Here's some ideas we've used for our B2B app incentiBox (http://www.incentibox.com):

1. Tried Press Release company that says they will push your articles out to thousands of media sources - didn't work as well as we hoped, because they do just what they say: "push the article out in a feed", no guarantees it will even be picked up. I'd be careful with this one.

2. Contacted relevant bloggers - works pretty well. You need to find relevant bloggers so your web app is in line with their interests. Then they will likely write about you.

3. SEM - Google adwords. This can work, depending on the cost of your keywords. For popular keywords (eg. "Social media") this may be too expensive to see any results at all. It's a great way to test out initial response to your web app and test the overall market demand. Depending on your revenue model, if you can figure out how to set your adwords budget so that you have a low enough average cost of acquiring a customer, you can have great results.

4. Blogging - can be VERY effective if you keep generating relevant information/content, especially in the long term for organic search engine optimization. Don't dis-count the use of Twitter / Facebook, to promote your articles, re-tweet, etc. This takes time and you might not see results right away.

5. Try a social-media advertising app - of course we use our own product! Yes, a shameless plug, but depending on your webapp and target market (great for apps targeting the younger generation), investing in social media marketing may be a great way to get users. Check out our platform http://www.incentibox.com/ - you can set up contest or rewards program in minutes and get your visitors to help spread the word amongst their friends. It's always refreshing to hear that people signed up because of word-of-mouth!

6. Cold email / cold call - This imho is the best way to get INSTANT feedback. To start, call / email 20 ppl a day, and see if there's any interest. If yes, then it's a numbers game, and you should invest more time into this.

I would suggest trying all that you can think of for promoting. In the beginning it will always seem like guerrilla marketing - it pretty much is! But hopefully that will lead you to discover which methods work for you and which don't. Good luck!

user:	awaage
created:	December 8, 2010
karma:	9
about:	Co-founder & elegant code enforcer at Retention Science.

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