How to Market Cloud Solutions: A Step-by-step Guide

As more and more businesses move to the cloud, VARs can find it difficult to know how to market cloud solutions effectively. It is even more difficult is to inform your target customers of your innovative product offering.

Cloud computing has become the most disruptive force in IT spending since the last few years. According to a Gartner report, the amount of money IT has spent on cloud services this year is $114 billion, which will grow to $216 billion in the year 2020.

Another report by Gartner stated that the double-digit growth of this segment is estimated at 18%, with cloud computing and services business expected to reach $300 billion by 2021.

As the growth is constantly picking up in the already competitive cloud solutions market, one of the major challenges IT vendors are facing is the shift in customer buying habits. This can be resolved the way companies market the product. With the emergence of new cloud products, companies have to first identify the untapped opportunities to stand out as a cloud marketer.

Here’s all that an IT vendor needs to know before developing a successful marketing strategy in the ever-changing cloud market –

1. A keen understanding of the product and its target audience:

To begin with, it is important to know what your cloud solution accomplishes, and how does it help the client. How do you differentiate your product in the existing competition? The strengths and distinguishing features of your software is crucial information. Using this data, you can build your unique value proposition to sell your products to value-added distributors in the UAE.

Additionally, knowing the unique selling points of your product offerings will help your business narrow down the major customer segments you want to target. Different segments would have differing cloud adoption rates and spending.

2. Create a value-focused marketing message:

Now that you know your USP – it is time to create a positioning statement for your organization. To create a strong positioning statement, you need to focus on what value you are able to deliver for your potential customers. Communicate value by following the steps below –

• Know your customer’s business and what value is important to them
• Collaborate with your customer to identify their needs based on obstacles they face
• Align your customer’s problems with your solutions
• Agree upon the value you can deliver
• Listing your customer pain points with your product solutions with the pain points

3. Identify your business and marketing goals:

Any marketing strategy begins with clearly defined business goals. Before you dive into strategic thinking understand your organization’s goals and then take further action. As the marketing goals can’t be the same and it differs from one organization to another, you cannot follow the same strategy your competitor is following.

4. Find a tech partner to execute strategy:

If you are just starting out, it can be overwhelming to your team to not only brand your solutions but also come up with a go-to-market strategy. A market strategy often starts by identifying relevant business drivers. These include revenue goals, customer interests, and industry developments–or practically anything that answers why you’re building and selling the product.

The two main qualities in a technology partner that you should look for are integration and flexibility. This helps ensure that the cloud services solution, you are about to launch runs as expected.

To gather more information on how strategically you can market cloud products in the already flooded market, you can join the value-added reseller program to learn more about cloud services.

If you are a reseller or an IT vendor looking for more information on how to sell cloud to your customers, speak to our team of experts.

Contact us today for a free consultation.