Comments on: How to market a small internet company

Question: How to market a small internet company

peteshaw — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 09:54:05 -0800

I have a SaaS company, that has a product it has been selling for a while. While we have a specific niche market for this product, we have not been able to reach our customers. How to grow the company - any ideas?

I am part of a SaaS company, that has a product it has been selling for a while. We have taken search engine optimization on the site just about as far as it can go. While we have a specific niche market for this product, we have not been able to reach our customers. If we were a larger company, we could hire a marketing person and have them work this problem. However, given our current size, that's just not practical. What other marketing options are there for a small (3 people, 1 full time) company? I have been considering things like blogging, starting a forum, providing some kind of value added service, but I am a little bit lost as to how to get started. Any ideaas?

By: bottlebrushtree

bottlebrushtree — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:00:55 -0800

Who are your customers?

By: Rodrigo Lamaitre

Rodrigo Lamaitre — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:10:53 -0800

You could start a referral service for existing clients; take a fair amount of money off their product if they successfully refer clients to you. You build on your solid relationships and get the power of their networks in the process.

By: elmay

elmay — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:12:28 -0800

Where do your customers hang out? Can your current customers help you figure this out? What forums, blogs, etc.. they read? Seems like that would be where you would want to target your efforts.

Also, there are firms that specialize in Search Engine Optimization -- if your customers are likely to google for your kind of service/product, perhaps that is something to look into. It seems like you could contract for that work -- you wouldn't need to add a person to your company to do that.

Finally, once you figure this out :), you have another product/service you can offer -- helping small SaaS companies reach customers :).

By: cranberry_nut

cranberry_nut — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:14:57 -0800

Have you attended conferences aimed at your target customers, whether as a sponsor or even just as an attendee who hands out lots of business cards?

By: mkultra

mkultra — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:21:06 -0800

Blogger outreach.

If your vertical is big enough to serve, someone's writing about it. Figure out who those people are and contact them. You'd be surprised how easy this can be, especially since you've already got some traction. Be prepared to not necessarily "write the story" for them, but to feed them some bite-sized snippets about your product, why you're different, and why people should use you.

By: getmetoSF

getmetoSF — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:30:24 -0800

Social media for sure.
Host events targeting your customer base.
Reach out to industry media to write an article on your company.
Network, network, network.

By: Dansaman

Dansaman — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:50:35 -0800

Would be much easier to give you advice if there were more information about what you are doing. It's so general that it is really hard to provide specific ideas.

BTW, you could also post on The Business of Software site, but again I think you would need to be a little more specific.

By: floatboth

floatboth — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:16:58 -0800

I think most people don't search for SaaS apps in google.

Talk to bloggers, sponsor podcasts, advertise on networks like Fusion, The Deck, BuySellAds. Most of them are focused on the designer-developer-geek niche, but BuySellAds has lots of categories & cheaper ad spots.

By: scose

scose — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:33:05 -0800

We need more information about your product and clientele. Some industries focus on traditional sales with in-person demos and expense account dinners. Others respond well to an active online presence.

By: Wretch729

Wretch729 — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:45:18 -0800

Jason Cohen over at asmartbear has talked about this, see also the comments. You could even email him for advice if you wish.