Hi, I work for a sales quoting software company in the marketing department. I am new to the company and was assigned the to see if forums are a good way to market a product. I am not trying to sell it in here, but have read some information on marketing in forums and was wondering what everyone thought about that. Does anyone do that in other forums and has it been successful? If you wouldn't mind leaving your experience or a yes or no answer to if you have tried it I would appreciate. Thanks. I will not contact you unless you specifically ask for my help. Thanks.
forums are the best place to market your products if you opt for the right kind of methods to market them. You need to be part of RELATED forums and talk to people out there. Once you have a reputed position in those forums then you can request the users to check some particular product which you were promoting. As you are a reputed member so people will know that it isn't spam and hence they will check the products site and might be buy it. Their are many other ways to market your product but you need to be specific with your product. What actually you want to promote?
Forums are a great place to market your products. If you establish yourself as an expert on the subject,then yeah you will benefit from forum marketing. Obviously it needs to be targeted to your product if you want results.
Viable question. The thing is, any area that allows interaction will invariably allow transaction. Forums create contacts and sources for furthering your products and ideas. Using the proper buy sell and advertise sections will of course be benefitial if you hit the topic that interests that particular community. I'd definitely advise an overall web presence pointing back to your products and services can help and allow for the natural expansion of contacts and resources. -SocialMind
The product is sales quoting software. We have some industries already in mind, but I wanted to see if forums would be a good option to test those industries. I figured looking in forums for advice would be a great way to gather some info in order to see if it was worth it, since those are where we would be marketing. We do have a website where the product can be downloaded/purchased and like I said previously I wondered how successful marketing in forums had been. I appreciate everyone's comments and if anyone has any more they would like to add, I'll be checking in from time to time. Thanks
Pardon me (I am not a native english speaker), but what kind of a product is "sales quoting software"? As for marketing in forums: I'd say, don't put your expectations too high. Forums are great if you want backlinks, as they usually allow you to specify your own anchor text, but when it comes to actually marketing your site, I found forums to rather underperform. Obviously, you cannot simply post "Hey, check my cool site out" messages. Such things are ignored at best and deleted at worst. Also, you face competition in forums. You are not the only one posting, meaning your posts will not stay on top of the page for very long (where the casual reader might find them). So, as others have mentioned previously, you are required to build a reputation by posting often and posting quality content (without constantly pointing to your product). This is time consuming, especially if you frequent several forums and therefore a big cost factor. Unless you are after pagerank (which is IMHO overrated), forum marketing is only worth the time, IF the message catches on and getting there is a nasty piece of work.
Blackonyx, Sales quoting software is software that is designed specifically to generate sales quotes. It is used by many companies to give to their customers so their customers can see how much everything they are buying costs, before they buy it. Hope that answers your question. I don't have extremely high expectations for it, just would like to try it out and wanted some honest opinions. Thanks for the feedback and if anyone has any other suggestions or advice please feel free to reply.
Forums wouldn't hurt your product. I will only get the word out there. It is enough 1 person found your product interesting and purchased it. You just made a sale right there for free. The question is, which forum would have the users interested in the product you are trying to sell. I am finding interest products/websites all of the time on various forums.
That's a pretty bold statement of saying its the best way to market your website. But I am starting to see the benefit in forum marketing. I've been reading a lot of other posts and have seen some really good ideas. Thanks for everyone's input and keep it coming.
Well, I read through the above post and did not see any exact details on how to use a forum to market a product. Since I own a forum, here is some advice. My Forum - gets 1.5+ million page views a month, 1,858 members visiting every 30 days (as of when this was posted), 5,509 registered members and 672 members visiting ever 24 hours (as of when this was posted). Out of the last 24 days in July, counting today, only 4 days has the forum got less then 1,000 post. My youtube account - 292 videos, 2,694 subscribers, my videos have been watched 1,515,691 times. After looking at those numbers, if your still interested then keep reading. I do not accept advertising on my site, but if I did this is what a forum like mine could do for you. Mass email - an email could be sent to all 5,509 members with details of your product. Since some members have changed their emails, or used fake ones that number might be more like 5,000 emails sent. Reminder service - if a member has not logged into the forums for 30 days, they get a reminder email asking them to visit the site again. 3 months later they get another email. This reminder service is automatic and runs at 12 noon everyday. Anywhere from 5 - 30 emails are sent to members everyday asking them to visit the site again. After the first email is sent, 3 months later another email is sent. If the members still does not come back and log in, every 3 months they get a reminder email. A description of your product could be included in the reminder email. Even if a member did not want to return to the site, they would still receive your information. Email and Private message when a new member registers - New member get a PM and a welcome email. Details of your product could be included in both - the PM and the welcome email. My site gets about 20 - 25 new members a day. So your ad would be sent twice to every new member. Newsletters - If the website sends out a news letter your product details could be sent with it. Forum Announcements - The VBulletin software has a new announcement function. It puts a big banner at the top of the site asking people to read a certain thread. That means everyone that visited the site would see the announcement. The thread would contain details about your products or services. Youtube videos - I promote my site through youtube, dailymotion, metacafe, yahoo video, break.com and several other video hosting sites. I could make a video, and insert a commercial about your site, services and products. Just like a commercial on TV. A video I recently posted, received over 1,400 views in less the 48 hours. A link to your site would be posted in the video description. Using these techniques, someone like me could get word out about your nitch, site, service or products to thousands of people in just a couple of days. But picking the right forum is very important as you want targeted traffic. So there - does that give you any real ideas on how to use a forum to promote your site, services or products? If this article helped you - add to my reputation.
the best thing is that you have been already hired So, now you can relax, sit and read the forums You are in the right place, and you actually did the right thing: asking questions when you are new on a forum is better than start posting whatever you need to promote
hmmm, I would say it will all depend on the product you're marketing. If the product is related to internet marketing or affiliate marketing or some way to earn a income online, it'll probably blend well with digital point and like forums. Of all the places on the net, I would say forums are the most realistic place for online marketers to share ideas. What I mean to say is a site you find in google telling you how to make money will never be as real as what is provided on forums... The reason for this is because with forums, all products are up for the public to review and give a opinion on, that means the product will not be based on some sites testimonial section, but instead it will be based primarily on people's opinion of the product. So... if you are here to sell us something that will really help us, the product will become a product praised around the forums... if not... word will move fast among the forums that it is not worth it. Forums are not just places where you can dump a ad and expect it to pull people in... you have to offer something people will like, hence why you don't see a bunch of mlm promotion going on in forums, because it's not really a good way to make money online, but if you look in google or on videos for making money on the net, you'll see a bunch of mlm stuff all over. Forums are communities and people share and pass information, and like communities there is leaders and people of influence that'll rate what you're offering, and people will look to this person to be the judge of your product because they can trust this person. hope my advice helped you. the point I'm trying to make is forums are places to build your position with people, not places to dump advertising, because advertising all over diffirent forums in single posts will never work... its all about relations on forums.
Very helpful advice Clifford. I never thought about using forums for the positing of the product only the promotion side. Very interesting ideas. Thanks.