knowing the common pain points in your industry, you can make it appear on your website and marketing materials that your product helps eliminate these issues. You are not just selling a product or service, after all, you are selling a solution to your customer’s problems.
By understanding what those problems are, you can customize your marketing to show them exactly what they want to see, making them far more likely to take action during each stage of the buyer process. This makes the prospect feel seen and understood, and they will be far more likely to buy from your company than some other faceless and impersonal entity.
7. Partnerships & Collaboration
No man is an island, and no business is an island either. The online marketplace is one big web of connections, and so tech companies benefit greatly from partnerships and collaborations that help expand their network. Collaborating with influencers on social media platforms such as Youtube, Twitter, Tiktok, and others is one way to generate buzz about your products before they hit the market.
Additionally, by partnering with other businesses in your field that are not direct competitors, you can support one another’s services and boost each others’ audiences with your own. Partnerships with other businesses can act as free marketing if you are both vouching for each other.
Even businesses outside the tech industry can help. There are a number of lead generation companies that offer their services to the tech industry and are able to help you hone your lead generation process. By working with a lead gen company, you gain access to a team of professionals who can perfect your strategies and optimize your lead generation.
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