What is the most effective way to increase awareness for a product that has strong feature sets but low levels of product awareness?

Anytime we were developing a new market in my previous experience, the best recipe was to combine the identification of market influencers of any type (including channel partners), and leverage existing satisfied customers, even from other markets. Combining good stories from our existing customers, and broadcast them through influencers and public relations, with thought leadership pieces and focus on the customer priorities rather than in our features was the formula that helped us to become one of the top vendors in Europe and Latin America.

I guess the most effective way would be let people use it for free, with limitations of time and or capabilities built into the offering. I guess that would fit into one of the options above?