Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Last quarter, we revealed the results of a survey that showed us how ISVs perceive and execute marketing plans within their companies. It was fairly telling, and gave us a glimpse into how much these companies feel challenged and let down by marketing techniques. However, one of the biggest takeaways from this data was that ISVs aren’t spending much money on their campaigns, and they don’t feel like they’re seeing solid returns.
Marketing is a tricky tool that’s almost necessary to grow your business and brand awareness past a certain point, but it can feel like a huge undertaking if you don’t have the expertise or know-how to make it work for you.
We reached out to the BlueStar VARCOM folks to see if their experiences with ISVs mirrored this, and how they’ve worked to help with these issues.
Sarah Ziamba, VARCOM project manager, says the biggest things weighing ISVs down in the marketing game boil down to a few main problems:
- Lack of resources and time
- Lack of budget
- Lack of prior marketing experience
This is pretty close to what we saw in the survey. The VARCOM team works to alleviate all these issues by, essentially, taking the wheel. Ziamba says VARCOM drives the campaign from start to finish, and provides detailed reporting for ROI along the way, which allows those running the ISV to focus on their business and closing deals. But if a lack of budget is the problem, how can ISVs manage to hire an outside team like VARCOM in the first place?
“We work with the manufacturers and ISVs to help offset the costs of the campaign, no matter what kind of campaign they’d like to run,” says Ziamba. “VARCOM is not a revenue generator at BlueStar. Our job is to grow and strengthen our customers’ business, and our costs are the same as the resellers cost. This allows them to stretch their budget further.”
Another creative way ISVs can work to pare down the cost of a marketing campaign is to ask VARCOM to connect them with hardware manufacturers who would be interested in partnering to co-fund a campaign. This way, the ISV doesn’t have to shell out a lot, and their software product can be marketed in partnership with a piece of hardware that really shows off what the software is capable of accomplishing. Engaging manufacturers may also be an unfamiliar step for your business, but it helps to work with a large organization like BlueStar, because they have a direct line to hundreds of major manufacturers. VARCOM can do the heavy lifting on that front, and make sure you’re partnered with the right companies to work together to market a complete solution. The VARCOM team can also partner you with manufacturers with which you already work.
But the roadblocks don’t just stop at dollar signs and time. A lack of marketing experience can even make it difficult for ISVs to articulate what they want, and what they’d like to see their campaign accomplish. Even with the help of experts, it can be hard to know where to start and what kind of campaign would work best for your specific company.
“We hear ISVs say a lot of things like, ‘we aren’t sure where to begin, or what types of activities are out there,’” says Ziamba. “Fortunately, we have several bundles they can select from, to make it easy. Or we can just jump on a quick call with the ISV, discover what their needs and concerns are, and create a custom campaigned designed to fit their needs.”
But this still doesn’t fully address one of the larger issues our survey revealed about ISVs’ struggle with marketing: how do you even determine ROI? Twenty percent of the ISVs we surveyed said they didn’t think their campaigns were successful, because they didn’t know how to measure the ROI. This is less about the campaign being unsuccessful, and more about the ISV not knowing how to even determine whether it was or not. And for many ISVs, they just don’t have the time to learn something that many folks spend at least four years in a university learning. This lack of bandwidth means it’s not helpful to the ISV for a marketing team to come in, do the work for them, plunk a stack of data on a table, and leave. How do you determine what information gleaned from your campaign is actually helpful? How can you tell a promising lead from a dud? How can you be sure you’re seeing a return on the money you put out for this campaign?
“VARCOM’s telemarketing team actually assists in lead qualification,” says Ziamba. “We help weed out the leads that aren’t high quality, which leaves more time to focus on those leads that are actually better qualified and willing to make a purchase.”
This helps narrow down that stack of data being plunked on your desk, and it means that anything that’s actually getting delivered to the ISV is of high value and quality. With that being the case, determining ROI becomes a lot simpler; if the qualified leads coming through are truly high quality, with a high chance of turning into a sale, you’ll see the return. This is, of course, more important that a high number of leads in general. Ten high quality leads that are very likely to result in a sale is much better than 100 leads of varying quality, and the ISV can save time and money only contacting the leads that are most likely to bring in revenue.
The next time your business sits down to determine and plan out your marketing budget for the quarter, or year, it’s important to consider all your options. “Having a successful marketing strategy set for the long term, and staying engaged is the only way to be successful,” says Ziamba. Leads can rot on the vine, if they’re not engaged by your business quickly, and at that point, marketing won’t matter. Additionally, consistency can be key; once you’ve found the marketing strategy that works best for your business, find a way to adapt that plan to work in many different campaigns for your business.
Marketing is intimidating, but it doesn’t always have to be hard. With a little help from the experts, and a new perspective on the matter, your business can put together an effective strategy that will help you grow your business and bring in additional revenue. And that extra brand recognition never hurts either.
