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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
Developers ask me if the press releases that we send to the editors should be personalized. While personalization is becoming an increasingly important component of software marketing, the answer to this question is almost always "no". From a technical perspective, it's easy for me to personalize the press releases that I send to the editors. My email software lets me do sophisticated email-merges, and I can include any field from my database. I've even taken the time to "genderize" the editors' names. John Smith's email can say "Dear Mr. Smith:", Joan Smith's can say "Dear Ms. Smith:", and Lee Smith's can say "Dear Lee Smith:". Before I introduced my email press release distribution service in August of 1997, developers asked me a very similar question: "Should I include a cover letter when we postal-mail my press release to the editors?" The answer is an emphatic "no" if you have nothing exciting to say in your cover letter. You hurt yourself by saying "Dear Mr. Smith - We're excited about our new software release, and we feel that your readers will like to hear about it, too. We would appreciate your including our write-up in your New Product Announcements. If we can send you any additional information, please call or write." The editors know all of this information. That's why you're sending them a press release. There's no need to put the press release in context. By adding this superfluous information, you're inserting an additional 50 noise words between the editor and the important message that you want them to read. Don't do it. The rare exceptions to this rule involve situations where you can influence the editor to use your press release by pointing out facts that wouldn't be relevant to the press release itself. For example, if you're sending a press release about a home inventory application, you might want to include a cover letter that mentions the number of home fires and burglaries that occur each year. Or if you're introducing a version of your software whose major appeal is a GUI in a number of languages, you might want to include a cover letter that specifies the percentage of the editors' readers who use this collection of languages. Unless you have a strong message that you can't weave into the body of your press release, don't include a personalized cover letter. There's a comprehensive press release FAQ on my web site - and if you have any questions that aren't listed on that page, please send me a note, and I'll try to answer them.
"(The) combined shortage of time and attention is unique to today's information age. Consumers are now willing to pay handsomely to save time, while marketers are eager to pay bundles to get attention." This quote, from page 42 of Seth Godin's book "Permission Marketing", stresses why traditional marketing isn't working. We all know that the software marketing effectiveness of adware and banner advertising is a tiny fraction of what it was just a few years ago. According to Seth Godin, all interruption marketing has lost its punch. People tune it out. To market your software, you have to get your prospects' permission. For software marketers, this can mean creating an emailing list of customers and prospects, and sending them news they can use. You can't simply send your prospects sales pitches. They'll unsubscribe, or they'll add your name to their anti-spam filters. Use your newsletter to give them information that they can't get anywhere else. Do some research, and tell them something new. Do a survey, and publish the results. Tell them new ways that they can use the software that they already bought from you, so that they can be more productive, save money, or learn something new. Here's a secret - Your customers and prospects can help you write your newsletter. Keep a list of the intriguing ideas that they email you. When they send you questions that are too involved to be just FAQ entries, turn your replies into thoughtful newsletter articles, and share them with all of your subscribers. In addition to the articles providing usable information, your company's image will benefit in a number of ways. You'll demonstrate that you have an enthusiastic base of customers who are giving your application a workout. You show potential customers that you're actively supporting your software, and that they can expect you to consider their ideas, too. You'll project the image of a developer who is evaluating and enhancing the application, rather than a merchandiser who is trying to sell additional copies of a static product. Give your prospects and customers vital information, and they'll look forward to your marketing messages. There's a full-length book review of Seth Godin's Permission Marketing on my web site.
Last month, the ESC announced at their annual luncheon at the Shareware Industry Conference that Ben Weintraub of Merit Software has joined ESC's Board of Directors. I had been on ESC's Board for the last four years, and I decided that I wouldn't be running for another two-year term. I've known Ben for years and years, and he's going to be a great addition to the association's governing board. Ben knows the educational software marketplace. He told me: "New educational software developers concentrate on getting their software listed on Tucows and Download.com. However, in the education market, expert sites carry a lot of weight with customers. Developers need to focus on getting their products listed on sites like the California Learning Network, the Gateway for Educational Materials, and Dave's ESL Cafe." ESC's public newsgroup is on a private server, so you can post there without worrying that the spam robots are going to harvest your email address. You don't have to be an ESC member to post. Any topic that's related to software development and marketing is welcome, whether it has an educational focus or not. If you have any questions or comments about the ideas in this newsletter, ESC's newsgroup is a great place to post them. I monitor the newsgroup several times each week. So do a number of software marketing and development veterans.
Grab a New Coke and Read This Book Review
The End of Marketing as We Know It by Sergio Zyman (published by HarperBusiness, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) The Big Picture - Sergio Zyman is probably best known as the guy who was responsible for the biggest flop in the history of marketing - replacing Coke with New Coke. Zyman left The Coca-Cola Company after the New Coke fiasco, returned six years later as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, and increased the sales of Coke by fifty percent in five years, from ten billion cases per year to fifteen billion cases. Zyman believes that marketing is about selling things, and not about image. Old school marketing fails because marketers are too full of themselves. The discipline of marketing is a science. Spending on marketing is an investment that has to more than pay for itself. Marketing is about "systematically and thoughtfully coming up with plans and taking actions that get more people to buy more of your product more often, so the company makes more money." Period. What it Means for Software Developers - Too many developers look at marketing as an afterthought. The mindset is "I have a few hundred dollars, so maybe I'll do some marketing." Instead, developers have to treat marketing as an investment. Focus on results. Marketing budgets can't be arbitrary, or based upon a percentage of sales. You have to focus on how many new sales you can get, and how much it will cost to get them. I was fascinated by Zyman's approach to seasonality. Unless you have a one hundred percent market share, you should always increase market share in traditionally low periods. "Make seasonality the other guy's problem." Zyman believes that it's much, much easier to sell additional products to existing users than to convince new prospects to buy your products. If he were marketing software, I'd bet that he'd be sending out a regular newsletter. It would invite readers to upgrade to a more powerful version of the software that they already own, and it would point out the exciting features that can be found in his company's other applications. He'd be offering discounts on other people's software, too. Test and revise. You don't have to win every round to win the fight. Zyman doesn't like megabrands. He believes that you have to differentiate and target. Strangely, he believes that it's a good idea to have overlapping products that appeal to the same audience. "Somebody is going to compete with your products and try to steal your customers. If someone's going to do it, why shouldn't it be you?" While Zyman concedes that the power of the consumer continues to rise, and that consumers know that they have choices, he believes that most consumers "have no idea how to decide." Marketing is all about helping consumers decide to buy your software. Zyman cautions, "Don't let price be the tiebreaker". Instead, educate prospects on why they should buy your software. Now. The Bottom Line - In the author's own words: "Marketing is about spending money on activities that enhance the value of your product, brand, or service and give consumers more reason to buy more of it, more often. It is an investment. It is not an expense that you have the option of cutting. If you want to grow, you have to market." This book is a must-read for anybody who sells software to consumers. If you're selling business-to-business applications, or if you're selling services, you'll have to do a little translating of Zyman's consumer-oriented strategies. The End of Marketing as We Know It is an excellent book, and I recommend it strongly. 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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