Marketing questions are about the action or business of promoting products or services
52
votes
11answers
3k views
I build good products, but can't get anyone to use them. What should I do?
I am a web developer. In the last year and half I've been working on several ideas, one after the other. I found that as much as I enjoy developing them, in the end I keep bumping my head against a ...
37
votes
4answers
3k views
Are there any blogs or websites introducing new website? [closed]
I want to know is there any blogs or websites introducing some of new websites?
New start-up websites are always looking for report and introduction by other famous websites.
As we know, ...
34
votes
14answers
3k views
Sites where you can promote your startup?
What are the best sites or blogs to freely promote or prompt reviews for your new startup?
(Except well-know sites like TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, and so on ... or other sites where you don't have a ...
26
votes
4answers
2k views
What are Some of the Most Successful Low Budget Startup Marketing Campaigns You've Seen?
I'm curious if anyone has great examples to share of their own startups or others achieving highly successful and visible media attention, customer attraction or general brand awareness. A few that ...
25
votes
22answers
4k views
Why do developers/techies avoid salespeople?
Over the past several months, we've been expanding our marketing efforts to include developers and other techies.
One thing we've noticed is that these front-line folks don't want to talk. At all. ...
21
votes
5answers
972 views
What's the best way to find/evaluate a Marketing co-founder?
As a follow-on to my last question What is the ideal mix of founders for a SaaS startup? it seems that a Marketeer is important to a SaaS startup. I think it's fairly easy to find and evaluate ...
18
votes
7answers
2k views
Referring to one-man-company: use “we” or “I”?
I'd be interested in your experience or examples of how "one-person-companies" refer to themselves: as "we" or "I".
Currently, my site copy uses "we/us" (e.g. "contact us"), but there's really only ...
15
votes
13answers
938 views
Lite Version or Trial?
Our product (desktop software, not SaaS) price is about $1000. Shall we cut features and release a free lite version or just a trial with all features for a limited time?
I see that lite version can ...
14
votes
8answers
767 views
To blog or not to blog? Joel Spolsky says no to blogging
A few months ago I posted a question about using a personal blog as my company blog and now I just want to know what the opinion of all of you is regarding blogging for our startup/business.
I find ...
14
votes
12answers
2k views
Is there evidence of better results with a free version vs. free trial?
Some companies opt for a free version in hopes of converting to paid. Others offer a free trial. I can see merit in both, but I'm curious what your thoughts are around which is preferred and why. Any ...
14
votes
12answers
884 views
SEO: Where can I get reliable information about building my website presence and reputation? [closed]
Every web site owner wants more traffic. There's an overwhelming amount of information out there about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Some is legitimate, some outdated, much is based on rumor and ...
13
votes
7answers
2k views
Should we offer a money back guarantee? If so, how?
I'm starting a web site with another founder that proof reads university and college student's papers and essays. Users upload an essay and pay us then they get an edited of the paper back and a list ...
13
votes
17answers
2k views
Best way to mock-up my website
I am currently in the development phase of a project. In the past I have relied on a pen and paper to initially map out and design a site. What are some of my other options? I am looking for something ...
13
votes
8answers
506 views
Do users really click the “Email a friend” link and thus “self promote” your site?
Its a common feature of many sites... the "Email a friend" link that sends an email to the users' friend(s).
e.g. something like:
Hey {friends name},
I found this great site called ...
13
votes
10answers
2k views
What are the best ways to get traffic to your website?
Tons of web startups are at the stage of "built it, have visitors, but need more." Compare this to similar sites created when the word "webmaster" was the buzzword of the year, that get 100-200k+ ...
13
votes
6answers
446 views
Should we hire a sales or invest more time in our online presence?
We are a small software company with a process automation product. To do more sales, we would like to compare following options for next year:
Hire a sales guy. Someone capable of doing cold ...
13
votes
9answers
1k views
Which is better, Google adwords or Facebook ads?
I'm about to experiment with Facebook ads and I'm wondering which performs better in terms of ROI: Facebook or Google?
I've had some success with Google, so I'm looking forward to comparing. I'd ...
13
votes
5answers
2k views
Ways of promoting Android app
I created a few applications. One of them is very good and users like it. However, I can not increase the number of installations to more than 50 per day. It is very small. The program is unique, ...
12
votes
8answers
1k views
Pricing Theory - What works, what doesn't, and how to get the most profit?
Many of you have priced several different types of products from digital to the physical. So keeping it internet centeric what pricing research do you do before going with an amount? And once you're ...
11
votes
8answers
673 views
What tips do you have for running a booth at a tradeshow?
Eric Sink says that tradeshows are like sex: When it's good it's really really good, and when it's bad, it's still pretty good.
It's easy to waste a lot of time and money at tradeshows. But also ...
11
votes
3answers
1k views
Solving the Chicken and Egg Problem
My partner and I are in the development phase of a website which essentially is a new marketplace for a sector that we believe is lacking one.
However most of our resources are going for design and ...
11
votes
2answers
619 views
How do you get to the first 50-100 users?
Most information about startup marketing is focused on how to make existing marketing practices more effective and how to make existing sites more viral. My question is what have people found to be ...
10
votes
4answers
1k views
How to request a review from bloggers?
We do have a product without demo, we only give out evaluation copies to potential clients and people who'd like to do a review the product.
It's a long story why we don't have a demo, suffice to say ...
10
votes
2answers
661 views
How Do I Promote My Business
Marketing your startup takes many forms. The classical marketing approach revolves around the 4 P’s: Product, Price, Promotion and Place.
For this question and answer, we will tackle the Promotion ...
10
votes
5answers
966 views
Why start a Facebook fan page?
I've long wondered why social marketers are so focused on Facebook fan pages. In much the same way that the AOL Keyword was the flavor of the week years ago; it strikes me as the medium of choice for ...
10
votes
5answers
288 views
Can you plan to go viral?
Is it realistic for a start-up to have as a component of it's business (marketing) plan -- to go viral? Is that really something you plan to happen?
10
votes
6answers
1k views
Does charging less than your competitor make your product look inferior?
Our monthly subscription is 30% less than our competitors. We also do not charge a set up fee, whereas, most of our competitors charge $400-600. I think our product is "as good" or better than any ...
10
votes
5answers
344 views
What Press Release Distribution Service Should I Use?
The number of press release services out there is mind boggling.
I am an ISV (Independent Software Vendor) with a niche software program, and I'd like to send out a Press Release to the software ...
9
votes
13answers
2k views
Does having a professional email account matter?
Is it just me or do: @yahoo, gmail, hotmail, accounts not look professional? I can't imagine cost being an excuse. Most hosting providers include email with the site.
9
votes
11answers
1k views
Anyone experimented with $49.95 vs. $50 Pricing for subscription software?
I've read a bunch of times in the retail world where the $49.95 (or $49.99) style pricing actually increases sales vs. just making it a round number like $50.
Has anyone tried this for a subscription ...
9
votes
6answers
495 views
Marketing suggestions for a small startup?
I am interested in starting a small (to start with at least) software company. The Software I would be selling would be add-ons to Microsoft SharePoint. While I am skilled technically, I know ...
9
votes
3answers
419 views
When to give up on a product?
I'm getting ahead of myself here because my product hasn't launched yet, but I thought about this and would appreciate the thoughts of this community:
Imagine this:
You're launching a great app (or ...
9
votes
4answers
576 views
What is the best way to spend an initial budget of $1000 on SEO?
We recently launched an online quoting SaaS and are targeting some fairly competitive keywords (e.g. quoting software or quoting system). Because the domain is relatively new (~6 months), I know it ...
8
votes
16answers
770 views
Know any large/public software companies that are using freemium?
I'm trying to find examples of large software companies that have used freemium (whereby there is a free product with a paid upgrade to a premium product).
Anyone know of any companies that either ...
8
votes
11answers
902 views
Should I use my personal blog as my company blog?
I have a personal blog and I would like to hear some advice regarding the use of this personal blog to share information about my company such as news, products, etc... Or, is it better to have a ...
8
votes
5answers
1k views
How to promote my business using social networking
I see many companies using social networking (Twitter, Facebook etc) to promote their products and services. I've never used sites like this, and don't really know where to begin from a marketing ...
8
votes
6answers
700 views
How to approach SEO for a new website?
We have just launched (yesterday actually!) a website for our startup - providing mobile and Facebook app development services. Sales will totally drive from leads generated from the website. ...
8
votes
8answers
1k views
Live Chat on website, does it work?
We are planning to support live chat / support from our websites to increase sales/conversions.
Has anyone tried it? Does it worth the effort and human resources that need to be allocated for this?
8
votes
6answers
588 views
Do testimonials have any significant impact on sales?
Testimonials seem to be a great idea (social proof, etc), but I'm not sure they have any meaningful impact on sales. And they could actually be causing problems for our existing customers. For ...
8
votes
4answers
3k views
I created a software product. How and where do I promote it?
So I had an itch to scratch, and out came my startup. Granted it's a simple product, but what it does it does well. Now that it's launched and available for purchase, I'm at a loss for where to ...
8
votes
6answers
554 views
How do you verify the viability of your idea?
I would like to hear from those folks that have gone through their initial market research and idea validation stages of their start-up and would like to share how they went about making sure their ...
8
votes
7answers
924 views
Top 3 Marketing Tips for new Technology Startups
You have just released your product into the market and you want to start to get the word out there. What are 3 things that you think every startup should be doing to build traction?
8
votes
2answers
444 views
When a huge company copies your startup
What do you do when a huge online company (as dominant as say Google, Apple, Microsoft etc in their respective niche) has a big feature that's been lacking in their very popular product, and your ...
8
votes
6answers
471 views
What's the most interesting Twitter strategy that you've seen a startup use?
It seems like most startups on Twitter use one of two strategies:
1) Broadcast links & information about the company.
2) Broadcast links & information about the industry related to the ...
8
votes
4answers
2k views
How do you solve the “chicken-and-the-egg” problem?
There are two variants of the chicken-and-egg problem:
When there are two distinct classes of participants in your business, e.g. buyers and sellers, but it is hard to attract one class without ...
8
votes
2answers
4k views
How to market an android application?
My colleagues and I have just completed our first Android app. This is going to be a free multimedia application that can download/preview ringtones and wallpapers to your android.
Now we need to ...
7
votes
11answers
882 views
How to Resolve a classic Chicken and Egg Dilemma?
My team and I are facing the classic Chicken/Egg dilemma and need help resolving this issue. So here we go: We built a highly scalable, dynamic Career site 100% dedicated to to the IT Industry and ...
7
votes
9answers
3k views
Using Facebook Connect - Pros and Cons
is Facebook Connect worth the efforts? any benefits in long term? are there any negative consequences like slow page loads and increased page download times etc?
Update:
Okay so I just tried ...
7
votes
4answers
786 views
Subscription Pricing Starting Strategy: start high and lower, or start low and raise?
With a subscription based web application aimed at businesses: Is it better to set the initial price at the high end of what you expect people would pay and lower it if it becomes necessary, or should ...
7
votes
9answers
1k views
How Important Is Branding For a Startup? Should I Bring In Outside Help?
How important is branding for early stage startups?
Within this question, there is some interesting discussion on how a brand can evolve based on everything you do - e.g. your name, website, online ...
