Due to solid demand, I will officially start my own business offering marketing consulting services to Open Source software creators and contributors in February. Clients will be able to choose from a broad range of marketing services, including strategic as well as operational tasks and social media as well as traditional marketing.

The mission is to help companies and organizations behind Open Source projects become more visible and profitable, hence to boost adoption of Open Source. The only criteria is that a client contributes to Open Source software development, which makes up for the following types of potential customers:

• Creators: Vendors of Open Source products
• Contributors: Companies offering proprietary software including Open Source components they contribute to
• Investors: VCs financing an Open Source venture

The consultancy will be able to help with:

• Defining an Open Source marketing strategy
• Open Source communications coaching of management
• Branding and positioning
• Community building/maintenance
• Building/maintaining a partner network crediting Open Source contributions
• Public relations (printed magazines, blogosphere, …)
• Collaterals (brochures, business cards, …)
• Events (e.g. (un-)conferences, partner meetings, …)
• Investor pitches
• Managing the contents of a client’s Web site
• Social media: creating product Screencasts, coaching bloggers, …
• …

One could completely outsource all marketing activities to the consultancy or take it in for specific projects or campaigns only.

I’ll be happy to share my experiences in this Weblog with you along the way and I will continue to provide general Open Source marketing know-how distilled from client projects to the public.

I’d also be happy to hear your advice.