In the SaaS industry, it’s imperative to map out a clearly defined target market. This gives businesses a more acute sense of who they are trying to reach to tailor their products and digital marketing strategy toward this group. This in turn makes your content marketing strategies much easier to curate for potential customers for your government software company.
Govtech companies can’t market the same way B2C or even B2B companies do, as their customer base is in a completely different industry.
Acquiring government contracts for software can be difficult, but this is integral to business success and development if you are a B2G company. One thing that helps businesses looking to develop their online marketing to government customers is working with experts who understand digital marketing inside and out.
According to Gartner, worldwide government IT spending is expected to grow by 6.8% in 2023. The government’s willingness to engage with new software that improves processes is rising. Let’s look at some marketing tips and strategy recommendations that business owners can utilize to better appeal to agencies, whether the local or federal government.
We’re going to share with you government software marketing strategies that will have you starting off on the right foot. Because once you create a foundation for your B2B SaaS strategy, it makes processes much easier in the future.
Very rarely are government organizations going to come to you. The sales cycle for government marketers is very different from other industries, which means the customer journey is unique. The standard way to acquire business in the B2G software space is by bidding on government contracts or direct marketing efforts. In either situation, finding government customers is going to require a significant amount of market strategy and intelligence.
Market intelligence research of the specific market you are trying to break into, including how to target companies spend, competitors in the space, and much more. Market intelligence is something businesses across industries should prioritize. This insight has defined value because it shows how to compete in a business’s industry.
In the B2G industry, it is even more critical than the typical B2B SaaS industry.
“The difference between market intelligence, business intelligence and strategic intelligence”
Much of government business runs on knowing when contracts are available, who companies have contracted with previously, and what they’re looking for. There are many different subscription-based sources intended to help B2G businesses gather market intelligence. Both Bloomberg Government and GovWinIQ have built their business success around spotlighting opportunities for government contractors in local, state, and federal government. Having digital tools that provide crucial market intelligence will save time and provide essential information.
Once you gather this information on your competitors, this insight will help you audit and assess your business and make necessary changes to keep up with the trends. Without that valuable data, it will be difficult to make strategic marketing decisions.
In the government industry, purchasing decisions are normally made by groups of people. You need to identify the roles that make those decisions so that you can turn your marketing strategy toward them. Once you decipher the people that are making those decisions, it will make it much easier for your business to drive conversions faster.
Many Govtech B2B SaaS businesses assume that they should be reaching out to someone involved in IT for the government. This is not always the case since they aren’t the ones making the purchasing decisions.
You don’t want to miss out on an opportunity just because you reached out to the wrong person. This is where in-depth research is key to figuring out your ideal marketing strategy. It’s best to go after the local government and establish multiple relevant connections. Since these decisions are made by multiple people, you have to be creative as to how you market your software to each unique persona.
Once you’ve gained some understanding of the industry and the players within it, you are likely ready to start developing your outreach. Before you do that, you need to refine your marketing through the use of buyer personas. This is a common practice for B2B SaaS marketing and it’s no different for B2G. Buyer personas can help improve marketing content and lead to more effective email campaigns. Marketing messages can then be personalized towards those personas so that you’re not shooting in the dark but instead, driving conversions.
Whether your business model is built on outreach to contacts, outbound, and inbound marketing, or bidding on contracts, buyer personas can go a long way toward shaping what you create to make it more personal and customized toward a target audience.
A buyer persona is a profile for a potential customer based on market research and some hypothetical thinking that should be as grounded in reality as possible. Buyer personas should be created for the key decision-maker being targeted. They should encompass things like the size of the agency/office, experience level, budgetary restrictions, goals, values, and more. They should be in-depth and specific to yield the best results. All of this information is extremely useful for your sales teams to personalize their outreach and narrow down who they’re trying to sell to.
Creating buyer personas for the government official or other decision-maker your business needs to reach will personalize your outreach to a significantly higher degree. Using market intelligence to research the agencies you need to target, understanding how they conduct business, and then turning those findings into personas will significantly improve processes. Whether the decision-maker is new to their job or over a decade in business, everyone prefers a more personal and targeted outreach.
The first thing a government agency is going to do when evaluating your business is look at your SaaS company’s website design. Your business success is based on having a website that will appeal to the government.
According to TargetGov, a website is the primary research tool end-users and contracting offices use when researching sellers. This means your website has to be heavily optimized, so it shows up in searches, and it has to be built to appeal to government insiders.
A successful active business in the B2G industry will commit significant time to search engine optimization and website enhancement. It is vital to access SEO tools that will provide important keywords to target your specific government niche.
This would be more pronounced with government agencies, as they are less likely to be driven by social media content. Social media marketing can be supplemental, but your real focus should be on optimizing your website to reach the right target audience.
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Once your lead has arrived on your website, having customer engagement strategies in place tailored to the government entity types you are trying to reach will lead to a better buyer experience. Your website should display prominently industry-specific experience, certifications, and benefits. It must appeal to your customer preferences. Rely on your market intelligence and buyer personas to guide you on this.
The typical government worker is going to have an incredibly crowded inbox. Constituents and citizens are very active in voicing their complaints and general opinions to government offices, so finding a way to stand apart will require a strong email marketing strategy. Once you’ve identified who to contact within a specific government office, there are several ways you should try to stand out if you are reaching out in a cold email.
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One way is to build your email around solving the specific agency’s pain points. Many areas of government focus on financial management and cost-effectiveness as their number one priority. If this is the case for your target, market how your software tools will cut spending, or that you have a low price compared to the average cost point for government contractors. Pain points should be a primary focus for your marketing because they show your business’s value.
Another way to stand out from the inbox is through video in email. There is general feedback across marketing that video is a medium that stands out. A product demo or showcase in your email to a government agency decision-maker will make it stand out and contribute to a higher open rate. People want to consume quick and easy content. Attention spans are lower now, so you have to tweak your marketing strategy to what the majority of consumers prefer.
Finding a way to differentiate yourself is essential in email marketing. Whether you are using an email marketing platform or creating each email yourself, make sure to find ways to stand out in a crowded inbox. This is even more important for cold outreaches.
Customers have high expectations when it comes to getting their issues resolved and their questions answered. That’s why you need to remain active on all channels that you engage with them on. You also want to implement a CRM into your business so that processes are automated and simplified. This not only will enhance the customer experience but it will make your job more efficient as well.
Utilizing CRM software makes sure nothing falls through the cracks and all of your information stays in one central hub. Most of the time these programs are customizable to fit your business’s needs. According to Software Advice, 74% of businesses indicate that CRM software allows them to have greater access to customer data. When you get a more detailed overview of customer data helps your marketing and sales teams drive conversion rates and create stronger relationships with customers.
In addition to CRM software, there are also specific government software marketing strategies you can use to increase customer engagement. These strategies focus on building better relationships with customers by providing value and staying up-to-date on their needs. For example, consider offering webinars or hosting workshops where industry professionals can learn about your products and services in detail. You could also consider writing guest blog posts for influential publications or creating a loyalty program for customers.
Marketing to the government has its difficulties. Relationship building is not as easy, the marketplace is entirely different, and your business has to be structured in a certain way. A government project-based business will have to find a way to penetrate the industry with a strategic marketing plan.
There are several different ways to appeal to government management, many of which are connected. Using market intelligence to understand the industry better, building buyer personas to target customers more personally, optimizing your website specific to your industry, and making your email outreach stand out will help your pursuit of government buyers. These various efforts are key to driving higher conversion rates and high-quality customer relationships.
Customer satisfaction will ultimately determine your business’s success, but customer acquisition is also integral. When it comes to customer acquisition, partnering with a leader in marketing and business intelligence for the B2B SaaS industry is an undeniable asset.
