The Business Blog at Intuitive.com

Dave Taylor has been involved with the online world since 1980 and is recognized globally as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written twenty business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. He's a columnist for the Boulder Daily Camera and Linux Journal and frequently appears in other publications both online and in print. Additionally, Dave maintains four weblogs: The Business Blog at Intuitive.com, Ask Dave Taylor, Dave On Film, and GoFatherhood. Based in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, Dave is an award-winning speaker, sought after conference and workshop participant and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs, as well as active member of his community and busy single father to three children.

Kudos to Softland for its smart marketing approach

If you work with a company that sells software, odds are that your approach to marketing and public relations is the same as it's been for years: press releases, calls to magazine editors and reviewers, and perhaps a customer newsletter that announces updates and improvements.

But we're in the 21st century now, and savvy companies with sharp marketing teams are realizing that the industry has changed and that visibility is more about identifying and engaging the opinion leaders, not the Media Establishment. Ask yourself this question: would it mean more to you if a half-dozen of your peers said "hey, this is very cool" or if some unknown flack or journalist for a major publication said "this is very cool"? I know your answer, and that's why I spend more time reading blogs and news sites than reading traditional print publications.

Public relations and marketing has always been about influencing public opinion, and it's the same as it ever was, with apologies to David Byrne: influence the opinion leaders and you'll influence the market.

Where's this discussion going? I received the following email message this morning and am just so impressed with the marketing team at Softland for recognizing the value of what I call the Influence the Opinion Leaders strategy:

My name is Claudiu Spulber and I represent Softland, a software development company whose main product is a data backup utility called Backup4all.

I visited askdavetaylor.com and I've seen you have an enormous amount of good articles and also that you have 2 sections called "Computer & Internet Basics" and "Windows Basics". The reason I mentioned these 2 particular section is because I didn't see an article in there about backing up, and I thought that since is an important thing you could write an article about this and also include Backup4all in it if you test and like it. So what I'm asking is if you would like to do a review for Backup4all, for possible mentioning in a future article about backing up.

If you would like to find out more about Backup4all before deciding to do the review or not, you can visit www.backup4all.com or send me an email.

In case you want to do the review please contact me and I will send you a registration key for the program.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email. Looking forward to your answer.

Regards,
Claudiu Spulber
http://www.backup4all.com

Whether or not I accept the invitation is irrelevant. This is just darn smart marketing.

In fact, here's a tip for other people marketing products or services and trying to break through the endless clutter of our marketplace: go and Google a few key phrases that describe the problem you're solving, then contact each of the top fifty Website authors and invite them to receive a free copy of your product. No strings attached, no requirement that it be written about, no prohibitions on resale. And just watch how your company will suddenly be part of the zeitgeist, not part of the lost world of traditionally marketed products.

Posted by Dave Taylor at April 6, 2005 9:18 AM

Comments

Dave,
Yes I too occasionally get e-mails like this.
Funny though, I have approached many companies for the sole purpose of product review through the Blog postings and they are not interested. I DO see this turning but it is a bit slow for most to catch on.
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/database/solutions/

Posted by: James F. Koopmann on April 7, 2005 10:33 AM

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