B2B Cyber Security Marketing Tips
March 4, 2023, 6 min read
Cybersecurity is a concern that every company must give attention to. As a result, there’s a big market for the expanding number of vendors supplying the tools and platforms that help keep businesses, their users, and their data safe. This, of course, will result in some background noise.
Getting the attention of information security professionals is a constant challenge for business-to-business (B2B) marketers in the cybersecurity industry. A product can’t be sold successfully by inducing fear in the consumer. Every organization hit by a hack or ransomware attack cannot be pursued.
Establish Trust and Inform Potential Customers
Due to the complexity of the subject, educating your target audience is one of the most pressing challenges facing your industry. If your organization presents instances from the real world that highlight the significance of cyber security and the efficacy of your solutions, you will achieve your goals.
You may reach and engage your target audience through various content forms. Attracting customers is simple when you use tools like blogs and downloadable information (white papers, infographics, etc.). Also, make sure you have some evergreen marketing content that may be used for years to come.
Last but not least, it is critical to use materials pertinent to today’s most pressing issues. For example, you might use the present business industry crisis as a springboard to talk to your audience and clients about how your company adapts to the situation. For this, you should do marketing research properly.
Fresh And Interesting Brand Content
All forms of marketing rely heavily on effective messaging, but those working in cyber security face unique difficulties in this area. With so many cyber security solutions and businesses available, it’s easy to settle for boring marketing and fail to make a lasting impression.
Many cyber security marketing departments fall into the trap of cramming in every feature and trying to address every single threat in every communication, but that never works.
Respond to the following:
What is the ONE problem that your solution solves for a specific group of people?
Just what sets your product apart from the competition? It need not be revolutionary to provide faster incident resolution, increased analyst coverage, and lower costs.
To whom are you pitching your product? SME or Big Business? In North America? APAC? Start small and specific, and then grow as you gain confidence in the efficacy of the message.
The answers to these questions may not be simple, but they form the backbone of your communications and strategy.
Opt for Inbound Marketing
A significant part is also played by incoming content. Everything that can help you connect with your target audience, from blogs to videos to ebooks to white papers to webinars to case studies to social media and beyond. Educational materials must be supported by evidence such as statistics, examples, and expert opinions to be truly useful. Much information on cyber security is oversimplified, vague, and unpleasant.
The content of a B2B inbound marketing strategy should follow two main paths:
Whether it’s a specific industry or a solution to a common problem, focus on the terms and content your target audience will likely use when researching this topic. Writing targeting this demographic requires careful consideration of how and where to mention your product.
Remember that unless you can back up your claims with concrete examples, your use of AI, ML, and Blockchain will go unnoticed. Don’t fumble your way through life by carelessly tossing them around.
The content you create to inform consumers about your specific subset of the cyber security industry is called “product marketing.”
Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Always keep SEO in mind while penning new pieces of text. Increase organic traffic by using proper keywords and linking relevant content together.
Use the correct organic promotion methods to get your content in front of the relevant people. You’re a cyber security firm; don’t use Facebook and Instagram as your primary communication channels. You should use them for testing because there are many security professionals, but you shouldn’t rely on them exclusively. LinkedIn, Twitter, and Reddit are some of our favorite social media platforms, and they should be the focus of your cybersecurity marketing efforts.
Every B2B marketer knows LinkedIn’s reputation as a thriving professional network where leads are more likely to result in a sale than those generated through other channels. Savvy marketers use the individual brands of your staff in tandem with your company to establish you as an industry leader and attract more clients.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Ads Deserve a Spot in Your Cyber Security Marketing Strategy. If you do it well, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of your ideal customer and be able to attract like-minded people across all of your marketing channels, increasing your number of qualified leads. The following are some examples of great pay-per-click media:
Advertisements on Facebook have the potential to reach a massive number of people. Although it may seem like a strange option, we’ve discovered that it serves us well, especially in retargeting campaigns.
Although the cost per lead for LinkedIn Paid Advertising is more than that of PPC ads on other channels, the quality of leads generated is often higher, and the target audience is almost always present. In most cases, the quantity and quality of information generated by LinkedIn advertisements are superior.
Because of the high volume of people that use Google, advertising on the search engine’s results page can be lucrative. To avoid wasting money on irrelevant clicks, it is crucial to fine-tune keywords and cost-per-click as traffic volumes increase. When people find you through a Google search, their intent to buy (and interest) is substantially higher.
Millions of websites, apps, and videos within the GDN (including Gmail, YouTube, etc.) show display adverts from the Google Display Network (GDN). Targeting specific demographics may increase your online visibility and reach a wider audience.
Many paid advertising options are available on Twitter, such as promoted tweets, pre-roll video adverts, branded emojis, and hashtags. Regarding advantages, Twitter’s widespread adoption among IT security experts is a significant selling point.
What’s Not Working for Cyber Security B2B Marketing?
Attempting to please everyone is the most significant error you can make. This may seem like a no-brainer, but I’ve seen far too many businesses screw this up. A client of mine once boasted, “we can sell to everyone.” Big no, no. Although knowing your customer is crucial in any market, it is especially critical in the information security industry, saturated with competitors and where the message has been watered down to the point where many suppliers appear the same. Make sure you carve out your security sector(s), i.e., endpoint, network, cloud, data protection, data center, etc.) and understand what roles the main buyers, influencers, etc. Do relevant rules exist, or do industry standards exist? All of these factors facilitate positioning your product’s features, benefits, and differentiators to the correct individuals in the right organizations. At this point finding a trusted PR companies may support marketing efforts.
Many cybersecurity businesses miss fundamental concerns like positioning, messaging, and distinction when developing their marketing strategies for cybersecurity. Your cybersecurity marketing efforts won’t be as effective in generating leads, driving pipeline opportunities, and earning revenue if you don’t eventually take the time to communicate how your security software, hardware, or services are unique from the competition and the benefits of those solutions resonate with security buyers.
You must incorporate a customer program into your sales and marketing strategy. What could be more convincing than a corporation describing how they utilize your product, the results they’ve seen, etc., in a case study? The challenge (and reality) is that very few companies are willing to go on record. The difficulty of obtaining customer references can be overcome in several ways. Asking for public authority from the customer during contract pricing negotiations can help you secure a better deal (and have this signed by someone in management). A written case study or video testimonial is preferable because it allows for more editing and a more controlled setting for you and the client. This gives you something that doesn’t have a shelf life and gives the customer some control (instead of interviewing with a reporter, etc.). This allows you and the client to prearrange the questions and how they will be addressed.
Conclusion
When it comes to cyber security marketing, you need to stand out, but at the same time, you can’t be too bold. The difference between a failing business with an innovative solution and a successful business with a highly differentiated solution lies in how well you strike this balance and communicate with the various roles within the IT organization, from operations to security, administrators to managers to executives.
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