In the early days of its business, Zoom focused its sales and marketing efforts on a specific niche target segment: remote users ( students/business users). This strategy proved to be very successful, as it allowed Zoom to quickly acquire a large customer base. By focusing on the needs of a specific group of users, and collecting feedback Zoom was able to develop a product and marketing message that resonated with its target audience.
Copy Zoom's winning marketing strategy with these 3 takeaways
1. Content marketing: With the help of content marketing, Zoom created training materials and demo videos to educate and engage their target audience. This content helped Zoom establish itself as a thought leader in the video conferencing industry and set it apart from its competitors. The content helped Zoom to promote benefits that bridged the gap between the needs of remote users and existing video conferencing products.
2. Targeted Advertising: Advertising focused on Institutions they were targeting rather than individuals in California or US or any given region. These campaigns probably highlighted the benefits of Zoom for these specific audiences, such as the ability to conduct remote meetings, webinars, and online classes.
3. Social media influencer marketing: Zoom partnered with social media influencers to promote its free video conferencing tool. These influencers, who were popular with Zoom's target audience, helped to raise awareness of the product and generate positive word-of-mouth.
According to the CMO, Zoom had a strategy to allocate a small budget for any new idea and monitor the results closely to ensure that they make large investments in ideas that have a proven track record of success. They used the same strategy for marketing as well.
Their first big institutional client was Stanford University in 2012 that got them a sizeable subscriber base and build reputation. Zoom pursued partnerships and collaborations with popularly deployed software’s as well as hardware companies. This included integrating with Teambox, Salesforce, Logitech and many more in later years of business.
Partnerships with providers that were relevant to their target segment was one of the best moves by Zoom and led to early adoption of the platform vis a vis an approach of simply pushing the platform with Ad spend. The ad spend was then targeted at the identified prospects.
How can your start-up copy Zoom's Marketing Strategy?
1. Target customers may change over time- focus resources on the target segmentation that can give you a quick win.
2. Don’t follow generic marketing trends on social media platforms, think about what content is relevant for your preferred target segment and where you will find them.
3. Build relevant partnerships and collaborate with successful providers.
Stay updated with more winning strategies.
Comments