This is my first day on these forums.. did a search for small business forums and this was the only threaded bb that I found .. Anyway, found a ton of great information on here, so I'll probably be trolling this board often, but here's my question:

I'm trying to figure out the best medium to market to companies. The software that I am selling is a data management application, that I would need for like directors and exec's to see.

I just am trying to think of how to advertise it (I already have my foot in the door w/ one company, but I'm trying to broadcast what I'm doing on a broader scale) I thought about the paper, but a company selling an application isn't going to work in the paper I don't think

I guess there is search engines, which I have to optimize my website first, just been too busy working on the actual product to really work hard on the site itself.. Anyways, if any of you have ideas on how to market applications/software let me know.. I'd like to avoid spamming, I'd sooner not get anoter client if I have to spam them.. cause boy do I hate getting them.. I'd hate to be the sender...

Thanks in advance,

Going up in ranking with search engines takes time.
I would continue finding leads the way your doing now.

PM me what "data management" software your selling.
That phrase pretty much covers everything on the internet.

Do you know how your competition is selling and to whom ?

I just typed the whole message and my computer crashed... Here let's try this again ..

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The product is called "Syndix" comes from the greek word "Syndeo" which means Connected, and that's a good description of how this works. It's a skeleton framework that allows you to setup departments in a company and give access to particular individuals to modules that I provide, or don't (I write custom modules all the time). Configuration consists of setting up access levels, groups, and applying modules to certain access groups. It also has a firewall config so you can setup access lists. Due to the nature of it being an online application you can set who you want and do not want accessing the system. (or at least trying to). Some of the modules I have right now are trouble ticketing systems, knowledge bases, file libraries, inventory databases that cater to whatever you need to track.

For instance, the daily report module I have is used in a couple of network operation centers tracking daily events, circuit outages, and generates reports based off what you put in..

I also have my foot in the door in a couple of hotel chains tracking preventative maintenance on guest rooms, and such. The beauty of it is, I wrote it so that it could be used on a handheld PDA, like an iPAQ. So techs can walk around and do these checklists on a handheld device.

Also, I've written a few custom modules for security incident reporting, and just different custom things people need to track. The idea behind this app was to support everything that their current multi-million dollar applications don't do. There's always something else people need to track, and my app just fills the gaps .. and the best selling points I have so far is..

No IT staff needed to support, that's all in my support costs.
No hardware needed.. All you need is an internet connection. And I made my graphics so small that even on dialup it works just fine.

So that's kinda an overview of what my product does, I hope that makes sense because I'm still trying to figure out a way to say "This tracks anything you need" heh..

Thats a tough battle to fight. If you say you are everything to everyone, a lot of people will not believe you. If you can figure out a few industries that have specific needs that are not getting filled, then I'll customize your software for those industries and say it's made just for your type of company.

Act tracks a lot of difference information but it has positioned itself as a contact management system. It's message is clear and thats why it is successful.

Sounds like hotels might be a good industry for you to target. Make a customized version of your software, get a list of qualified hotels from ww.infousa.com and send them a postcard that trys to get them to your website. Use your website to info them on how it will help them solve current problems without more expenses and you've got yourself some sales coming your way.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may be helpful only if you can identify keyphrases that relate to your product.

Check http://inventory.overture.com/d/sear...ry/suggestion/ to see if you can indentify good keyphrases. Pay per click might be a good way to test your marketing message if you find the right keyphrases.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the information man. I've been thinking about making customized versions to target specific markets as you suggested. As far as the good keyphrases, I'll work on that, and check overture out. Thanks again for the advice!