How to present a product : specific website or @ the company's site

Marketing
1

Hi all,

I usually post in the PHP/MySql/JS section of this forum but I believe answers given at this place will be as useful and effective as there.
I have developed a Project Management Application with my friend. We can’t decide which is a better way to present it on the web :

  1. start an offshore company, create a corporate website and present the software at the company’s website as a product
  2. create a promotional site only about the application

We think there are pros and contras for both :

  • it’s easier to optimize the more specific 2nd option
  • the 1st option is more time-consuming but it might be very useful to build trust and expand with more products in the future
  • etc, etc…

We’d be really thankful if you could give us your thoughts, maybe some of you have some similar experiences…
As always, your advices are highly appreciated!!!

2

As for me, i suggest you the first option, sure it takes time but it’s worth, and you are right about building trust with an offshore company.

3

My first inclination was to suggest a split test, but that would be a whole lot of work and require two different domains. Then, some other considerations came to mind.

  1. Will your application be proprietary or open source? The reason this is important is because you will want to market your application the same way that successful competitors market theirs, i.e. – don’t try to re-invent the wheel.
  2. Do you have other products currently in the hopper. To me, it’s a real downer and erodes credibility when I return to a site that says “new products on the way” but I never see anything new there.
  3. If you have new products, will they be branches of your initial application or completely different?
  4. Will you be developing add-ons, plugins and/or extensions for your application that would be better marketed as corporate?
  5. What kind of support will you offer? I generally expect that a corporate site will have better support than a start up. For example, phone support as well as email support and live support. (And if you offer live support will it be available more than unavailable. Again, it’s a real turn off to access a site that hawks live support when there is rarely anyone in attendance).

These are just a few of the things I would consider and although I thank you for posting in the content area, what you really want to know is how to best market your product. I think you will probably get more and better suggestions in Internet Marketing. That said, I have moved this thread to that forum.

4

I think there are a lot of ways and sources which could help us to promote our product specific website or company’s site. As we could give ads in some commercials on t.v, newspapers or even could launch it on internet as a new site to the web. Could also be given as a ad in some supporting sits on the web.

5

Thank you guys for your detailed/not-so-detailed replies. I knew SitePoint was the best place to ask my question. We’re still in doubt and thinking about what would be better but I believe your points will assist us in making the good decision. At least I hope so…

6

you should go for the first option. Because the buyer would have more sense of guarantee and surety of the software while purchasing it through an official site.