7 Cost-Effective Tactics for IT Professional Services Marketing

Marketing is a crucial aspect of any business, and it's especially important for technology consulting companies to reach their target audience and establish their brand as a trusted provider of technology solutions. However, marketing can be expensive, and many small consulting firms struggle to allocate enough resources to make an impact.

In this article, we'll share seven cost-effective marketing strategies that we have used in our marketing campaigns. We are sharing what has worked for us so that you can use it to build your brand, reach your target audience, and grow your business.

Content Marketing

Create valuable content that your target audience will find useful and shareable. This can include blog posts, white papers, videos, and more. By providing valuable information to your audience, you can position yourself as an expert in your field and build trust with potential clients.

Content marketing solely fueled the growth of Flux7 (our previous startup) for the first two years and remained a very effective method till acquisition. Check out our articles here and here on building a content strategy.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Optimize your website for search engines so that it ranks higher in search results. This includes using keywords in your content, improving your website's loading speed, and making sure your website is mobile-friendly.

While deciding between what content to write, we always used SEO as a guide to prioritize certain topics. This built long-term value. Content and SEO produced more than 50% of our revenue at Flux7. Check out our articles here and here on building an SEO strategy.

Networking Opportunities

Attend industry events, join professional organizations, and connect with potential clients on LinkedIn. By building relationships with other professionals in your field, you can increase your visibility and reach potential clients who might not have found you otherwise.

Some of our early leads at Flux7 came from local meetup groups. They cost us practically nothing, but some of these early leads paved the path to some big case studies which earned us more credibility and business. You can read our article on events to learn more about how to grow your network.

Referral Marketing

Encourage your existing clients to refer their friends and colleagues to your business. We always strived to provide the best service, and then at the end ask for our clients to refer business to us. This was our third biggest source of leads at Flux7. Check out our article here on increasing referrals.

Virtual Events

Host webinars, virtual roundtable discussions, and other online events to reach your target audience and establish yourself as an expert in your field. You can promote these events through your social media channels and email marketing.

While we did less of this at Flux7, this is a technique that we are finding effective for Vixul. Check out our blog post on the 10-step guide to maximize ROI from events

Partner with Complementary Businesses

Partnering with complementary businesses can help you reach a wider audience and expand your network. At Flux7, partner leads produced about a third of our business. Check out our articles here and here to build strategic partnerships to grow your business.

Public Relations

Reach out to journalists and bloggers in your industry and pitch them stories about your business. This can help you gain exposure and build your brand as a thought leader in your field. While this does not produce leads directly, the brand development leads to more credibility which magnifies other marketing efforts.

We used to apply for relevant awards and also stay in touch with relevant journalists and analysts. See this article as an example: https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/flux7-looks-to-drive-successful-devops-pilots-with-automated-solution-packages

Implementing these cost-effective marketing strategies can help you reach your target audience, establish your brand as a trusted provider of technology solutions, and grow your business.

An important note: Measuring your results is crucial in determining the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. By tracking your progress and analyzing the data, you can identify what strategies are working well and which ones are not. This allows you to make informed decisions on where to allocate your resources and what changes to make to your marketing plan. Additionally, measuring your results helps you continually improve your marketing tactics, ensuring that you stay ahead of the competition and remain relevant in the market.

Next Steps

Pick one or two strategies that you think will be most effective to reach your audience and start your experiments. Check out the linked articles to help you grow your choice experiments. And subscribe to our blog to keep up with the latest articles from Vixul.