|
||
|
|
DP Directory, Inc.
|
|
|
|
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.
It's All About Marketing
(1) Do you lull them to sleep? If your home page loads too slowly, your prospects are either dozing off or, more likely, clicking their browsers' "back" buttons and finding your competitors' web sites. What does "too slowly" mean? That depends upon a number of things: - How interested are your prospects in what you're offering? I'll wait a long, long time for the San Diego Zoo's koala pictures to load. But if you're trying to sell me a $25(US) Windows utility, and you have competitors who offer similar programs, you'd better pop something up on my screen in just a few seconds. - What's your reputation? If users discover that they really need an anti-virus program, they'll be fairly patient while waiting for Norton's or McAfee's home page to load. But if they're waiting for a Windows utility from a relatively unknown developer, their patience levels might not be nearly as high. - Who is your target audience? If you're offering software to medium and large businesses, it's safe to assume that most of them are using broadband connections. If you're selling entertainment software that's used in the home, you had better design your site for dial-up users, and fill their screens quickly with a compelling argument to buy your program. (2) Do you bore them to tears? Tell your readers immediately how you can make their lives better. Tell them that you can save them time, or save them money, or help them relax, or help them leapfrog their competitors. If the first thing that prospects read on your site is your mission statement, then you're losing sales. If you tell them about the latest features that you've added to your software, without first putting your program in context, they're not going to understand what you're saying. Tell them immediately what you're selling, and how their lives would be enhanced if they had your software installed on their computers. (3) Do you confuse them? Talk to your readers in simple terms that non-technical people can understand. If you talk to them about clients and servers and DirectX and ActiveX and other mythical beasties, they'll be confused. They'll assume that your help files and program instructions are written in techie-talk, too. Confused people don't reach for their credit cards. (4) Do you frustrate them? Your web site visitor wants answers immediately: - What are you selling? - Will your software run on my computer? - How much does it cost? They don't want to waste time reading about features and benefits of an application that won't run on their computer, or a program that they can't afford. So, their eyes are looking for words like Windows and Linux and Macintosh. They want to see dollar signs, and they want to know if you're pricing your programs in US dollars or some other country's dollar-denominated currency. Tell them platform and pricing information immediately. Tell them often. The number of your web site visitors who will watch a Flash movie before entering your web site is roughly equal to the number of CompUSA shoppers who would watch a two-minute video before entering the store. On a rainy day. In New England. In February. There's no need to include a link that says "Click here to skip the Flash movie". Your prospects already know that their browsers' "back" button will skip the Flash movie. (5) Do you make visitors want to call their lawyers? If you make them agree to licensing terms before they can download your trial version, you'll turn away many - or most - of your prospects. Even asking for their email address before allowing them to download your trial version will make many - or most - visitors type a bogus address, or simply hit their browsers' "back" buttons. What's a web designer to do? Make it as easy as possible for prospects to answer their questions: - Some prospects want to see screenshots. Some want to read bullet points. Some won't buy a program unless they can read huge blocks of text about every function that the application performs. Your site has to have all of this information. And it has to be simple for each prospect to find what they're looking for.
- Some of your prospects speak English as their first language, and some struggle with English. The way to reach everybody is to use common words to form short, simple statements. Avoid slang. Avoid humor. Passive voice should be avoided
- Some people are technically proficient and some are newbies. It's not easy to create a program description that is understandable to newbies, and at the same time doesn't seem "dumbed down" to techies. Test different sales copy, and use what works best. Perhaps create a "Quick Start Guide" that techies will migrate to, while presenting an entry-level description to newbies.
The bottom line: You have to get prospects' attention in the first few seconds. When they arrive at your home page, they have to think "This is a web site that can benefit me". Make people feel at home. Give them the important information immediately. Make an enticing offer. Ask for the sale.
When you email your press releases to the editors, you need to ensure that you're spelling words consistently. Proper nouns, including your company and product names, have to have the same capitalization, spacing, and spelling.
On your web site, however, you may want to consider another strategy. Your company and product names have to be spelled properly. But you might want to introduce variations of other key words and phrases.
For example, on my web site - http://www.dpdirectory.com/ - I consistently use a hyphen when I say "e-mail". As a result, I get good search engine results for "press release e-mailing", and much worse results for "press release emailing". My new site will contain a mix of the "e-mail" and "email" spellings.
Be sure that your web site includes all proper spellings and upper/lower case combinations of your keywords. Hide the misspellings of the important terms in your web site images' alt tags, and in your metatags. By using inconsistent spellings, you'll lower the keyword density of some of your terms (in favor of the new variations). Because of these new variations, however, the search engines will start sending more visitors to your web site.
If you're marketing a consumer or home entertainment application, you should be thinking about your year-end holiday press release. While it takes three to four months to get a press release published in the monthly computer consumer and trade magazines, they often need a little more time for their "Hot Software for the Holidays" articles.
Send your press releases in July to make sure your applications will be considered. In addition to saying "Review Copy Available on Request" or "Screenshots Available on Request", you might want to also say "Screenshots Available for Your Year-End Holiday Gift-Giving Guide".
Well-Positioned Software Sells Better
The New Positioning
The Latest on the World's #1 Business Strategy
by Jack Trout (published by McGraw-Hill, Inc.)
The Big Picture -
Fifteen years after Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind", Trout has released his updated insights and analysis. The world has changed, and the author's insights have gotten sharper.
The original Positioning book was a breakthrough because it changed the focus of marketing from what you do to the product to what you do to the mind. The current book talks about the new things that we've learned about the human mind. It presents case studies of companies that had to reposition themselves in people's minds if they were to survive. And it provides a lot of practical advice, from how to name your company and product, to how to make sure customers will understand your product's category.
What it Means for Software Developers -
Trout believes that you can't successfully position your product as something that everybody needs. You simply can't convince buyers that your software has both the most powerful feature-set and the simplest interface. It's unlikely that you're the most powerful while being the least expensive. You can't be the ideal solution for newbies and techies. You have to carve out a position in the marketplace, and dominate that position.
Automobile manufacturers used to position themselves as dominant in a particular category. Today, Chevrolets are tiny and huge, cars and trucks, inexpensive and luxury. As confusion goes up, market share goes down.
Software developers have a similar problem in defining their categories, and their positions within these categories. There's a tendency on the part of developers to try to describe their applications as the solution to every problem known to humankind. A better solution might be to create separate programs for each market, and to use them to dominate each market.
The Bottom Line -
Much of the book is targeted toward consumer goods that people buy over and over. People buy Windows clipboard extenders in a much different way than they buy bread each week. But there are a lot of fresh ideas in this easy-to-read book, and it's worth the time.
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. Please add al@dpdirectory.com to your anti-spam filter's friends-list.
To REFER a FRIEND to this newsletter, click your email client's "forward" button. I thank you very much. And your developer friends will thank you, too.
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/.
|
|||||||||||||||||
