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As requested, here is more information.

Our startup is PubliciTweet. We're like a Constant Contact for Twitter. While in public beta the service is completely free. We are most interested in acquiring more users than setting up payment options for using the service.

Our potential user base is large and we've tried to identify a couple to begin targeting. These are journalists and musicians. While we've identified them, we're not really sure how to go after them.

Right now we have about 800 users that have created over 1,200 campaigns on Twitter that have generated 50,000 clicks. That is the general overall stats.

Hope that helps :)

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Tell us more about your business. Market? Product? Your goal for the marketing? – Jason Oct 9 '09 at 21:59
Expanded in the description. – Jaisen Oct 10 '09 at 1:28

10 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

I'd like to offer you a completely different perspective since I'm not a Twitter user:

First, I'd suggest you improve your web copy. After I read your home page, I wondered: What's the benefit? Consider your copy from the perspective of a prospect: Why not simply make a public tweet about the new album or the new article? Where's the advantage when using your service?

Your features -- that your service makes it easier to send out many direct messages, to target different groups, and to track results -- are valuable, only, if a prospect understands the benefit.

Second, I wonder whether musicians and journalists are really your best target audiences?

The web is full of web marketeers and they are used to create campaigns. Almost by definition, they always promote something or know someone who does. If you think about their typical tool box (SEO, SEM, etc.), it should be easy to find them: search for appropriate forums, Facebook groups, conferences, journals, newsletters, and, of course, Twitter accounts.

Some of them even promote themselves to other marketeers. They are also more likely to promote your service because many of them need new content for their blogs. So use a Blog search engine to find the most influential bloggers. Probably, they are also more used to the idea of being contacted for promotion purposes.

However, if you like to target musicians: why not reach out to others who already sell something to musicians? For example, companies producing music equipment, journals and web sites reviewing music equipment or the music industry, internet forums about hard disc recording, etc. Get in contact and try to find a way to cooperate or research advertising opportunities. Some of them may already have a Twitter account and many of their followers are likely to be musicians, so try to have them tweet about your service.

Additionally, you should be able to build a list of potential contacts quite easily. Musicians need to promote themselves and sell their music. There are already quite a few web sites who try to help them do that. Think Amie Street and similar services for independents. Get the band names, search the web or MySpace for their home page and then contact them by E-Mail.

The same line of thought could be used for journalists.

Hope that helps.

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Thanks for the verbose response. We have a list of thousands of contacts for musicians that include recording companies, event booking companies, etc. I realize that musicians aren't necessarily the best target when it comes to paying for a service. We thought musicians would be great since they tend to have very loyal fans which would be a natural extension to a medium like Twitter. We've talked about the copy. I'm glad you brought that up. Someone else said they didn't really know what our service offerings were...which was scary. That will probably be top priority. Thanks! – Jaisen Oct 12 '09 at 0:47
up vote 2 down vote

It's not the amount of money, it's how you use it.

Probably one of the best ways is to create good connections with people in your main customer segment (or at least what you think that is for you). Looking at your website, you already have nicely designed website so at least you have done that right even before starting other parts of marketing.

Some might say that Google AdWords would be useful, but I'm not sure if that would be the best way in the beginning. More than that, you should be focusing to the exact web sites where you know there would be good amount of interested people for your service.

One possible way could be to do some sort of interaction with other service providers in way that would benefit both of you. Be helpful and nice as you are making the service for people (who are not just some unknown users).

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We've got a couple journalists and musicians (or music event organizers) using the service. I reached out to the journalist (who they really loves the service) about getting other journalists at their online paper on board. Could you clarify what you mean when you say to interact with other service providers? Which service providers would that be? – Jaisen Oct 10 '09 at 1:40
I was thinking of partnering with blogs and web service providers (who have kind of some web-based applications etc.) who might need your help to get things done more effectively. You could also allow integration of services via API on per-case basis if there is good reason for both of you to benefit from that kind of co-operation. – Daniel Schildt Oct 10 '09 at 9:58
up vote 2 down vote

Find a marketing professional who will spend some time with you without charging you (I would, for instance). From there you can see if it makes sense to hire someone to do something for you. The good thing about independent professionals is that they will give you more objective advice. Many, many times I see entrepreneurs who are so close to their company and product that they can't get the perspective they need to make good choices. Just because you think something is cool or a good idea doesn't meant that it is. The good thing about the space you're in is that you can fail quickly and move on.

I'd wonder about the musician market, since most of them are broke.

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Yea, would love to find someone that would sit down for a "free" consultation. I'm eager to pay someone once I feel confident that they're a good fit and there's synergy. Email me at jaisen@jmathai.com and we can chat :). – Jaisen Oct 10 '09 at 1:36
up vote 2 down vote

I am not very familiar with twitter but you may want to include a few success stories on your website show new users a specific way a current user has used your service and how it benefits their business if you can show how the benefits from your service translate to an increase in traffic or sales. People like to see examples and have something tangible to be convinced. Off line you may look at sponsoring events for journalist or musicians. It is a good idea to talk to people that know nothing about your product to help you see things from a different perspective I wish you good luck! Hope this helps.

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Both good suggestions. Have considered getting testimonials, which should be easy. Have not considered events for journalists or musicians yet. Will look into that and see the benefit/cost ratio there. Thanks. – Jaisen Oct 12 '09 at 0:49
up vote 1 down vote

Should definitely consider inbound marketing, and building a community of users - both on and off your site.

As part of that you will need to 'talk' to your users and get hear form them what they like about your product so that you can emphasize those in your marketing message.

With a limited budget I would spend it on getting a good graphic design done for your site - so that you look professional (see 99designs.com), and do the hard leg work for the rest.

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The site is already professional looking, so that one's taken care of. As far as inbound marketing, is that something you suggest setting up yourself or having a marketing person do that for you? I've set up several blogs on the topic which link back to our service but it's a pretty big time investment to really nurture that into a good source of traffic. A marketing person might be better apt to do that than I. – Jaisen Oct 10 '09 at 1:31
If you are at that point, you should focus on making sure you have repeat users. How many of your users have created multiple campaigns beyond a first test one? Is there something you can do to increase that? Instead of being a cool company that is worth playing, getting users actually benefiting from the product should be your main focus right now. Your main goal should be to get closers to achieve a product/market fit - then increase your spend on marketing. I would spend the time/money on learning from customers by creating surveys and talking to them. – Vineet Oct 10 '09 at 17:21
Oh yeah, a good marketing person will be very helpful. But I would try to use one or two as an advisor (for free) with the understanding that you would not take too much of their time, would do all the legwork yourself, and would use them more when when you have a larger budget. Executing on marketing can take alot of time. You might benefit from focusing on the big picture, planning and starting actionable tasks, and outsourcing small components. You might benefit from making this happen: startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid – Vineet Oct 10 '09 at 17:26
up vote 1 down vote

Save the few thousand, do some Internet homework, perform self-SEO and get active in social networking. When those actions shift gears or fail you will have a better idea where you need the money the most. You could run through the startup cash in no time with AdWords just learning to do it right. Don't be hasty with your limited cash.

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Wise words :). I'm pretty comfortable doing SEO and have done that already. I may benefit by getting some more experienced marketers help me with which keywords to target. I realize that burning through $10k can happen in a blink. That's why I've been hesitant in doing adwords or anything else. Do marketers do payment upon reaching goals or is that considered an insult? – Jaisen Oct 10 '09 at 1:34
It's not an insult it's just not popular. I love the idea of goal based payment. I think it would weed out some of the fly-by-night SEO-SEM businessess. It's not going to happen too soon though becaue the clients aren't demanding it. It would probably take a bigger company doing it successfully to change the industry. You also have the issue of what comes first, the payment or achieving the goal? There is always one party that is at risk financialy. – Blizzard Digital Oct 11 '09 at 22:27
up vote 1 down vote

I know Twitter quite well at this point, so I think you've really nailed it about who your current market is. What you're saying is, the company is Twitter-based, you're currently connected and highly regarded by your current following, so I say use this, definitely.

You may or may not get much money right away, but no one said it would be easy! As you gain reputation and clout, believe me, the big boys are looking for some one to handle things, so they'll come to you.

As far as I can tell, your target markets have very, very clearly defined needs, but not much money at all. I'd approach them with an incredible, "value-added" feature that they just can't refuse. This all may be more work than you're interested in doing, but if you want to utilize your current contacts, I believe that this is really the best way to do it:

Musicians want paying customers - offer to make them a little site with their mp3s playing for download, do a little bio, offer them a little customization, and this is their "product" that they are going to promote with your service. Most don't have s site already, and don't have the time or know-how, but this can be done relatively easily and inexpensively, with their own dotcom and everything.

Journalists want knowledge on PR, marketing and, more specifically, Internet marketing. Journalists may also really appreciate being "branded" with their own site, so I'd say offer this to them as well, but you'll find with journalists that they are struggling to catch up with technology and diversify their skillset. Check out Poynter and see what they're offering.

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up vote 1 down vote

Really like your website design.

Interesting target segments you have selected. Were they selected after studying the initial analytics for the service?

I would do my best to start getting plugged on blogs such as Darren Rowse TwiTip or Brian Clarks Copyblogger. This would help widen the overall appeal of the service and get the word out there regarding your service.

Some case studies of how journalists or musicians have successfully used your service would really help in understanding the power of the service and how it can utilized effectively.

You could sponsor a local networking in your area and specifically target the two segments you have identified. This could be a good way how to showcase your product in person to your target market and get some feedback on the spot as to what they think about it.

Lastly, I would probably launch a blog for the service and have it focused around how twitter as a platform is being leveraged for marketing activities etc.

Wishing you the best of luck and success.

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Thanks. Journalists were selected because we have a few journalists that are using it and have had great success. Musicians were selected because we felt it was a natural fit (but we didn't have any data on that one). We have a blog (blog.publicitweet.com) and we're trying to do what you suggested but have fell a little behind :). Need to dedicate more time to that. Thanks for the comments. – Jaisen Oct 12 '09 at 0:52
up vote 1 down vote

I'm a journalist. If you want to reach journalists and have a budget, start with a press release in an appropriate channel. (I'm in Canada which would be a limited market for you, so not so helpful.)

Also, there are several databases of journalism contacts - these are a much better place to start than trying Google AdWords or more traditional advertising sources. Start a conversation and work the database, just like a PR agency would.

As a journalist I'm contacted all the time and the key thing is an intriguing subject line in the email (the old "what's in it for me" approach) followed up by a really concise, interesting email message. Some people follow-up by phone, but email is almost always the first point of contact.

Sorry - can't help you more with musicians.

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Hey Julie, Thanks for the really helpful comments. If you're interested (as a journalist) to use the service we'd love to hear what thoughts you had and whether or not you feel it's useful. If you have a following on Twitter then it might be a good way to connect with them and keep people interested in your articles. Feel free to email us directly at support@publicitweet.com with suggestions or participate online at getsatisfaction.com/publicitweet. Thanks! – Jaisen Oct 10 '09 at 4:58
I signed up for your service, will let you know if I have any questions. The biggest thing that jumps out at me at first is that I need a quick orientation / faq ... in line with the old adage "don't make me think!" – Julie King Oct 10 '09 at 5:31
We are working on a video tutorial (by working I mean we haven't started just yet!). It's a really simple service so a 2 minute video tutorial should be able to cover most everything you need to know to get started. – Jaisen Oct 12 '09 at 0:50
up vote 0 down vote

Find out what your current users like and don't like most about your service.

Then RUN, RUN, RUN to a more upscale user-base with deeper pockets.

For example, there may be good potential in B2C segments.

Most of the major companies are pecking around like chickens with fat wallets, trying to figure out how to raise their ROI on social media. You may sitting on a solution.

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While that sounds great in theory, I'm not sure what actionable suggestions are in there. We're definitely trying to provide a solution for companies that are trying to raise or measure their social media campaigns. Hopefully we'll get in front of the right eyeballs. But then again, that's the initial question I asked :). – Jaisen Oct 10 '09 at 3:57

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