Any suggestions on how to market a marketing product? lol (12 posts)

  • Profile picture of
    Guide
    Jennifer Cripps said
    7 months, 3 weeks ago:

    We are web developers, not salesmen. We developed a marketing product that we don’t know how to market! Is that crazy or what? The problem is: it is a mobile marketing package that we want to create a reseller network for. Yes, we can sell it to “our” own web customers…but it really needs to be utilized nationwide.

    I joined this club in hopes to search out some good advice. If there are any sales people that can offer suggestions, I would be most appreciative. We have a website and social media in place, and we have started contacting web studios, but there has to be a better way.

    Thanks,
    Jennifer

    @foxxtrot | # | Top
  • Profile picture of
    Moderator
    E N Brown said
    7 months, 3 weeks ago:

    Hello Jennifer.

    Just by looking at what you are doing now:

    Twitter is a great tool – but your account is not used daily – you should use Buffer or Hoot Suite and plan your tweets so you are tweeting multiple times per day. Do some personal tweets too, mix it up.  Start following people! You are not following anyone yet! LOL 
    FB Page – Are you advertising this at twitter?  Another thing you can do for both places. 

    Google+ is a must – go get an account - ASAP and start connecting.

    Since you have not explored social media much as yet – you need an SM plan.
    If what you have to offer is a platform/software type product search out places such as SoftCity to help boost your visibility in the right arena. 

    Join places like Reddit.com - Only you (and your associates) can advertise the way you want – you just need a marketing plan. 

    How many people are in your organization?  Do they all have SM accounts and memberships at other places online?  Does every single one of them tweet (etc.) on a daily basis?

    What kind of budget are you working off of?  If you have a good budget for advertising/marketing you can hire a firm to lay out a great marketing plan for you and your associates.

    Eileen :D

    @supereb | # | Top
  • Profile picture of
    Sage
    Joan Muschamp (Fagnani) said
    7 months, 3 weeks ago:

    @foxxtrot It would all depend on your target customer where the best source of your channel marketers might reside. Simple affiliate programs could work, but you need to identify the actual target user first. Then you back up and look for those who are in frequent day to day contact.

    @joanmuschampfagnani | # | Top
  • Profile picture of
    Moderator
    E N Brown said
    7 months, 3 weeks ago:

    @joanmuschampfagnani – best advice.

    However, you need to be (have a presence) at those places to have a handle on how to find the demographics you need, mostly, usually, sometimes. Heh. :D

    Eileen 

    @supereb | # | Top
  • Profile picture of
    Sage
    Joan Muschamp (Fagnani) said
    7 months, 3 weeks ago:

    @supereb Totally agree, should have said I thought you were right on target. starting without a strategy and plan (which both include lots of elements) usually delivers a hot mess with no consistent results. Singing from the same sheet of music :)

    @joanmuschampfagnani | # | Top
  • Don Grandy
    Explorer
    Don Grandy said
    7 months, 3 weeks ago:

    @foxxtrot I have a few suggestions for you.  DM me @ dongrandy@qthree.ca

    @don-grandy | # | Top
  • Profile picture of
    Firestarter
    Preston Odenbrett said
    7 months, 3 weeks ago:

    @foxxtrot – just messaged you, we should talk further- could see some great potential with some of my major clients.. know a little bit what you are trying to do. Was there, done that :) Talk soon.

    @prestonodenbrett | # | Top
  • Profile picture of
    Guide
    Jennifer Cripps said
    7 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Thanks for the quick response! E. & Joan- I definitely need to get Twitter to tweetin. Although I’ve never tweeted a tweet before!  Our plan was to target the people who could benefit from our package through e-mail, calls, and posting at different sites, then drive them to our website, then, if they were interested, they go to our social media. I need to work it both ways though. My team members each have roles, and my husband & I are the marketing ones. The others may have SM accounts, but they don’t know what to do either, ha, and working on their part. But- maybe they can chip a few minutes to post on their SM. I really appreciate your time- I will check out Soft City and Reddit!

    Don & Preston- Thanks for your info!

    @foxxtrot | # | Top
  • Profile picture of
    Whiz
    Geoffrey Gordon said
    7 months, 2 weeks ago:

    I was in marketing for about 5 years before I was a web developer. So I understand your question quite well. Technical people are not always people savvy. When i made the transition to running my own business Then those selling skills really handy. But what i really learned was to evolve my selling skills. Below are some examples of changing my thinking:

    Phone calls – you make a lot of these. Personally I hate cold calling. second of all most people hate getting cold calling.

    Solution 1: Think how you can help the customer before you make a sale. The key is to give first before you can get. Rather see how you can send a resource to your potential client to help them and build trust before just asking right out. If you are technical use your technical skills. Connect with customers on places like linked in questions and answers. Blog about the need and then give the answer free. As you are helpful to others you will inevitably draw an interested crowd after you.

    Email – You need a huge list to spam the masses, which just unsubscribe

    Solution 2: The key here is to grow an email list here that people actually subscribed to and want to buy form you. That way when you show them your product, you will get a much higher interest than spamming the world. Spamming is like cold emailing. Spend the time to grow your email list.

    Resources: http://socialtriggers.com/list-building/


    Networking – Going to meetings to meet and make connections. Often i found this was just a glorified meeting for sales people to meet more sales people :(

    Solution 3: Guest blogging! Think of it this way your website may get limited visits, but on a blog where there are many thousands of visitors a guest post can send a lot of traffic to your website. Much more effective than meeting a bunch of sales people. It gives you authority and reach a lot quicker and faster. 

    Resources: http://guestblogging.com/ and  http://myblogguest.com/

    @geoffrey-gordon | # | Top
  • Profile picture of
    Club Leader
    Rich Brooks said
    7 months, 2 weeks ago:

    @foxxtrot
    This is more general business advice rather than social media advice. I don’t feel you have to be on Twitter, or Google+ or any other specific social network. 

    If you’ve never tweeted before, jumping on Twitter to promote your product will probably end in frustration.

    You say you have a marketing product you don’t know how to market. Well, then I question if you do. 

    If you don’t know how to market, you have no idea if what you’ve created is actually a product marketers would want or need.

    (I’m not trying to be a jerk. At most, a devil’s advocate.)

    You say you can sell it to your current customer base. Start there. Sell it to them, and if they won’t buy it, give it to them as beta testers. Find out what they like and don’t like. Fix what they don’t like, and start creating content around what they do like.

    Put that content into blog posts. I’m assuming this is a software product; if so, create videos that show how to use it and maximize one’s return on investment.

    If you use twitter, start is as a customer support tool that beeps your phone so you can see when people rave (or bitch) about it.

    Hope that helps. 

    @rich-brooks | # | Top
  • Profile picture of
    Guide
    Jennifer Cripps said
    7 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Thanks Geoffrey & Rich- my brain’s been churning this morning. We did put the product in beta testing and the man over it did a fabulous job . He’s a sparky that loves sales and garnered a lot of resellers. So we know the product is good and businesses love it. We are wanting to do what he did, but we are just not sparklers. I think I’m accepting that fact this morning. I am an artist and I design things. I am not a saleslady. It would make me miserable. I think our best bet is find another Sparky. So where’s the best place to find these people?

    @foxxtrot | # | Top
  • Profile picture of
    Captain
    Robin Carlisle said
    6 months, 3 weeks ago:

    @foxxtrot

    Elaine, Joan, Rich, Geoffrey and others gave such great advice… just ditto them all.

    But I must say, for someone as spunky and sparky as you are, Miss Jennifer, it’s hard to believe YOU couldn’t latch on to what caught fire with your hired Sparky and run with that. What did HE say about what worked and what did not. What were HIS recommendations for marketing following his Beta-testing?

    And more important, did you ask those Beta Testers for their opinions on how to best market to people like them? What did they say or recommend? People who get freebies and REALLY like a product/service are usually MORE than willing to offer suggestions because they WANT the product/service to keep working for them. They WANT you to keep fixing/adding/upgrading/improving it. And they know if they don’t help you, the product will fail and they’ll lose their freebie once it becomes outdated. So make sure you ASK them for their help and opinions. They’re invested in you already.

    Robin

    @atlantarobin | # | Top

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