What is the first step to driving leads?

• Look for people who are asking questions about the kind of problems your software solves. LinkedIn Answers, for instance.
• Ask for referrals from existing clients; ask people you know who say their company doesn't need your solution if they know any who do.
• Do competitive research. Identify your competitors (or companies that provide a solution targeting the same audience). See where they get their traffic from, who's linking to them, what other sites their audience visits.
  • Participate in community sites that your target audience is on. Network, demonstrate expertise, be helpful.
• Find out what your target audience is looking for. Produce & promote website content that gives them what they want.

Well to be honest you are going to need some kind of marketing budget even if its a small budget. How many leads do you need before you gain a sale. For instance, do you need to generate 100 leads before you ultimately produce one sale. Knowing this will help you understand if your marketing tactics are working. How will you capture leads?

I would begin with a website, doesn't have to cost a lot of money to set up and maintain. You can use the website to produce information for prospects and capture leads. What are the problems that your customers typically face? Create content that answers these questions. Join the groups that your prospects join and participate. Write articles for the trade magazines and association they are involved. Create a newsletter that will help you keep in touch with prospects and keep them engaged with your company. Inbound marketing requires that you create content for your prospects and put it out on the web for them to find. You can create videos demonstrating your software. Create slideshows with slideshare demonstrating your software, webinars, podcasts and a variety of other content pertaining to your software, including white papers, special reports, ebooks and much more.

This strategy take time. The first step is to create a marketing plan for your business. I would create an one year marketing plan. Then research how your prospects go about obtaining information when then begin looking for software to purchase, what are their main concerns and address those concerns with your marketing material. Use linkedin or other online networking groups and your current customers to ask questions and find out what their needs are and how they go about researching solutions to their needs. Then find ways to go about addressing those needs. If you are not a writer you can hire a writer for a reasonable cost on a project by project basis. I would be aware that the cheapest writer is not always the best writer. Find a writer who understand your industry and can convey the information in a way that is in line with your how your company presents itself.

Begin by creating your marketing plan so that you can plan these activities over a period of time and spread the cost. Don't forget to create a way to measure your marketing activities.

Agreeing with Jennifer, are you saying you're spending many thousands per month to build a product and $0 to promote it? Doesn't make sense does it?

Cold-calling is rarely cost-effective, so I agree you need a lead-generation approach in which the people who already need you will discover you for themselves.

An easy way to spend a little money to get a few leads and learn what message they want to hear is to spend a small budget on various AdWord keywords and ad texts. Find what resonates, then when you're confident you have a powerful message you can spend a little more with more traditional advertising.

Try Inbound Marketing - Read the book if you have not. Simple way to get to people who are researching the problem you are solving.

• The number one, most valuable way to drive leads will be through your website. Your site should be educational, simple, and offer easy access to your pricing.
• The most effective marketing dollars you will ever spend are on SEO. Building up sustainable, organic traffic will continue to provide value for years to come. Ad clicks will give you visitors in the short term, but for every dollar spent, you are basically throwing money away. People trust Google for giving them the information they're looking for and if you can be found through that medium, visitors are much more likely to reward you with their business. SEO is an investment and comparing it to buying ads is analogous renting vs buying a home.
• Once you have built up a reasonable amount of traffic, converting visitors into leads and of course sales is equally as important as being found. A simple contact form or phone number is not enough. People like to buy online at their own convenience and don't always want to pick up the phone. Check out a tool like Socket that will let you build your own automated quote forms and sell online.