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DP Directory, Inc.
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Subscribe Now to Al Harberg's Software Marketing Newsletter, the best way for software developers to get free, usable marketing information. We'll never use your email address for anything besides sending you this twice-monthly newsletter.
You can sell more software in 2003 than you did in 2002. Lots more! This newsletter will bring you information, ideas, and insights that will increase your sales. There are no gimmicks involved. In fact, each of the things that you need to do to sell more software has been cleverly disguised as work.
(1) Tell your web site visitors if your software will run on their computers.
(2) Tell them immediately how much your software costs, in terms that they'll understand.
(3) Tell them immediately what you're selling.
(4) Tell them about your software's benefits.
(5) Be credible.
(6) Be up to date.
(7) Turn your program into a sales machine.
(8) Use your web site to sell your software.
(9) Watch people as they visit your web site.
(10) Watch people as they install your software and try to use it. Increasing your sales will be done by a series of small steps. While some of them will make a significant bump in your income, most ideas will add a couple of percent here and a couple of percent there. There are no magic formulas. There's just common sense and a little work. Twice each month, this newsletter will provide clues for increasing your software sales.
You can sell more programs if you spend time in pleasant groups, where people discuss software marketing. Try the Educational Software Cooperative's (ESC's) public newsgroup for a refreshing change. In fact, if you'd like to discuss any of the ideas in this newsletter, you can post them in ESC's newsgroup. The group's "regulars" include a number of full-time marketing people who work with independent software developers, including myself, Dave Collins, and Mike Callahan. You don't have to be an ESC member to read or post messages, and all software-related topics are welcome.
In each newsletter, I'll be reviewing books that can help you sell more software. Unlike reviews on sites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, my reviews will be from a software developer's perspective.
Permission Marketing: by Seth Godin (Simon & Schuster) If he were talking to an audience of software developers, I believe that Seth Godin would be telling you to move your advertising money away from banner ads and pop-unders, and start sending newsletters to your customers and prospects. The Big Picture - The premise of this book is that old-fashioned advertising, which Godin calls "interruption advertising", doesn't work any more. There are only so many hours in each day. Hundreds of advertisers interrupt us and try to get our attention. Interruption advertising is becoming less and less effective. What it Means for Software Developers - For software developers, the cost-effectiveness of banner-advertising is marginal. While pop-unders seem to be working, people will soon tire of them (or tune them out with ad-blocking utilities). To sell in the Internet world, you have to swap. You offer people something of value, and in return, they give you permission to market to them via newsletter. Just as nobody looks forward to the commercials on the television networks, nobody wants you to send them a newsletter each month that advertises your software. But if your newsletter offers something of value, people will read it, and respond to it. One of Godin's non-traditional concepts is that you should focus on share-of-customer, and not on market share. It's a lot easier to sell additional software to existing customers than to find and convince strangers to buy. With permission marketing, frequency builds trust. Unlike ads (which people tune out), content-rich newsletters can turn your company and software into household words. With each issue of your newsletter, people are more likely to buy your software. Godin explores myths about marketing on the Internet. Too many software developers equate web traffic with success. Or believe that content by itself will generate return-traffic. Or think that search engines will send sufficient traffic to your site. The Bottom Line - Unlike many marketing books that are aimed at marketing-executives at Fortune-100 companies, Permission Marketing has useful strategies for setting up your permission-based web site. And unlike many marketing books that tell you that you should manipulate people to believe something that they don't currently believe, Permission Marketing shows you how to use people's current belief systems to sell more of your products. The book uses examples and checklists, and doesn't get bogged down in ivory-tower theories. It's a quick read, and time well spent. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this newsletter, send me a note. I'll remove your name immediately and permanently. To SUBSCRIBE to the email version of this newsletter, send me your name and email address. I'll only use your name and email address for this newsletter. I'll never spam you, or let other people have your name or email address. al@dpdirectory.com To SELL MORE SOFTWARE, bookmark this web site, and visit often. There's a lot of free, useful software marketing information on http://www.dpdirectory.com/.
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