Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

There are a number of factors to consider - not only cost, but also gross margin, level of competition, your current market position, and how "innovative and unique" your solution is.

Without knowing more, you might consider a strategy where you divide your market into "A" and "B" prospects based on company demographics (business type, number of employees, location, current installed software..).

For the "B" prospects, you use a variety of lead generation techniques (email, direct mail, pay per click advertising, search engine optimization, sales thru channel partners, seminar programs, trade show participation, lurking in related discussion groups, etc.) and follow up with those companies who express interest.

(If you identify a company who will probably never purchase your services, maybe they are owned by a competitor or have a different computing environment, keep them in your database as "C" prospects - so you will know not to waste your time and budget marketing to them).

For your best prospects, the "A" prospects, you have a long term program to pursue multiple decisionmakers at each organization by phone and mail, with email as followup to phone calls. If you need help putting this sort of program together for those "A" prospects, let me know.