How to sell this product?

[chip_y2kuk]

Hi all,

I run an IT services company (small but doing well) we have a product called my secure backup Now I use this product.

It provides a network drive (so you can store files safely and remotely)

It provides automatic backup (set it up and forget it, until you need to recover the files)

data is stored in amazon S2 or rackspace cloud

the pricing we have for it is £5 per month which includes 10GB of storage
50p Per gb after that.

You can install the client software on more than one computer (network drive files can be shared this way)

You can create more than one network drive in different Locations (to store different types of data e.g finance, tools, reports etc)

Now i think this product is great it's certainly what i know alot of people need (not just businesses, home users too)

but uptake on the whole thing has been a little bit slow

how can i advertise and really push this product?

thanks

joe

 

[imaggroup]

Hi Joe,

It sounds like a good service, I just went on to your website to have a look at it in more detail, and my first comment is you should make a bolder statement about it in the main text rather than just a link on the left.

Shout about the benefits of it "Avoid disaster by painlessly backing up your critical business data with Cloud Backup" or something similar?

How about a targetted Adwords campaign that takes you right to the page with all the details etc?

Just a couple of ideas,
Trev

 

[garyk]

Perhaps do a 30 or 60 day trial? If people are tied in then they are less likely to leave. I know humyo do this and I think mozy do a free version also.

 

[chip_y2kuk]

there's no tie in, pay £5 use it for a month and if you don't like it stop using it!

i can't really do a free trial as the company i buy it from don't/won't give me a free trial once i provision the service they take the money from me.

but i have to say the system is great and it's saved my bacon a few times (i've deleted stuff that if it wasn't backed up would have been time consuming to re-create)

at the minute i've got everything from holiday pictures to business documents stored on the drive

and everything on my desktop and my fiances desktop (including my documents, my pictures and my music) backed up

and where only using about 4-5 GB between the two of us (the backups are compressed quite well)

joe

 

[Joyce Asante]

Hello,

Wow, this is an amazing product ! Did you invented all alone?

Here are some few tips you could start with:

-Start writing articles on a blog about your IT services and your new product, where you provide interesting tips and solve people's problem.
Titles like:"How to..." or that start with a number (e.g 5 things to...or "that") are more likely to be read. Always have a good quality content.
Then share it on social medias like Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin.
Don't forget to include these social medias buttons and an RSS feed so that people can easily connect with you.
-Share your expertise by contributing on forums, social medias like Linkedin by joining groups related to your industry.
-Make some short videos about your new product to educate people on how to use it and have them posted on site like YouTube.
-Organize an expo to introduce your new product.
-Network by attending business events, IT conferences, on social medias.
-Advertise through mobile marketing. If you don't mind spending money, then mobile marketing could be of benefit to you, you can find leads by targeting a specific zone, who may visit your website, call you or come to your office.

Hope this helps,

Please let me know if there's anything you'd like to say.

Joyce A.

 

[LJatSpear]

Hi Joe

target all the businesses within a few miles radius and send them a letter

'Hi neighbour, thought you might find this service useful, it's saved my bacon a few times'
etc (copy isnt my greatest talent lol)

low cost and you can follow up with a call, businesses often miss other businsses that are right on their doorstep

good luck

 

[XanderMarketing]

Hi Joe,

Online back up is a competitive market. Why don't you look at some of your big competitors, I user Carbonite for example, and learn lessons from them?

Unless you have tens/hundreds of thousands of pounds of marketing budget this product is probably best sold locally. It looks like that's where you currently target your business anyway.

The ideas in this thread are all good, some other ideas are:

- Build a dedicated website just for this service
- Email marketing, to businesses
- PR, with local success stories
- Facebook - targeting locally

Hope this helps.

Alex

 

[chip_y2kuk]

building a dedicated website for the service wasn't something that had crossed my mind but it's something i could do.

I haven't created the product just searched the internet for a product that could fill the gap (which this does) very nicely

by providing somewhere to store things you can leave them and not worry about having to make copies of them

and by backing up all important files on the computer.

if the computer goes pete tong i can re-install the operating system, programs and then restore all my files at a few clicks of a button. (it even back's up thunderbird's message store!)


I think i may go with the advertising to local businesses and make it more prominent on my computer repair website (i've been meaning to make some changes to my sites for a while)


thanks

joe

 

[David White]

Hi Joe,

You should consider some advertising/marketing in B2B magazines or start visiting some small business seminars etc, there are plenty around and at a very good cost. We work with a lot of small businesses and if you want to reach them they would buy your product rather than one from one of the big providers as it is quite a trend to buy from other RELIABLE small businesses.

Feel free to PM me if you want any further tips or ideas as I can think of a few. You can of course browse some options on our site to get some ideas too