Marketing is the process of creating or improving the demand for the products or services your enterprise provides. The primary thing that should initially be done is to establish a strong brand, then drive awareness of that brand. Often this is done through the development of appropriate websites, press releases, trade press articles, shows, events, collateral, co-branding, and sponsorships. Scott has done all of these. Below is a single example that demonstrates all of this. Note that unlike Scott’s corporate projects this was done for a personal project on a shoe-string budget so it shows what he can do with limited resources.

In the fall of 2009, Scott’s small software company FFX was poised to deliver its first product, an iPhone app for target archers called Archer’s Mark. As the program neared completion, Scott refreshed the FFX corporate website and created the required product pages complete with a video and a series of screenshots. Scott then jumped onto four sites that supported archers and began to create buzz. Scott posted screenshots of the iPhone app and brief feature summaries. He then asked some of the beta testers to also post to these sites to further drive discussion of the app. Over the holidays while shooting with some friends, one mentioned that they knew the President of Lancaster Archery Supply. Lancaster is the largest archery distributor in the US and possibly the world, Scott’s friend offered to “hook him up.” He then learned that Lancaster hosts an enormous indoor archery competition the end of January at their facility. Often 200 archers compete and another 100 or so attend.During the first week of January after a series of phone calls, Scott closed a sponsorship deal with Lancaster. They had agreed to co-branding of the products, and that Lancaster would also feature Archer’s Mark at their upcoming event. Lancaster also paid a sponsorship fee, provided some marketing funds, pro-shooter shirts for Scott’s team of six, and offered both online and print ads in their upcoming catalog. FFX instantly invested the marketing funds in two 3’x5’ banners for the event, today the image on the right is that of the one that currently hangs in the office.

We then produced 500 iPhone size/shaped cards to be handed out, front and back shown below. All the shirts were then embroidered with the Archer’s Mark icon, and distributed to our team. FFX then purchased an iPod Touch which was then supplied as a door prize for the event. Before each group of archers shot in competition the rules were reviewed, sponsors thanked, and the president of Lancaster then did a brief commercial for Archer’s Mark. That night at the banquet after raffling off thirty or so items Scott was called up to give a quick pitch on Archer’s Mark before the iPod was given away.

Scott then authored an article for ArcheryMagazineDecJan2010 on how technology is marching forward in archery through iPhone apps. This article came out the following week. Scott reviewed three different apps, and coincidentally Archer’s Mark was featured because it was truly the most innovative of the bunch. This article was completed and submitted before the app was launched on November 16th in iTunes. The article was published in January 2010.

The above story represents four months of part-time marketing work on a single project.