As with all marketing, reaching your target audience for Mac software depends on getting the formula right. As with the development of the software itself, determining what your product means for the right demographic is a key to success in sales. Beyond that, there are specific tools that you can learn to use.
In addition to the standard email marketing that you carry out by means of creating a link between your contact lists on different devices, there are a number of other things you should be doing to carry out successful marketing campaigns. Let’s take a closer look at what a few of these are.
Do your research
Before beginning any marketing campaign, you need to figure out exactly who you are marketing to and what they look for in a product. If you are marketing gaming-related software, then the retired community is clearly not your target group. You should look at whatever related software is out there and determine how it is marketed, to whom, and by what media. Be as detailed as you can in your analysis; the more carefully you look, the better your results will be.
Figure out your social media
One of the first things you’ll want to do is figure out exactly which social media you should be using. In your early research efforts, you should make note of how many followers your competitors’ software has on Instagram, Facebook, etc. But you don’t necessarily want to use every medium out there simply for the sake of spreading your product around. Again, you should figure out what exactly it is that would speak to YOUR target audience.
When you’ve determined which media to use, work on getting your content right. You want the message that you relay to be suitable for your target group, and it should be sufficiently commensurate with related software as to make sense, but also emphasize your product’s own individual qualities.
Whenever possible, include videos that demonstrate how your software works. Remember, people have a lot of options to choose from, and you want to emphasize why your product is better quality, more user friendly, produces more sophisticated results, etc.
Optimize your website
Even if other social media are on the rise, websites are still an extremely important element of marketing. You want to be sure that you follow all the rules of SEO as closely as possible so as to maximize your results in the search engines:
- Use appropriate keywords. In your preliminary research, you should figure out which keywords will best optimize your site and use them accordingly. Use them in a reasonable number throughout each of the pages of your site, but try to avoid keyword stuffing as this will downgrade your status with the search engines. Be sure that your keywords are present in your content, headings, and URL.
- Optimize your content. Make sure that you have an appropriate combination of text, videos, and photos, and that all of your content is relevant to your product. As with other social media, it would be to your advantage to include demos of your Mac software to illustrate how it works and how it is unique from other software.
- Link to other media. You should always ensure that all your media are linked to one another. Be sure to include all the necessary icons for Instagram, Facebook, and whatever other media you advertise your product on.
- Create appropriate links and backlinks. Search engines also look at the links you have on your site, and also the backlinks on other sites that lead to yours. Think about what sites would be most to your benefit – what does your software do, and in what related places will your target audience be looking? If your software serves a business function, try to find trusted sources related to the types of businesses that your target audience will value. If it is related to video production, try to find complementary programs and see if you can gain a backlink from them.
- Pay attention to your App Store Optimization. If your software takes the form of an app for mobile and other devices, it is important that you optimize your app store offerings just in the same way you optimize your search engine criteria.
Find influencers
One of the latest big trends in marketing is finding influencers to advertise products. Some influencers have managed to gain followings of millions of people, so the amount of exposure that any product they advertise would get is huge. See if there is a way that you can reach an influencer and convince him or her to mention your product.
There are different ways that you could do this. Offering the product itself is an obvious start. You could also try to appeal to your target influencers by explaining how the product could help them in their own efforts. You could offer a commission based upon user feedback. There are many options; think about what might make sense for you.
Create a buyer persona
People often base their buying preferences upon those of others. Many times, this means celebrities or big-name people that others look up to. If I buy this product, people (consciously or unconsciously) think, I will be more like this person that I look up to and want to emulate.
Therefore, it would be to the benefit of Mac software producers to create an ideal buyer persona in their marketing efforts. As you create demos on your website and other chosen media, include a character that you think your target audience would admire and illustrate him or her using the product successfully. Your chosen persona should meet the following criteria:
- Age. While it may be the case that your software has broad appeal, there is likely a “sweet spot” in your potential customers that you should focus on. Figure out within a reasonable age range what this might be and build your buyer persona around it.
- Gender. This is not always the case, but if your software involves beautification or gaming, for example, it will be pretty clear which gender you should focus on.
- Special interests. This can be tricky, because it could be that outside interests are wide and varied among your target clientele. But if your software involves special interest groups, like certain musical genres, fashion styles, or other clear indicators of a certain demographic, you should include these in your buyer persona. When viewers see the characteristics that they define themselves by, they will be much more likely to pay attention to your product.
Keep track of your numbers
Obviously, if your marketing efforts lead to greater sales, you’re on the right track. If not, it may be time to re-think things again. Even if your sales do improve, be sure to stay on top of the game in case things change. Software production is a constantly evolving business and the competition can be fierce. It’s up to you to determine where you rank in the results.
