Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Before reaching out, I'd ensure that you can clearly articulate why Jamvee is better that Skype, Google Hangout, etc. (all free options that run on multiplatform devices) or WebEx & GoToMeeting (well-known for-pay options) - these are likely to be the first questions in the minds of your target audience.

Next - I'd give it away for a limited time (6 months?) to non-profits worldwide. It's a great humanitarian gesture, and you'll start to get lots of feedback on the tools/service to build testimonials/white papers.

I'd also consider setting up the tool so that small video chats (6 or fewer people) would also be free (perhaps for a limited time). Let small teams migrate to the tool inside larger organizations - again for testing & testimonial purposes.

Finally, a contest for "best use of Jamvee". Let your users tell their stories about how it mattered in their business/lives. Then you can have the public vote on the the best entries that you select. That'll build in more stories & additional social interest.

What you need to do first, before even thinking of your 250k in ad spend - is to refine your message. This you will need to do with real people. Not just anybody, and certainly not the people who work for you. The people you need to target are the kind of people who will buy and use this. Who are they, where do they go online, what are they thinking when they see your ad?

Because describing what you're doing and describing how fast it is will not keep them reading. They've got Skype all set up and are happy with it despite its peculiarities. What can you say to them in the first three sentences that will both inform them - and as importantly, catch their interest?

After all, you need them to click through on your ads - and you need them to read to the end so that they can sign up to your newsletter. That way, even if they're only luke warm about your product, you can keep in touch with them.

As to free offers, my answer is don't. There is a clever strategy that was worked out by Claude Hopkins in the early 1920s that turned it around, and it puzzles me why so few people use it. Because you can give them a certificate that's worth whatever a month's subscription is (say $100). You can see if people would like to test it for a month, two months or three.

That way people know what it'll cost them, and it's not free. Sure, the certificate costs you nothing but it will form a value in the minds of your prospects. They will look at your product with fresh eyes. Make sure they understand you are giving them something valuable.

My next point is what you should say. Neither you nor I know this - but your prospects do. The biggest secret in marketing is simply to ask your customers. Not what they think - but what they like to read, and that means clicks, click throughs and signups. Whichever yields you the best sign-up rate (or cost per sign-up) is the text to use. My bet is that if you have some copy that's written for the reader and not the CEO of Tata Communications, you'll get an improvement that will do a lot more than just nudge the needle. Most people in Adwords get CTRs of 3% - because they're not speaking to the people reading their message. It's easy to get 15-25% by focusing on what they're thinking when they read your message. More to the point is that you can use the content and style of your landing page in every piece of advertising you have - from brochures to websites to press releases.

In short, find out what your customers want. Then give it to them. That way you'll not be wasting much of that large ad spend you've got.

As to reaching out to senior management, you can try Linkedin advertising. You can target demographics very easily.

Does this help any? If you need more, just query it or make a suggestion. That's what I'm here for.