Perhaps the greatest change is how relatively easy it is today to launch an effective global marketing campaign on a limited budget.  If you’re selling software that provides true value at a reasonable price, you don’t need a Microsoft-sized budget to reach your potential customers.

So here are a few suggestions for an inexpensive marketing campaign:

Start a Blog

Start a WordPress blog focused on the problem you are solving, your target audience and their market.  WordPress comes SEO-ready out of the box and is a great traffic magnet.  It’s even more valuable if your blog can provide advice and solve problems that naturally draw an audience.  Of course you’ll want to write about and advertise your software on your blog.

Write a Press Release

Write a press release and take advantage of free press release submission services such as PRlog.  Review samples on the Web and be sure to follow the guidelines for a good press release.  You need to look and sound professional.

Promote Your Software on Blogs and Forums

Visit blogs and forums in your target market, leave relevant and valuable comments, and provide a link back to your blog and/or software website.  You need to walk a fine line between being a spammer and helpful contributor.  The best way is to answer questions and give advice but don’t directly plug your product.

Provide a Free Sample

Provide a free version of your service that actually delivers some value.  And of course, provide a paid version with additional features.  People love free stuff and it helps draw a crowd.

Advertise with Google AdWords

Buy some Google AdWords search ads.  This can get real expensive real quick, so you need to choose your keywords well: the more precise your keywords, the better your click-thru rate and lower the cost.  Be sure to set daily limits.  If done well, you should be able to generate a half-dozen or more good clicks for a couple dollars per day.  You can also get $50 and $75 free AdWords coupons from companies such as VistaPrint if you order business cards, for example.

Related posts:

1. Blogging Tips for Developers
2. Software Markets Compared
3. Should All Software Be Free?

The Genius feature — new in Apple’s iTunes software — recommends music that you may like based on the songs in your current playlist.  It worked well enough for a while, prompting me to buy about a half dozen new songs it recommended.  But the Genius feature worked only for a few days and has been broken ever since, in spite of a few iTunes upgrades. 

Perhaps Genius is actually an Idiot Savant.

Update: As you probably know, Apple’s true Genius — Steve Jobs — is on medical leave from the company.  We wish Steve a speedy recovery!

Related posts:

1. Apple iTunes Rewards its Honest Customers with a Big Fat Bill
2. iTunes vs. Amazon.com Digital Music – $1.29 vs. $0.99 – M4A vs. MP3
3. Music Industry Wants Fees from iTunes 30-Second Free Previews

Now AC/DC has released a new music video as ASCII art delivered in an Excel spreadsheet.  It’s a strange but oddly compelling mix of old and new technology:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related posts:

1. Kiss Talks About Music Piracy
2. Dell Customer Service Call Gone Wrong
3. ASCII Table

As described by TechCrunch, the theory behind social news sites is that the world can do a better job than a handful of editors to determine which news stories people want to read. The problem is that voting by mass consensus often results in the lowest common denominator. Also, many of these sites use super-moderators, which like super-delegates in the Democratic primary, can result in a few key votes overwhelming the will of the majority. On Digg, this means that the most popular stories are usually about Apple, Linux, and Ron Paul.

But social news sites are becoming an increasingly important marketing and public relations tool for companies and especially bloggers. Even a mild Digg can send ten thousand or more fresh viewers per day to your blog and significantly increase your ad revenue. Though these traffic spikes tend to be short-lived, there is often a residual effect of viewers that enjoy your site and return for future visits. Most bloggers will see a persistent traffic increase with each Digg surge. Hence, it’s important to understand how to use social news sites to your blog’s advantage.

Following are 7 tips for bloggers on how to work with social news sites like Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon:

1. Pick topics that will interest the masses

Of course it’s important to select topics that interest you, are appropriate for your blog, and for which you have some expertise. But you have to remember that Digg is essentially a popularity contest for digital content, so you need to pick topics that are broadly appealing. This may mean that you won’t necessarily be popular on Digg itself, but there are many other sites, and some might be more amenable to your topic.

It’s like the Hollywood movies, “The Pianist” and “Armageddon.” One was art and one was popular. There’s a place in this world for both, but if you really want to be Digged, you have to blow up an asteroid occasionally (or the equivalent in your blog’s genre).

2. Write in a way that will appeal to the masses

Most Web surfers have short attention spans, given how easy it is to “change the channel” on the Web. So keep your articles short and direct. People will not Digg a muddled mess of an article, unless they are poking fun at your muddled mess.

The masses also love lists and twists and judicious use of headings so we can find things quickly. Bite size portions, less is more: this is the recipe for our increasingly ADD-addled brains.

3. Add buttons so readers can easily Digg your articles

Of course you want to make it easy for people to Digg your articles, so include buttons at the end of each article for the social news sites you target. ShareThis is a good service to cover all the major sites.

4. Ensure your web host can handle the traffic surge

Recognize this?

Error establishing a database connection

The Web throws you a party, and you don’t even show up. This is what happens when a surge of Digg traffic swamps your blog. If you’re not paying attention and restore your blog quickly, you could miss the Digg wave completely.

Be sure your Web hosting package has enough bandwidth to handle a Digg surge. Some hosts now offer “traffic surge protection” that will automatically upgrade your plan in the event of a traffic spike.

5. Don’t Digg yourself

Admit it, we’ve all done it, me too. We think that Digging ourselves will “grease the pump” and get things going. But one vote, even the first one, really doesn’t matter. If people love an article, they will Digg it, hopefully en masse.

Contrary to the urban myth, you will not go blind if you Digg yourself. But self-promotion looks desperate, Diggers hate a marketing pitch, and the experience of self-Digging and then waiting to be Digged can be discouraging. A much better use of time is to generate terrific content. And it really helps to develop a network of friends and fans who will Digg your stuff often.

6. Grow a thick skin

The “h8ers” thrive on the Web, protected by the cloak of cyber-anonymity (cybernymity?). With the exception of the occasional human interest story that warms even the coldest heart, most blog articles need to be at least somewhat controversial to be interesting and attract Digg attention. Basically, you’re not doing your job as a blogger if you’re not pissing someone off.

The comments on social news sites are much more brutal than any comment you’ll find on your blog (and not delete). Precisely because you cannot delete the comments on social news sites, that’s where the h8ers will tear you down. So you have to accept or ignore the negative and destructive feedback, learn from the good feedback, try not to take it personally or get personal, and always take the high road.

7. Watch but don’t worry

It’s important to pay attention to what happens to your articles and submissions on Digg, and to monitor feedback so you can improve your writing and marketing. But a large part of the Digg experience is beyond our control. The mob will do what the mob wants, and that’s what’s both scary and exciting about Digg and other social news sites.

More to Digg

• 10 Secrets to Marketing with Social News Sites
• TechCrunch: Toward a Better Digg
• Social News Sites: Digg, Diggers, and Dugg

Related posts:

1. How to Use DotNetKicks to Delete Your Competition
2. Is Google Making Us Stoopid?
3. Blogging Tips for Developers

Of course, each target market has its own advantages and disadvantages, which I summarize below.  Note this list is from the perspective of a small software company (2-50 employees) with limited funds.  Microsoft and Google may hold a different view.

Large Enterprises

Pros:

1. A single contract can result in tens or hundreds of thousands dollars in revenue.
2. A well-known enterprise customer can serve as a highly-effective reference to other potential customers.
3. Piracy is limited because there is often a server component, and also due to corporate liability in using pirated software.
4. End-user support is less because enterprise customers typically provide first level support to their own employees.  When support is required, it’s typically second-level support to trained corporate IT staff.

Cons:

1. Requires lots of money, time and patience.
2. Requires a professional sales force.
3. Deals usually take months to close, and it’s common to work for months on an enterprise deal, only to see it lost to a competitor at the last moment.
4. The strongest competitor is often the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) mentality common in large enterprises.
5. Navigating an enterprise’s internal political minefield is often required to seal the deal and can be quite tricky.
6. Enterprises often require custom work, which can result in additional services revenue, but can also easily swamp or derail a small software company.
7. Large enterprises often will not purchase from a small, relatively unknown company unless the solution offered is truly unique in the market, which is rare.

General Consumers

Pros:

1. The market pool is enormous.
2. The customer relationship can be handled exclusively over the Web, resulting in huge savings and economies-of-scale.
3. Put up a web site and shopping cart, and you are in business.
4. Consumer software is typically less complex and easier to build than enterprise or development software.

Cons:

1. There is a glut of competition, especially from free and open source software.
2. Consumers don’t like to pay for software.
3. Consumers can be difficult to target and reach.
4. As much as 50% of potential sales will be lost to piracy.

Software Developers

Pros:

1. Software developers are typically much smarter than the average computer user, hence the support load is greatly reduced.
2. Software developers are much easier to target and reach than general consumers.
3. Piracy is limited, since software developers tend to have corporate employers.
4. Developers will often pay much higher prices for software tools than the average consumer.

Cons:

1. The market is generally small, especially when selling components of limited scope, or selling products specific to a single operating system or programming language.
2. When support is required, the problems tend to be quite complex, requiring highly technical and well-trained support staff.
3. The strongest competitor is DIY (Do-It-Yourself) since many programmers prefer to roll their own solutions.
4. The web is full of free and open-source code and development tools.
5. Developers often have highly unique needs and can be very demanding.

Related posts:

1. Funding a Software Startup
2. Microsoft Empowers Small ISVs
3. Software Piracy Mixed Bag