Salesforce.com 2008 Annual Report Download - page 15

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Table of Contents
Marketing
Our marketing strategy is to continually elevate our brand and generate significant demand for our offerings. We use a variety of marketing programs to
target our prospective and current customers, partners, and developers.
Our primary marketing activities include:
• press and industry analyst relations to garner third-party validation and generate positive coverage for our company and product strategy
• user conferences and launch events, as well as participation in trade shows and industry events, to create awareness and excitement
• search engine marketing and online and print advertising to drive traffic to our Web properties
• Web site development to engage and educate prospects and generate interest through product information and demonstrations, free trials, case
studies, white papers, and marketing collateral
• email, direct mail, and phone campaigns to capture leads that can be funneled into our sales organization
• use of customer testimonials
• sales tools and field marketing events to enable our sales organization to more effectively convert pipeline into completed transactions
Customer Service and Support
We believe that superior customer support is critical to retaining and expanding our customer base. Our customer support groups respond to general
customer inquiries, such as technical questions or questions relating to how to use our service, and are available to customers by telephone or email or over
the Web.
We have a comprehensive technical support program to assist our customers in the use of our service and to identify, analyze and solve problems or
issues with our service. The support program includes email support, an online repository of helpful information about our service, shared best practices for
implementation and use, and telephone support. In addition, we have supplemented our own staff with other technical support specialists who work for us on a
contract basis. Basic customer support during business hours is available at no charge to customers that purchase any of our paying editions. Premier customer
support, which includes additional services such as an assigned support representative or team of support representatives, is available for a separate fee, or is
included as part of Unlimited Edition. Additional support services include administrator support which aids customers in application configuration and
optimization.
International Sales
We generate over 25 percent of our total revenues from customers in Europe and Asia Pacific, including Japan. We expect international markets to
provide increased opportunities for our applications and services in the future. Our current international efforts are focused on strengthening our direct sales
and marketing presence outside of North America, and generating more revenues from these regions.
Seasonality
Our fourth quarter has historically been our strongest quarter for new business. For a more detailed discussion, see the "Seasonal Nature of Deferred
Revenue and Accounts Receivable" discussion in Management's Discussion and Analysis.
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