Marketing at technology companies is still quite nascent or non-existent. As our annual marketing practices studies show, most companies in India continue to have a narrow and tactical focus within marketing - in fact, for the majority of emerging companies (the definition would cover all companies registered in NASSCOM save the Top 25 or 30!), marketing is synonymous with lead generation. At Prayag, we have often wondered why companies do not realize the importance of marketing, and the impact it can have if they start relevant activities early on.

In our experience garnered through client assignments, the two most important reasons for this are (1) the misconception that marketing means big bucks and (2) the lack of time, and sometimes, ideas to build the foundation of marketing.

In this article, we seek to dispel the notion that marketing implies big money. On the contrary, our premise is that marketing can be done with small budgets, and that it is relevant to all companies, irrespective of their size, revenues or maturity.

To convince you on how marketing can be run on a shoe string budget, we must first explain what is the role of marketing, and hence, what it entails. Marketing's role is to create a positive association about an organization among its key target audiences - it's as simple as that, it's as complex as that! In turn, this positive association with the relevant audience will create a pull towards the company, over time. In other words, these positive associations culminate in a desire to use the company's services or products in the case of buyers, and in pride of association with the company in the case of employees. Clearly, building such an association cannot be done overnight, hence the need to start early. Second, there is no law that such associations can be built only by throwing big money around.

Consider this- the typical IT company in India targets a global customer base, or, to start with one or two geographies that are physically far away. They also target a select set of identifiable customers: for example, a mid sized IT company may focus on UK and US markets, and focus on all companies in the Fortune 500 - Fortune 1000 list. Or, a transaction processing company may choose to build expertise in processes catering to 1 or 2 segments, making those segments its market. A third company may choose to focus on a certain technology, making all companies with prior investments in such platforms its desired target. Irrespective of the offerings and market, the advantage of B2B is that you can, with some effort, identify individually, the constituents of your market. This identification rarely takes money; it however, takes time, and knowledge. In today's internet enabled times, companies often underestimate the value of focused research through the internet.

Next, having identified the target audience, the next step is to make them aware that you exist. Mundane as it may seem, there is no better way than your company website - and surprising as it may be, most companies pay little attention to this potent tool. A good majority of company websites are out dated, most are shallow and have little to offer to a reader. If only you take good care of your website and used it as a real marketing tool, its potential is immense. First, it is the quickest and most inexpensive way I know to keep the world posted about your company; through some clever optimization techniques you can drive traffic to your website and increase awareness. Third, by strengthening the interactive components and content, you can actually gain traction and generate leads through your website. I was actually pleasantly surprised to find that many of our clients (in the emerging companies segment) generate a significant number of serious leads through their website.

Going one step ahead, e-newsletters are an inexpensive way to stay in touch- most companies we meet think that e-newsletters are over done- we beg to differ. Even today, the value of an informative and well written newsletter remains - the problem most companies face is paucity of ideas and hence they kill the concept! In fact, I know of companies that have won business by creating thought leadership through their newsletters.

One more way to build awareness is by participating in forums and associations. These need to be anchored by the management, and can eventually lead to speaking opportunities - this is also an under exploited tool.

Next, let's discuss PR - for most companies PR seems like the panacea that will get them instant brand recognition- nothing can be further away from the reality. PR is but one channel to communicate with your target audiences and in the context of companies targeting the global market, it is more pertinent to get mentioned in the press in the local market- the link between PR in India and business gains is quite questionable. At best, it can help gain some recognition among potential employees, but there are better ways to get the same results.

Second, even in PR, there are many strategies to adopt- writing articles in the media is an excellent way to build awareness, but this seems to find less favor compared to the less effective method of sending out releases to the press. Our view is that PR is important, but requires money, and becomes more relevant for larger companies with much to talk about- for emerging companies, brand building need not, and should not, be equated to PR.

CEO led branding is a perhaps the most effective and important way to build brand for an emerging company. The CEO and management team need to lead from the front in building the company's brand. Taking advantage of speaking opportunities, writing for the media, networking in industry forums and leading thought leadership initiatives through the web are some ways for the management to spearhead branding initiatives. It is evident that all of these require little or no investment of hard cash, but time and effort.

The important point to note is that marketing efforts need to be focused and targeted and championed by the management - especially in emerging companies. It is the quality of the effort that will make an impact when a brand is being created. Hence, it is our view that lack of a big budget should not be a deterrent to companies; rather they should pick the relevant initiatives and pursue relentlessly.