Of all the IT sectors cybersecurity is currently among the most rapid growers, along with big data, AI and IoT. Its importance is growing with every passing year as hackers get ever more inventive and we get ever more reliant on technology both in business and everyday life.
A company entering this market now has all the chances to make it big, but to do so, you need not only first-class tech professionals but also the right approach to marketing. Businesses working in this industry meet their own set of challenges – and today we are going to talk about them.
1. Competition is savage
Cybersecurity market is booming and is likely to exceed $300 billion by 2024, but so is competition in this sector. There are already plenty of big players in this field, and new ones appear all the time, all with their own offers and willing to fight hard for their slice of the pie.
If you are going to succeed in this environment, you need something that sets you apart from the competition without making unrealistic claims. These can attract attention, but in the end, it is companies that can back up their words that get the appreciation of clients.
2. Customers often don’t know what they need
The very nature of cybercrime means constant and rapid arms race between hackers and cybersecurity professionals. New threats appear all the time, as do the means of dealing with them, the landscape of the industry often changes overnight, and it happens too fast for your average client to keep up with.
This means that most of your clients have a rather vague or outdated understanding of what it means to have tight cybersecurity, what threats they have to worry about and what they can do to counter them. This also means that a huge share of your marketing efforts is going to be dedicated not so much to promoting your services as to educating your potential clients about their problems and solutions to them.
3. Businesses often don’t consider cybersecurity important
Despite massive evidence to the contrary, many businesses fail to understand how crucial cybersecurity is. Many believe cyber threats to be something that only happens to other people and don’t start to take measures against them until they learn how bad they can be first-hand. Others make token efforts to protect themselves or use outdated solutions, believing them to be enough, and it is not an easy task to make them change their minds.
In other words, a huge part of a cybersecurity marketer’s job is to create a sense of urgency among those that can benefit from their services.
4. You have to choose a niche
Cybersecurity market is very diverse, with different types of customers needing vastly different solutions. It is usually wrong to try and sell to everybody, but it is doubly so when it comes to cybersecurity. If you want to succeed here, you have to choose a specific sector (data protection, cloud security, endpoint, etc.) and concentrate on it.
If you make an effort to create a reputation of a high-class professional in a specific field, clients are more likely to choose you than if you offer non-specific services.
5. You will have to target potential clients across all levels
While the idea of selling to the top representatives of the target company may seem like a good idea (and it often is, in other industries), in cybersecurity things aren’t that simple. Even if you get in touch with a top executive, and he likes your sales pitch, he is still unlikely to make a single-handed decision. Most likely, he will pass the decision on to the tech team, who are more likely to have the expertise to see all the pros and cons. This means that if you want to sell your product successfully you have to be ready to deal with all levels of the target company, from a CEO to individual tech specialists, and your sales pitch should reflect it.
Conclusion
Cybersecurity is a complicated and messy industry that often works by different rules than most other markets. Marketing in such an environment is challenging by definition, and while these tips don’t cover all the pitfalls you are likely to face, they will help you avoid some of the most common mistakes.