Marketing - where do I start?

[akw]

I've just started a company and I know nothing about marketing. How should I go about generating leads? What size and type of people do I need?

A popular method of reducing costs in product development is to off-shore to places like India. Is that a viable alternative for marketing?

Akw

[cadman_chui]

Depending on your situation and product offering, the best bang for your buck may be search engine optimization and paid search ads on search engines such as Google, MSN (Bing), and Yahoo. With the paid ads you can spend as little and much as you want and you can track and see returns almost instantly.

Outsourcing your development isn't a bad idea, however I would find someone local and pay a little more rather than go with places like India or China where it is more difficult to communicate because of time-zone differences. Product quality may also be a factor in your decision.

Cadman.

[akw]

[quote="cadman_chui"] Outsourcing your development isn't a bad idea, however I would find someone local and pay a little more rather than go with places like India or China where it is more difficult to communicate because of time-zone differences. Product quality may also be a factor in your decision.

Cadman.[/quote]

It seems like you were answering the question of whether or not development should/could be outsourced. I'm not sure if you are saying that outsourcing marketing is viable or not. Can you clarify?

[cadman_chui]

Hey AKW,


Sorry, I misunderstood your question. Outsourcing of marketing is a standard practice for development and tech companies. There are many marketing agencies in North America that can help you with your business. I would not recommend overseas outsourcing of marketing because of language and lost in translation barriers. They will cause you more problems and will not be worth the cost savings that you would expect to get outsourcing it overseas.

You might want to look for marketing agencies that have the most ability to understand technology. Or you can hire a Product Marketing person and have them translate your technical features and benefits to the marketing agency so they can execute.

Hope that helps.


Best regards,
Cadman.