Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Internet Marketing With Limited Resources - How?

Posted by wayneb on 3/20/2014 at 2:29 PM ET 500 Points
I work for a small company that provides online software to corporations (B2B). One challenge I face is how to market with very limited resources. We have a very active email marketing program and do a little advertising, but we can't afford most advertising opportunities in our market space. On social media, we post often but have not been able to engage our followers very much. What are some things we can do for little or no money? Are there innovative marketing practices that I'm missing?
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  • Posted by mgoodman on 3/20/2014 at 2:44 PM Moderator
    When you say "we can't afford most advertising opportunities" is that because your margins are too thin, or because the market is just too small, or because the owners think other things are more important than marketing?

    There may be some things you can do that are low/no-cost, but most of the time you get what you pay for.

    Try this: make a lot of cold calls. Try phone and/or email, but also try showing up in person, and offer to help -- with no obligation or sales pitch. See what the prospect's problems are, and really try to help them. If and when the time is right, they'll ask you about your product; that's when you explain it -- to a friend.

    Remove the pressure to sell something NOW. Really help the customer with what's important to them. When you get good at this, you'll be able to spot the prospects whose biggest problem is the one you can solve best. The investment is time, not money.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 3/20/2014 at 6:24 PM Member
    Forget about engaging people: enthrall them, delight them, amuse and amaze them. Care about them. Thrill them. Stun them.
  • Posted by modza on 3/20/2014 at 11:22 PM Accepted
    KSA asks the first questions I would ask in order to offer useful suggestions. And I agree with mgoodman when he urges you to understand their problems, whether or not those problems have anything to do with your products. However, I espouse the "Challenger" approach to sales. Don't waste prospects' or customers' time by making them tell you their problems. Much much better if you can analyze their situation and shake them up, challenge their thinking with a radically different underlying problem. (A la Gary Bloomer.) Which you are positioned to solve. But in any case, if you can help people with the problems they think they have, they may let you help them with the problems you think they have.

    Are you giving them any assistance now, with no strings attached? In other words, is your website chock full of information and insight they can't (easily) find anywhere else? Are your best presentations on slideshare, so that you're positioning yourself as the expert in the field?

    When you can identify the potential buyers, you can then figure out where they get their information relating to your niche. Or where they "hang out" in a business sense. (You don't usually want to pitch business people in family or other non-business settings.) You could do a search for a key phrase on Facebook -- maybe they really are there. (I doubt it.) Then on Twitter. You may find your customers and/or your competitors there. Maybe they are on stackoverflow or other software forums, industry associations, trade shows. (For trade shows, you don't have to have an expensive booth -- just attend, and schedule meetings off the floor.) But wherever they are -- and by where, I mean using what media or platforms, that's where you have to be.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 3/21/2014 at 7:24 AM Member
    I would interview customers with hopes of better understanding how they benefit from your product, why they selected your product over the competitors, and who they think might benefit from your product. I would especially Keith my eyes open for unusual customers who might offer clues to new target markets. I would hope to generate referrals and testimonials and case studies, which would probably help drive traffic and engagement.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 3/21/2014 at 8:01 AM Member
    How are your sales trending? What's the competitive landscape for your offering? Have you tried developing white papers/case studies for effectively solving users' issues utilizing your software?
  • Posted by wayneb on 3/21/2014 at 11:09 AM Author
    mgoodman, we can't afford most advertising opportunities due to a small marketing budget. That's why I'm looking for ideas on low/no cost marketing tactics. Our sales team is already making a lot of cold calls, with low success rates. It's tough to help the customer with a problem they're facing that doesn't relate to our software. Our audience is in a highly specialized field and our account executives can't offer much advice to prospects because they don't have the years of experience in the field that prospects have. They do offer advice as much as they can, though.

    KSA, we are selling online crisis management software to primarily business continuity managers/directors. They are very risk-averse and conservative.

    modza, we are giving them some assistance now through our sales team, but it's limited as to how much advice they can give, due to the highly specialized nature of this field. As for our website, it has lots of information (white papers, case studies, webinars) and insights (blog), but most of it does not relate directly to our products. We have a few presentations on SlideShare.

    Jay Hamilton-Roth, our sales are flat. There are a huge number of competitors, most of which are larger than us. The largest competitor is an estimated 30x larger. We have developed white papers, but only one of them focuses on solving problems using our software. The rest of them are focused on general problems that will interest our audience. Our case studies focus on how the software is helping people.

    Are there any Internet marketing tactics that we should be considering? Perhaps something guerilla or disruptive?
  • Posted by mgoodman on 3/21/2014 at 1:34 PM Accepted
    I feel for you. Whoever set the marketing budget probably doesn't understand that there is a cost for generating sales. Maybe it's time to cut back on sales activity and live off the customers you have, rather than try to manufacture new sales without an adequate budget. There comes a time in most brands' lives when that's appropriate. It doesn't pay to invest in a dying horse.

    I know this isn't what you asked, but we (and you) are not magicians. There are very few free lunches.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 3/21/2014 at 9:09 PM Member
    Can you hire one of your clients to act as a consultant to your sales team?
    Can you offer a trade(-up) of your software for free in exchange for the competitor's software installation disks?
    Can you repurpose your software for another vertical?
  • Posted by wayneb on 3/22/2014 at 3:33 PM Author
    Jay, we cannot afford to hire a client as a consultant. We do offer something akin to a trade-up. Our web application is purchased on a multi-year contract. If a company is unhappy with their current solution and they have time remaining on their contract, we will replace the system and they pay nothing for the remaining term of the competitors contract.
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