In this quick episode, Liz gives us insights on what it means and how to be authentic when marketing software.
Listen to the episode on Anchor, Spotify, Breaker, Pocket casts, RadioPublic, or Google Podcasts. Or read the transcript below.
SHOW NOTES
- One mistake marketers often make [00:41]
- Why people love stories [00:54]
- Why is it difficult for marketers to tell a compelling story around their product? Why do they often fall into writing marketing blah-blah? Why is it difficult to find messaging that resonates with your target audience? [1:07]
- Where authenticity in marketing starts [3:01]
- Innovation + marketing = the perfect equation [3:25]
- What does being authentic mean? [4:08]
TRANSCRIPT
Liz Lemarchand: How is it that innovative software solutions have the ability to change the world yet they don’t sell themselves? How is it that I know my target market but I’m not able to generate enough sales opportunities? How do I even get started to create visibility for my brand when I’m not an expert in marketing? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answer. Welcome to SMplified: Software Marketing Made Simple!
Hey everyone this is Liz from MediaDev and today’s short podcast is about how to be authentic when marketing software.
One mistake that software marketers often make is to focus only on the facts. And while facts are important, marketing materials should never be boring or dry.
People love stories. They love stories because they use them to learn something about themselves, this is the case for any product you want to market, including B2B software solutions.
So why is it so difficult for many marketers to tell a compelling story around their product?
Why is it that they so often fall into writing marketing, blah blah — those fancy and vague statements about software benefits that don’t mean anything to anyone?
Why is it so difficult to find messaging that resonates with your target audience?
Part of the answer comes from a misunderstanding of the buyer persona. A solution is targeted when you get to know your potential customers as people with real-life needs, it becomes easier to understand what makes them tick and what keeps them up at night.
If you understand the pain points or challenges that your audience is facing and how your solution can help solve those issues, it is easier to create a persuasive argument around that.
No one other than the most highly sophisticated or technical audience will care about the technicalities of your product features. The rest of us all want to know the business impact the solution will have. How will it make my company better and in what ways? I also think that there are some junior marketers out there who don’t really understand this, which is why it’s difficult for them to write copy to explain it.
I’ve seen this very often when it comes to ISV OEM marketing, where the information I read you know, which should explain the benefits of such a partnership, is highly superficial. So, when I go onto a blue-chip software vendors website and I see a page entitled what is OEM that proceeds with the Wikipedia definition about original equipment manufacturers, when in fact the audience they are targeting — ISVs — already knows that, it really worries me.
It sounds to me that the marketing team doesn’t truly grasp the value proposition and cannot accurately convey that in the context that they create.
It’s important to keep in mind that being authentic in marketing starts with being passionate about what you do. Because we are a mission-based organization, our passion comes from wanting to serve software vendors so that their innovations can revolutionize the world of tomorrow. And most of us already know having a great product is no guarantee of success. Innovation and marketing is a better equation.
The false belief that so many software developers have is that their products will sell themselves because of the advanced nature of the technology that they’ve built.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
No product in the history of the universe ever sold itself. In fact, we go to great lengths to sell products every day, and some are still not successful. What is an absolute fact is that without excellent marketing, a software solution will never make it off the ground.
So how do you get excellent at marketing?
Be authentic. What does being authentic mean exactly? While being authentic means that you understand your product inside and out, you see how it’s better than your competitors. You know who the product is they need to serve. And you were drawn to this in some way.
You see the value yourself in marketing such a product because you believe in its worth no one with any ethical or moral code could ever market a product they do not believe in.
That’s not to say that people don’t do this all the time, but they have somehow lost touch with what is most important.
Being true to yourself, authenticity comes from being true to yourself and the people you serve. And once you’ve been able to do this, you’ll find that your ability to market your product will become much easier.
You just listened to simplified brought to you by MediaDev. If you have software marketing questions or need help marketing your software solution, reach out to us at contact@mediadev.com and check out other amazing assets for you on our resource library at mediadev.com.
