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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.
It's All About Marketing
Whether you're a native English-speaking American, a speaker of British English, or somebody who speaks English as a second language, there are some guidelines that will help you sell more effectively into the United States' lucrative software market. The four key areas where your English-language communications are critical are in your press releases, on your web site, in your software, and in your customer communications: (1) English in Your Press Releases At a recent Shareware Industry Conference in St. Louis, I had a long conversation with the editor-in-chief of one of the US' most popular consumer computer magazines. To a writer who had been writing press releases for software developers for nearly 20 years, this was a tremendous opportunity for me to get one-on-one current information from a top editor. I asked him how his magazine deals with press releases that were written by developers who don't speak English as their first language. He shrugged his shoulders and said that they just don't have the time to rewrite press releases. They receive enough press releases every month that they can easily select enough for publication, without having to do any serious editing or rewriting. If you aren't a native-speaking American, then find somebody who will "Americanize" your press release before you send it to the editors. This is a free service that I provide to my customers. If my client has written a well-structured press release with good flow and reasonable wording, I'm happy to spend 10 or 15 minutes and rewrite the press release, giving that customer the edge that they need to compete with native English speakers. Three or four years ago, if you were going to send a press release written in British English to the editors, I'd have advised you to "Americanize" it. But US editors today seem very comfortable with British English. The only exception is the use of collective nouns: Americans say, "Widget Group has released Widget 1.0", while the British say, "Widget Group have released Widget 1.0". To the American ear, "colour" and "minimise" are British, but "Widget Group have released Widget 1.0" sounds incorrect. Don't use this construction. Either Americanize it, or find another way to express it. If you're a native English-speaking developer, and you're not confident about your writing, then get somebody to help you write your press release. Find a press release emailing service - like mine - that reviews its customers' press releases before they're sent to the editors. Or simply hire us to do both the writing and emailing. Editors love words. In addition to being clear, compelling, and interesting, your press release has to be properly written. (2) English on Your Web Site Americans and Europeans often have different attitudes towards web sites written in a developer's second language. Europeans are used to interacting every day with people who speak several languages, and they don't expect everybody to speak every language perfectly. By contrast, here in the US I can go for a year without being drawn into a non-English conversation, except for the odd Norwegian conversations at some family picnics. When Europeans see a reasonably well-written web site in a developer's second language, they're impressed. By contrast, when Americans see a web site that was written by somebody who speaks English as a second language, the errors in wording, grammar, and syntax stand out. Instead of being impressed by how well you speak English as a second language, many Americans mistakenly think that you've made careless or sloppy errors, and worry that your software might not be of the highest quality. While it's not nearly as important when you sell to Europeans, you'll sell more software to Americans if your web site appears to be written by a native English-speaking writer. (3) English in Your Software Application If you use a trial version to entice prospects to become customers, then you need to treat your software as a sales tool: - Your nag screens need to be a series of well-written sales pitches that point out the key benefits of your software, and that ask the user to buy the software now. - The help file has to have an introduction that describes how the prospect's life will be better if they have the registered version of the application installed on their hard drive. - The introductory splash screen has to be an attractive description of the main features and benefits of the program. If English is new to you, swap. Ask an English-speaking developer to rewrite your app's key sales screens. In exchange, give them material in your native language that they can use on their web site. Perhaps write a paragraph that describes their program, and says that support is only available in English. A carefully crafted write-up will grab the users' attention, and open up sales opportunities. (4) English in the Communications with Your Customers and Prospects The argument that I hear every week against offering software with multi-language interfaces is that buyers will expect to receive support in their native language. At the same time, I hear that one of the best time-saving techniques that a developer can embrace is to create a standard set of answers to common support questions. If you can get a native English speaker to write a clean, clear set of English-language answers to your most common support questions, you can provide your American customers with support in a way that they can understand and appreciate. In addition to having these fine-tuned phrases available for email support, a well-written FAQ file is essential to every program. The bottom line: You'll sell more software to Americans if you write well. I believe it's worth the trouble.
There are four ways that people can find things on your web site: (1) Some people will read from top-to-bottom until they find what they're looking for. More accurately, they'll skim the words and bullet points, and glance at the diagrams and screenshots, hoping to find something close to what they're looking for. (2) Other folks will look for your navigation bars. They'll look for horizontal nav bars across the top and bottom of your home page, and vertical nav bars at the left or right. (3) A lot of people like to search web sites. Including a search engine on my site is on my to-do list, and it should be on most developers' to-do lists, too. (4) Some people will look at your home page for a few seconds, and then go to your site map. Most site maps are bare-bones outlines of the URLs that are available. A good site map will be a sales device that will make it easy for prospects to find and buy your software. - If you're selling several unrelated or loosely-related programs, create a table. Include the product name, a brief description, the URL for downloading the trial version, the price (and a link to the sales page), a link to your system requirements, a link to your FAQ, and the URL of your support pages. - If you offer related products, point to the product comparison tables that you've created. - Make it easy to find contact information and a description of your company. - Show links to articles, white papers, and reports in your ever-expanding Resources section. These are the content-rich web pages that the search engines love, and use to drive enormous amounts of traffic to your site. Make every sentence of your site map sell. Present a professional, inviting picture of your company and the products that it offers.
Computer, business, and most trade magazines often publish round-up articles that compare various applications. Every month, we see magazine articles entitled "Top Ten Windows Pop-Up Blockers" or "The Best Personal Firewalls". It's important to have your software listed in these articles. If a magazine or newspaper reader is about to buy the kind of software that's described in the article, then being reviewed in the article can result in a direct sale. If users are thinking about making a purchase in the coming months, they'll tear out the article and file it for future use. You don't have to be awarded the most stars, or get the editors' recommendation, for these articles to sell your software. You can have a three-star program with a comment like "solid basics, but lacks feature-A and feature-B", and you can get more sales than the five-star program, because a lot of people don't want to wrestle with, or pay for, unnecessary features. To be considered for round-up articles, send press releases to the editors. Regularly. Include full contact information (postal address and phone number, in addition to URL and email address) so that the editors will take you seriously, and realize that you're a long-term player in the marketplace. It takes time to build a reputation with the editors. But good brand name recognition can generate a lot of sales.
Listen to the tall guy!
Russell Rules 11 Lessons on Leadership From the Twentieth Century's Greatest Winner by Bill Russell (published by Dutton) The Big Picture - When somebody leads a National Basketball Association team to 11 championships in 13 years, it's likely that they know something about winning. Bill Russell did and does. Russell writes about the power of winning as a team. You can not only out-play your opponents, but out-think them, and reach a high level of success, if you understand your strengths, your limitations, and the roles that each person is called on to play. What it Means for Software Developers - Winning over a long period of time has little to do with luck or accident. Winning is about mental and emotional skill sets. And winning is a team endeavor. It's rare a software developer to have all of the skills needed to succeed. A successful developer has to have imaginative ideas, solid analytical skills, the ability to design a rock-solid application, programming and testing skills, business management experience, marketing prowess, and communication skills. Whether it involves creating web art or negotiating contracts, developers have to do it all. You have to determine which tasks to do yourself, and which to leave to the experts. Interpersonal and communication skills are paramount. Yet developers are often at odds with their most important stakeholders. I think Bill Russell would shake his head in dismay if he saw some of the interactions between developers and their eCommerce providers, download site owners, and other teammates. The Bottom Line - Unlike many sports figures who were successful solely because of their athletic prowess, Bill Russell understood the principles that made him a winner. I'm glad he shared his ideas. His book is a quick read, and it will be even more fun if you enjoy NBA basketball. One last quote from Bill Russell: "It's hard work being a winner. If it weren't, everyone would be doing it." 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/.
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