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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
This month marks the 20th anniversary of DP Directory, Inc., the press release and marketing company that my wife and I started in 1984 after we had each spent 15 years doing application development work for several of the huge insurance and financial institutions in the greater-Hartford, Connecticut area. After 20 years, we still enjoy getting up each day, turning on the computers, and learning (and writing) about the latest software. We'd like to say "thank you" to so many of you who have made our work days so pleasant for the past two decades!
This fascinating reminder is from page 22 of Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think" (there's a book review from an earlier newsletter on http://www.dpdirectory.com/3news003.htm). This quotation describes perfectly the way prospects look at software developers' web pages. You have to get the software buyer's attention immediately. Your home page's first sentence should be your most compelling marketing pitch for your software. Large blocks of text are uninviting. Use bullet points to tell your target audience how they'll benefit from owning your software. Use the key words and phrases that your prospects will understand. Don't confuse them with techie talk. Your web site is your software marketing presentation. Make it easy to navigate. Tell readers immediately if your software will run on their computers. Make it easy for them to buy it, to learn more about it, or to download a trial version. In Jakob Nielsen's book "Homepage Usability" (reviewed in my newsletter archives on http://www.dpdirectory.com/3news002.htm), Nielsen talks about all of the ways that people think of their home pages: Home pages are our magazine covers, our faces to the world, our artwork, the lobby of our building, our company's receptionist, our book's table of contents, the front page of our newspaper, or our sales brochure. If your goal is to sell software, then your home page is your sales presentation. Get people excited about your applications. Tell them how your software will benefit them. Use your web site to sell.
In addition to the marketing and business books that I review each month, Kathy Salisbury of Pharos Games will be reviewing technical books for the newsletter. With more than two decades of telecommunications and software development experience, Kathy brings technical knowledge and insights that will help developers save time and money when choosing among the hundreds of tech book titles available. Since 1999, Kathy has been running Pharos Games - http://www.pharosgames.com/. Her latest creation, Cherokee Trails, won the 2004 award for Best Educational Software or Game at the Shareware Industry Conference in July. Cherokee Trails is being distributed by Scholastic, Inc.
MySQL Book for Developers
MySQL Essential Skills by John W. Horn and Michael Grey (published by McGraw-Hill/Osborne) The Big Picture - MySQL database is an important tool for creating the dynamic content that will attract potential customers to your web site. This book is an excellent MySQL reference and will serve you well, whether you want to learn the basics about MySQL, from server installation to advanced report creation, or if you need a reference book for basic to advanced MySQL operations. PHP is one of the fastest growing web languages, and a section of this book is devoted to interfacing MySQL with PHP. In the prologue, Michael Grey states that writing the book enriched him "perhaps in the way that Dante was enriched by his sojourn through the Inferno." It was well worth the effort, however, as the result is a very concise, readable book that covers the subject with precision and accuracy. What it Means for Software Developers - The book does not have a lot of superfluous information that will bury you in details. What it does have is excellent structure that will be appreciated by the busy software developer. It also has many sample code snippets to illustrate the concepts. The individual modules are laid out well, and the appendices are gold mines of information in themselves. Each module has a mastery check at the end, and Appendix A consists of the mastery check questions and answers. In essence, this is a self-standing FAQ on the subject that might be skimmed for any questions you might have. Appendix B lists the reserved words for easy reference. Appendix C is an excellent reference for PHP - including PHP setup, verification, HTML use of PHP, PHP variables, control structures, and syntax. The Bottom Line - At 364 pages, the book is not voluminous, as far as technical books go. Its layout is excellent, and it features more useful information than some technical books that are many times its size. As MySQL or PHP questions arise, you'll be able to grab this book and very likely find the information quickly. For more advanced questions, or future changes in technology, the book should at least point you in the right direction to find the answers online. If you are looking for a good reference to MySQL and PHP basics, with language references and code snippets - but without a lot of extraneous code or background information to wade through - then MySQL Essential Skills is the book for you. MySQL Essential Skills was reviewed by Kathy Salisbury. Kathy spends her time creating and promoting non-violent games and games for girls at http://www.pharosgames.com/.
More Great Marketing Insights
The Invisible Touch -
by Harry Beckwith (published by Warner Books) The Big Picture - Is the software that you sell to your customers a product or a service? Your customers can't touch it. They expect you to improve it and deliver additional functionality for years and years to come. Delivering software sounds a bit like a service to me. Beckwith's book covers the ways service providers need to deal with price, brand, packaging, and relationships. And while a lot of the material is written for accountants and financial planners, it's easy to translate his principles into the world of the software developer. For example, successful developers have to address much more than the quality of their applications. They have to think about their web sites, support systems, documentation, and dozens of other things that affect the customers' experiences. What it Means for Software Developers - Beckwith does not believe that market research works very well. "People who know that they are being studied change what they do." People won't understand complex or innovative ideas immediately, and research will say, incorrectly, that such ideas won't sell. Trust your tummy, not what people tell you. The book discusses a dozen fallacies of marketing, and explains the work-arounds. He argues against bundling and cross-selling. While I don't agree with his argument, I'm glad I read it because I can structure bundles and cross-sells that don't fall into the traps that he warns us about. As is usually the case, I learn more from ideas that I disagree with than from those that immediately make sense to me. For more information about my views on cross-selling, see the March 18, 2004 newsletter article entitled, "Upselling, Cross-Selling, After-Selling, and Just Plain Selling". The URL is http://www.dpdirectory.com/3news011.htm Most software developers try to distinguish themselves from their competitors by including unique features and functionality in their applications. Beckwith urges us to create an inventory of our points of contact with our prospects and customers, and find ways to make each of them extraordinary. It's easy to find software categories with hundreds of developers offering users nearly identical functionality. In my experience, the unsuccessful software developers within a category are offering tech solutions, while the winners have packaged similar software as business solutions. It's all in the marketing. In the final two-thirds of the book, Beckwith gives detailed advice on how to deal with price, branding, packaging, and relationships. These concepts apply just as much to software developers as they do to the service providers who are the target of his book. The Bottom Line - This is a quick read, with tons of useful information. I strongly recommend it. The Invisible Touch was reviewed by Al Harberg. 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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