One of the best ways to allow customers to sample your software is to give it away for free – that’s what guerilla marketer Jay Conrad Levinson said as well. While one way to do this is through free demos, there are smarter ways to get a larger audience to experience the power of your software.

At a telecommunications industry event a few years ago, a wireless application company agreed to develop and host an event management programme that attendees could download and then use – to schedule alerts for sessions they wanted to attend, meeting reminders, check conference maps and schedules – all free, of course.

When a conference has hundreds of executives – the very same you would want to target for a sale – this is a great promotional tool.

In this case, the company was in the wireless application space, so the phone-based application made perfect sense. But, with more and more phones supporting easy web browsing, companies need to seriously look at harnessing this important new medium.

While your customers are unlikely to make an “impulse” purchase of your software, booking your storefront on the mobile web is important – even if most visitors only look up the site when they have left your contact details in their Rolodex.

Apart from this very utilitarian value, mobile web sites (or m-sites) also come in handy for recruitment – your site can be reached by any prospective employee with a GPRS mobile phone – office firewalls or not.

In addition, what you must put on the m-site are maps and driving directions – all contact data must also be accompanied by a click-to-call feature that enables users to call your company if they need to.

Branding objective

Planting your flag on the mobile web also serves one other important branding objective – to be available and to present a consistent image of the company to the customer, across channels.

In the same vein, it has become important to reinforce the branding message through some of the new web-based tools so characteristic of the Internet re-birth – collectively called Web 2.0 tools.

While that’s not to say that your CEO should immediately post a video on YouTube about his parasailing hobby, there are some practical ways to harness this too. Video resumes are one such great idea – especially if the candidate is applying for a customer-facing job.

The jobs section of your corporate website could allow candidates for appropriate positions to upload video resumes, which are available for viewing for human resources and other relevant departments.

In addition to its very practical value, using such tools also increases the “cool quotient” of the company, which is pretty important if a large base of employee’s is tech-savvy, young professionals. Another tool that harnesses the power of collaboration, while serving a similar purpose, is internal company blogs.

Moderation required

While some amount of moderation may be required to make sure it does not degenerate into a crib sheet or a gossip rag, the blog could serve as a democratic communications medium where professionals, companywide, can get to hear what top management thinks/ opines, while simultaneously allowing employees at all levels a chance to be heard when they have an important or an interesting idea.

Blogs are also an excellent sounding board for the human resources department or any other team that wants feedback on internal initiatives. They are an excellent and credible way to reinforce employee branding messages.

These are but some of the tools that harness the power and possibility of the mobile internet and Web 2.0.

What’s common across both is that they don’t cost an awful lot to implement but have the power to reach out and target your audience on a one-to-one basis.

The author of the article is Anita Mani, Principal
Consultant, Prayag Consulting, among India’s leading provider of strategic marketing consultancy specifically targeted at the IT/BPO industry. The author can be reached at anita.mani@prayag.com