Hi,
I guess i am a novice is this field and would like to throw a few questions at the community –
( I understand that answers to these questions may differ between different business types)
1. How much budget do you guys keep aside for just marketing (Pre/Post revenue) ? Please mention type of business.
2. Does web marketing/SEO generate positive sales leads ? I find most of the SEO guys unethical and spammers, and very annoying when they post about your company link in irrelevant blog articles.
3. Whats your take on print media, and how effective is that for positive leads?
4. Practically what worked better for you – google-adwords/ banner at some website ?
5. Any innovative ways you used to get positive coverage ?
Jaspreet
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Jaspreet,
Since you’ve already been thro with an exhaustive beta, it’s time those early users make some positive noise. Record those and splash them liberally across your website, pamphlets and brochures that accompany the package. I know Adaptec has used this strategy to the hilt in evangelizing their Snap EDR.
As well try hiring a sales and marketing support agency offering a full portfolio of services ranging from message and pipeline development to public and analyst relations support (specializing in your domain) – on a revenue sharing basis with a low front end fee. It will save you precious time defining and refining market segments and databases.
Regular releases to industry specific newswires / trade journals. They will lap it up as it gives them free content and for you, a free medium.
The one I can immediately think of is http://www.tabormarketing.com/publications/index.htm
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. This type of knowledge is most expensive coz it is filtered with true performance.
Thanks Vivek,
Yup I guess i will reinvest the money inSync makes into some web marketing and SEO. This should get some visibility, users (product experience) and brand. Money is not something i would focus on in immediate future.
India is a market of its known, resellers rule the enterprise space. Biggies like dell also had to bend and shred-off direct model.
And, my experience says ultimately what works for resellers is –
1. Print adds
2. Beer fueled seminars …
3. Big Fat margins
Thanks again,
Jaspreet,
If you are planning to sell your product worldwide, you are absolutely going to have to do SEO and keyword marketing.
For example, I searched for “laptop backup software” which would probably be a target keyword for your company. You really have to get in the top 50 results. The results will be dramatic.
Since, you and I are new to the game – it takes time. Until then you can sign up for adwords and spend a bit of money to get on the Sponsored Links.
About your other questions :
>> 1. How much budget do you guys keep aside for just marketing (Pre/Post revenue) ? Please mention type of business >>
None – pre revenue. About Rs 10K – 15K/ month for adwords – post revenue. Type of business is packaged software. Right now we have frozen the adwords campaign. Will restart again when we have a new release shortly. Since you guys are funded, it would be worthwhile to announce your product to the world in a big way. A press release via a company like PR News Wire and a major adwords and print campaign would be the way to go.
>> 2. Does web marketing/SEO generate positive sales leads ? I find most of the SEO guys unethical and spammers, and very annoying when they post about your company link in irrelevant blog articles. >>
Absolutely. This is the way to go.
>> 3. Whats your take on print media, and how effective is that for positive leads? >>
Never tried it. I think mentions in print media which also have online presence (eg, E-magazine) help with Google.
>> 4. Practically what worked better for you – google-adwords/ banner at some website ? >>
Adwords, although I had positive results from site-targeted ads at a few networking forums like Sadikhov / Juniper / Cisco forums.
To sum up, it all depends on your business. My business depends on volume sales. Even though I may have 50 customers, including top names, it does not make much money yet because each customer only buys 1-5 licenses. Multiply with the unit price and you get the picture. The good news is it takes no extra effort to sell 500 (other than finding those additional 450 customers of course 🙂 ) We have no customers in India so the internet is the companys’ lifeline to the outside world.
Hope this helps.
Good luck. This is the hardest type of business, not to mention the least glamorous.
In my experience working at an early stage startup, we started marketing with a very small marketing budget 25K per year. We generated most of the leads by going to various product review sites and published info on our products. We used webwire for issuing one PR per month on the average. Attended product roadshows and spread the word around. Contacted CXOs of major IT spending firms one-to-one, got one lead for every 50 contacts. Our product revenue was 4mn per year, so not a huge market but it did get us going with minimal marketing.