Marketing is the process of creating or increasing demand for the products or services your enterprise provides, often through storytelling. The primary thing to do first is to establish a strong brand, then drive awareness of it through a series of stories. We often create forums for these stories through 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 shoestring budget, demonstrating 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, which were complete with a video and a series of screenshots. Scott then jumped onto four sites that supported archers and started creating buzz. Scott posted screenshots of the iPhone app and brief feature summaries. He then asked some of the beta testers to post on these sites as well 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 at its facility at the end of January. 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-brand the product and that Lancaster would also feature Archer’s Mark at their upcoming event. Lancaster also paid a sponsorship fee, provided some marketing funds and 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 the one currently hanging in the office.

We then produced 500 iPhone-sized/shaped cards to be handed out, front and back, as 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 given away as a door prize at 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 Archery Magazine (Dec/Jan 2010) on how technology is advancing in archery through iPhone apps. This article came out the following week. Scott reviewed three apps, and, coincidentally, Archer’s Mark was featured because it was the most innovative of the bunch. This article was completed and submitted before the app launched on November 16th in the iTunes App Store. The article was published in January 2010.

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