Marketing Principles and Software Business: A Review of Strategies, Business Models, and Customer Relationships

Fast evolution of digital technologies, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has greatly changed the business environment of the software industry. In this environment, marketing principles play an important role in meeting customer needs, generating value, competing in the market, and establishing relations with customers. The current review paper emphases on the application of marketing values in the software business environment including such issues as market segmentation, targeting and positioning, marketing mix tactics, software pricing, digital marketing, customer relationship management, customer acquisition, customer retention, and SaaS business models. A narrative literature review methodology was chosen to review existing studies related to marketing principles and software businesses. The results of this literature review show that traditional marketing principles continue to remain important, but they should be adapted to new business environments. From the analyzed literature, it is evident that efficient software marketing is based on customer-oriented software development, proper pricing policies, digital communication, and customer involvement. Moreover, the reviewed literature shows that in SaaS businesses, customer onboarding, product adoption, and retention and renewals are particularly important. Based on the analyzed literature, an integrated view of marketing principles applied in software businesses is outlined.The study concludes that integrating marketing principles with technological capabilities can enhance customer value, strengthen competitive advantage, and support sustainable software business growth.