Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

What you need is a back-to-square-one marketing plan. Let's begin with some basics:

1. Who exactly is your primary target audience? Where?

2. What unique benefit can they expect when they retain you? What is unique/special about what you deliver (that makes you different from, and better than, competitors)?

3. Have you done a SWOT analysis? If not, that would probably be worthwhile ... to identify some leverage points for marketing your services.

4. What would your current clients say about your services and the benefits they perceive that keeps them renewing with you?

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If you are really serious about this growth initiative, you might consider hiring a professional marketer to guide you through the planning process. You'll most likely save a bunch of money (vs. trying to do it yourself).

If you don't have anything new to share, then why would someone want to read a press release about your company? If you're having customer attrition, start by understand why people are leaving. If you're having customer acquisition problems, then focus on answering Michael's questions (above). Perhaps one easy thing to do is start by rewarding existing customers that bring in referrals.

I don't think you need to explain why you were absent from the press, nor explain why you are doing a push.

Having something new to promote can bring about some free or low cost publicity, through press releases, new product mentions, etc. Without this, you likely will end up leaning more torward paid publicity (ads, advertorials, and the like).

I am going to third what Mgoodman said - this could be a good time to go back and make a complete marketing plan. If you don't have marketing staff any longer after the hiatus of not doing marketing, probably be worth hiring a firm to do this *WITH* you. Note this shouldn't be something which you hire a firm and they go away and do the work, but instead should be something where they come in and work with the key folks in your company who know the products and industry best to work this out.

Good advice above.

Regarding being newsworthy, new things happen every day. As a dependable and respected and knowledgeable expert in the field of computer security, you can comment on these things. You can use press releases to help those in media to better understand complex technologies and serious issues related to current events. You can be a helpful resource to them as they write about computer security related issues and news. You can become their trusted, "go to guy" who gets quoted in their articles, even as you keep your own cards close to the vest.

Personally, if I were a business owner, and I had retained your firm to address my computer security, I don't want someone out there blabbing about the features and capabilities of the software and hardware and procedures and practices my company depends upon. Good luck, and take care.