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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
In addition to our affordable $250(US) press release writing service, I'm offering a new $165 service that is available at this time only to readers of my newsletter. There's only one difference between the two services: - With the $250 service, I install and run your application, using it as an additional source of information. I experience your program the way a typical prospect would. - With the $165 service, I work from the material on your web site. One advantage to this new service, in addition to saving you money, is that if I have any questions that are normally answered by running your program, I'll get answers instead by asking you for more information. If I can't figure it out from the words on your web site, chances are that a lot of other people can't, either. So, this lower-priced service gives you some excellent feedback on possible holes in your web site's sales pitch. With either service, you still get my nearly-20 years of experience in writing press releases for software developers. And you get a fully-customized, professionally-written and edited press release that's in the format that the editors can use in their publications. Send me an email, and we can start a conversation about how you can use press releases to promote your software.
To sell more software, you have to have features and benefits that your competitors don't have. But if you want to control your software category, you have to take it a step further. You have to create in prospects' minds the expectation that all software in your category must have one or more features that are unique to your application. Automobile manufacturers do this all the time. They tell you that you should never put your spouse and children into a car that doesn't have passenger-side air bags, or anti-lock brakes. When these two new car safety features were initially introduced into the marketplace, the early adapters had a huge competitive advantage over car makers who didn't offer these features. Competitors were forced to include them as optional equipment and, eventually, as standard equipment. Your application's unique features have to be genuine, or the buying public simply won't take you seriously. For example, I emphasize to software developers that their press releases have to be well-written because editors won't take the time to fix their grammar, spelling, and syntax errors. If your press release feels like it was written by a native English-speaking business person, more editors of English language publications will print it. If your press release hasn't been checked out by a marketing professional, how will you ever know if it's your press release or your program that is keeping you from getting the publicity that you deserve? By pointing this out, I'm not simply saying that I offer a benefit that my competitors can't match. I'm creating expectations in the software development community that any press release emailing service has to include free copy editing and "Americanization" by an experienced, accomplished marketer and writer, or it shouldn't be considered as a serious contender for developers' business. And in the process, I create a benefit that can't be matched by a competitor. Your software has to have one or more features that your prospects can understand immediately, and value immediately as making a real difference in their lives. A lot of developers try to define their uniqueness in the technical realm, and this approach often fails. Unless you're marketing to a highly technical audience, your prospects don't care that your program has a tiny footprint, or that you don't call DLLs, or that you've programmed in one computer language versus another. You have to zero in on features that make a big difference in your program's usability and benefits, and make it clear that you offer this feature, and your competitors don't. Some developers use feature bloat to try to achieve their unique feature mix. This usually leads to confusion in the marketplace. It's difficult to explain to the buyer of a print screen program that their life will be better because your screen capture app has a built-in WhoIs lookup as well as a popup blocker. The unique feature that you offer has to fit into the software that you're marketing. Make your prospects understand that your program will improve their lives. Talk in terms of saving time, saving money, surpassing their competition, taking control of their lives, having fun, or doing something tomorrow that they can't do today. Talk to your prospects and find out what's missing from your program, and from your competitors' offerings. Figure out how to include these seemingly-impossible expectations that your potential customers are surprisingly willing to pay for. Hire an expert, or license the technology that you need. Form a strategic alliance with somebody who is doing something similar in another field, and use their techniques in your application. The more difficult it is for you to develop your unique feature, the longer it will be before your competitors offer it, too. How will your competitors respond to your unique feature? Most of them will do nothing for months, until their next major release. Some of them will try to copy your unique feature, and use it to gain a competitive edge. Your web site has to point out that you were the first company to offer this feature, and that your customers love it. Your application is rock-solid, stable, and offers this feature as part of its core functionality. Yours is the tried-and-true solution - the granddaddy application that has defined the category. And then you have to come up with more features and benefits that define your software category, and that your competitors will have difficulty copying!
Buzz works. Word of mouth advertising is one of the most effective and least expensive ways to get the word out about your software. Ask your customers to tell their friends about your programs. Include a tell-a-friend link in your help file. Put a tell-a-friend program on your web site. Assure them that your tell-a-friend program is safe. Even though it requires that they give you their email address and their friend's email address, you'll never give, trade, or sell their addresses to anybody else. Make it personal. For example - Please tell your developer friends about this newsletter. They're interested in ways to sell more of their software, and they'll thank you for telling them how easy it is to subscribe. I'll thank you, too!
Comprehensive Acrobat 6 Guide
Carl Young's Adobe Acrobat 6.0 by Carl Young (published by McGraw-Hill/Osborne) The Big Picture - You'll sell more software if your web site contains compelling pre-sale information. You'll reduce your company's support burden if your site offers a library of post-sale documentation. With hundreds of millions of copies of Adobe Reader in the marketplace, a lot of your customers and prospects are looking for your information in .pdf format. This book helps you decide if Acrobat is the tool that you need to create and maintain .pdf documentation. If so, the book is an excellent how-to guide and reference work. What it Means for Software Developers - Like most third-party software books, this one provides a wider focus than the material that's available from the software publisher. You get insights into the application's strengths and weaknesses, and information about add-on products. The book explains how you can create .pdf's in various ways, such as from Acrobat Distiller, directly from an application, using third-party utilities, or by scanning printed documents. It discusses the differences between Adobe Acrobat 6 Elements, Standard, and Professional editions. If you decide to select Acrobat 6, you'll get practical advice on how to perform both simple and complex tasks. The Bottom Line - The book's author, Carl Young, produces the world's major PDF conference each year. Adobe selected him to run their first public Acrobat 6 training sessions. He knows the material, and writes well. The book is well organized and well illustrated. While Carl Young's Adobe Acrobat 6.0 isn't targeted at systems developers, it is meant to be read by people who are comfortable with computers; for example, there's no infuriating newbie-talk that explains how to move your mouse and select items from drop-down menus. If you're going to spend any time using Acrobat 6, this book's $35(US) cover price is a minor expense in your quest to use Acrobat effectively. 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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