Background: My friend and I have been running a legit (read: tax paying LLC) business for 5 years now. Our general description is “Web design and Web-based software.” We have some very large accounts, some small ones, and we do hosting.
In this 5 years we have also been developing a web-based software program. We’ve actually done about $100k in sales with it with a $0 advertising budget and have quite a good number of clients using it. We’ve just been posting blurbs on script sites and people find us. Actually, about 50% of our customer base has been from Europe, for no particular reason we can see.
Finally we’re on v7 of the software, have changed the entire look and feel, put a bazillion hours into fixing bugs and greatly improving performance and usability and now have a seriously kickass product to sell.
The software is one such that any business or organization can benefit from it (we have levels of service for different sized organizations.) So we don’t have a really specific market other than “people who need to reach other people.”
Half of the folks that buy it are IT guys, and the other half just a representative from some small business (or the owner) that is going to be the main person using it.
Problem is, we’re really just a coupla programmers. We need to ADVERTISE and right now we’re just winging it. I need some advice.
So far we have a nice Web site that had ads and features and online sales and realtime chat.
We’ve done Google AdWords (still feeling that one out).
We’re looking in to buying ads on “developer networks” like Aspalliance.com and internet.com, and premium sponsorships on above-mentioned script engines. But like I said above, anyone is our target - not just Web developers or IT personnel.
We’ve also looked in to using local resources - we’re a member of the large NE Ohio small business organization - and doing press releases and general blurbs about us to establish us in the “community” and get some free exposure. And also paid direct marketing opportunities with them.
We are still working up a budget. Funds are limited yet paying for advertising is completely necessary, so we’re willing to pay whatever will make us some money.
I’m looking for all the help and wisdom I can get right now. Good books, good websites, useful personal anecdotes. Heck, even emails from Dopers who really need this “wonderfully priced, uber-functional product that no business or organization can do without!”
Help?