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software demo, trial software, try before buy software, b2b marketing mix

Do you demo software?

At first glance this may seem a somewhat naïve question – why wouldn’t you want to see how software works before buying?

If you work in B2B marketing for software brands, you will know how few people actually demo software. So is offering a demo still a valid part of the marketing mix?

This article was prompted by a survey I did which asked the question illustrated below. Did you request a demo from sales. And it made me realise that I had not done that for some time.

software demo, trial software, try before buy software, b2b marketing mix

A survey asking about demos for software

Should marketers stop doing demos?

The quick answer is… it depends.

Your customer journey determines where and how a demonstration of the functionality of the software is appropriate. And if you haven’t reviewed your customer journey recently, I recommend doing this.

Customers change – behaviours alter and marketers need to stay up to date with current trends.

What replaces a demo?

Lots of B2B Marketing collateral is designed to answer questions and showcase software features. Prospective customers may find that they get all the answers they need from your videos, or blog posts. Have you found any recent customers who bought without a demo? Go and interview them about why and how their purchase decision was made.

Listeners to the State of Demand Gen podcast will be no stranger to the concept that forcing customers into a “pipeline” whose course is determined by the brand, rather than the prospect, is a surefire killer of sales leads.

The thesis that you let the prospect push themselves along their discovery pathway at a speed that is appropriate for them, is the best way to close more business. This thesis does depend on you having a strong brand presence in the target audience’s “line of sight”. And for that to happen, your brand needs to have already been active in marketing both above-the-line and below-the-line for some time in all the channels which could be relevant to your audience.

This isn’t an impossibility to achieve within a few months but as we all know, SEO rewards incumbent brands more than newcomers and so sometimes innovative (and manual) approaches are needed to start brand building with a new audience. Contact me for a case study of brand building for a startup.

Talk to me

No, I’m not breaking the rule of letting the customer set the pace by pushing for you to get in touch with me! When you are ready you’ll reach out.

In the meantime, consider the following aspects of B2B software marketing – and if you aren’t fully confident you have got them covered, or know how to produce, manage and measure them, then maybe pick up the phone to me.

  • Brand positioning – who is this software for?
  • Why it’s different from competitors
  • Benefits of using the software
  • Type of customer who uses or needs the software
  • Answers to all the frequently asked questions
  • Examples of happy customers
  • A range of ways to get in touch with the company
  • Social media outreach to places customers hang out
  • Dark social ways to share information with your friends about the software
  • A diverse range of above the line brand building campaigns
  • A diverse range of below the line direct marketing campaigns
  • Ambassadors, influencers and happy customers who talk about using the software

And why did I find writing that list so cathartic? I’m doing a training course on B2B marketing for SMEs and this will form the core of what I’ll be teaching. Sign up for Small Business Marketing 2022 – Foundations and Best Practice if you want to join in September.

 

How Online Fantasy Sports Companies Market Their Platforms?

Online fantasy sports are experiencing huge growth and are even rivaling online betting platforms. For those who don’t know, online fantasy sports platforms allow users to create fantasy sports teams and join competitions to potentially win cash prizes.

For example, users can create their own NBA basketball lineup packed full of stars such as LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving, and then enter a league against other players to see how their teams match up. As the real life result roll in, scores are calculated based on your team selection, and your league standing is based on this score.

Due to the huge boost in popularity of online fantasy sports, their marketing techniques have had to improve and diversify. Popular platforms such as DraftKings, FanDuel, and PlayOn have to compete with each other and try to bring in customers through clever marketing. DraftKings is currently on top, with bettingsites.me.uk reporting that 50.6% of all players currently use the app.

Social media are playing a huge role in fantasy sports marketing. Both FanDuel and DraftKings have a huge following on Twitter, for example (FanDuel – 212k followers, DraftKings – 244k followers), and use this network to post game highlights and interact with customers.

If you scroll through DraftKings’ Twitter feed, you can see it posting videos of MLB games and clips, uploading player profiles of top sporting personalities such as Cristiano Ronaldo, and even cheat sheets to help its user base improve their fantasy teams.

FanDuel alternatively regularly post WNBA highlights, show awesome MLB home runs, and also funny sports bloopers and memes. All of this gives content to its users and helps get them excited about the world of sport, as well as encourage interaction with their respective fantasy sports platforms.

Affiliate marketing is also hugely important for online fantasy sports platforms. Both DraftKings and FanDuel operate an affiliate program through which customers can gain commissions. In essence, a customer promotes the fantasy sports platform by using a special hyperlink. If someone clicks on this hyperlink and registers an account, the customer gains a small fee.

This is a clever form of marketing. The fantasy sports platform doesn’t really have to do anything and it benefits from increased exposure and more customers; all it has to give in return is a small percentage fee.

These are just two examples of fantasy sports marketing and there are many more. It is clear that marketing plays an important role in the promotion of fantasy sports and that it allows platforms such as DraftKings and FanDuel to gain a competitive edge in this ever increasing market.

The infographic below offers further insight into the world of fantasy sports: