Why Government Contractors Need Digital Marketing
All contractors in the public sector are faced with the same challenges these days. Whether you are focused on talent acquisition or business development, every government contractor aims to invite more qualified leads into their pipeline. The end goal is to hire top talent, secure contracts, and win deals. It’s a highly competitive space so much so that securing contracts and winning deals has been met with increased difficulty.
In fact, 15% of government agencies cite competition as a key concern in their business today. In fact, in a recent Deltek GovWin webinar, when asked about their #1 challenge in winning contracts “increased competition” received the most response.[1]
Marketing New and Now
In the past, groups in government have downplayed the role of marketing. However, Covid has changed yet another way businesses function in this “new normal.” There is a notable shift in business to government (B2G) marketers. A growing number of contract decision-makers are consuming info across the web.
Prospects are in search of helpful content to address their everyday challenges. Similar to B2B and B2C spaces, stakeholders in government groups and primaries are on a hunt for solutions. You have to go to where your prospects congregate across top media and platforms. Now is the time to move forward with digital marketing.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing calls for the telling of a story. By frequently showcasing impactful content, you can promote your value long before an RFP is put forth.
The latest stats are revealing. 25% of defense agencies working for the government use social media to follow government contracting firms. 40% of these agencies use it for the purpose of research. This is to find products, services, and companies.
In this increasingly online world, digital marketing campaigns stand as the answer to reaching a specific audience with the story you want to tell. These mark the efficient path to driving success in procurement.
Reaching Your Audience
Thanks to the web, surfers of the web can tap into any topic and with a few punches of key phrases into a search engine, find the solutions they need. Scenarios may include a software engineer on the hunt for a job in government or an agency shopping for the best solutions provider. It could even involve a primary looking for the next contract partner. Whether purposefully or leisurely searching, each is keeping their eyes peeled for a solution that lines up with their needs.
As a marketer, you have to carry out exhaustive market research. You see the importance of presenting relevant content directly in the line of vision of your audience. The end goal is the strategic placement of the right message at the opportune time and in the exact digital space to create the biggest impact. This calls for the know-how of an industry expert.
Are you getting insights into what the competition is doing from a marketing standpoint?
Doing any A/B testing? Which messaging is winning contracts or hiring the most-desired job candidates?
Do you know your share of voice (SOV) for your capabilities?
Trends to Follow
Despite the new concepts in marketing, traditional methods remain important. Networking and sponsorship have long proved effective mediums to reach your target market. While these serve as the building blocks to your strategic plan, there are some key trends to be on the lookout for. Get a glimpse into what should be leveraged in this digital era:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): This refers to the process of improving your website. Visibility can be high or low as it appears in various search engines (Google, Bing, etc.). When people surf the web, your company’s product or service offering should be in their direct line of sight. The goal is to be found for your solutions more often than being found for your name.
Display: In order to project into the minds of your prospects, you need to raise awareness, present a solution, and reinforce it with thought leadership. In the event that SEO is not where it needs to be, the use of “display” can be vital. Targeting can occur at the location or geo-level, i.e., in highly concentrated areas. You can weave in targets by behavior and demographic as well. It can drive traffic to a specific capability in which your company has expertise. With specific job and company targeting, you can hone in on those segments with whom you most want to connect.
The bottom line is that frequent and consistent messaging establishes trust and builds familiarity with your brand. With display, you have the ability to test varied creative messages. These can be leveraged to drive a better response of different tactics. Lastly, conversion metrics are helpful in guiding your prospect down the decision-making funnel.
Social Media: Communications on websites and apps are vital to your business. These are well used in the industry and on social campaigns like LinkedIn and even Facebook. This is where new concepts are spotted, old ones shared, and serve as a key source for referrals. It is deemed the modern-day virtual meeting point for word-of-mouth and lead generation. Due to the intrinsic commenting and sharing, think of it as a virtual conversation.
Thought Leadership: A big push in the marketing arena is to pull traffic to your website through thought leadership. This marketing strategy elicits the advice of an expert in the field. Fostered through content marketing and blog posts, it is one of the most important tactics and can be leveraged across multiple channels/tactics. The ideology is to provide the answers to the burning questions that are being posed by your target audience.
Final Thoughts
You need to adopt the most current marketing tactics when strategizing to reach your target. Your first step is to market in and around the digital space. Second, you must choose a partner with deep subject matter expertise.
AMG Defense Tech is the go-to specialist in B2B and B2G marketing. We plan and launch cutting-edge strategies that are pertinent in the defense and high-tech arena. A strong digital presence is vital to the attraction of new prospects and streamlined targeting. AMG Defense Tech puts forth exhaustive research and collaborates on goals that are top of mind. We will build a digital marketing plan that syncs all distribution strategies and touts your brand to the target decision-makers. Contact us today to learn more.
