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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
The Association of Independent Software Industry Professionals (AISIP) opened its doors - and its newsgroups - a few days ago, on June 16, 2005. In the past ten days, more than 90 people have joined. There have been nearly a thousand postings, lots of productive ideas, and not a single unpleasant posting. The main benefits of this new trade association are its private newsgroups (and web-based forums, if you prefer reading postings that way). AISIP is run by Sue Pichotta from Can Do Software. I've known Sue from her 3+ years of postings in the ASP, and I'm convinced she's going to do a great job with AISIP. Private ownership can be a big plus for an organization like AISIP. Over the years, I've been a member of various book-of-the-month clubs. I have no voice in the management of these clubs. But as long as they offer good books at good prices, I'm going to continue to be a member. I feel the same way about AISIP. With private ownership, decisions take minutes, not months. Sue has vowed to fiercely moderate the newsgroups to ensure quality. There are no anonymous postings. You can discuss any facet of the software industry. But there will be no trolling, bickering, or name-calling, a truly refreshing change from some other industry newsgroups. AISIP focuses on helping developers sell more software. Members use the newsgroups (there's a members' newsgroup and a tech newsgroup) to talk about software marketing, sales, business, and tech issues. People aren't interested in endless arguing about bylaws and FAQs; instead, they're talking about how to make their businesses stronger, and how to sell more software. AISIP brings together software developers and industry service providers in a productive forum. Of the 90+ participants, 80-or-so seem to be software developers, and 10 seem to be people (like me) who offer services to developers. Unlike some newsgroups where artificial distinctions between developers and vendors discourage helpful postings from everybody, the attitude in the AISIP newsgroups encourages people to work together for the success of the industry and its members. In the first 10 days, the mood has been very much like the friendly, supportive atmosphere of the Shareware Industry Conferences. AISIP's scorecard after 10 days - 91 members, 887 postings, lots of great new ideas, no fights. The bottom line: If you like the topics that I discuss in my newsletter, you're going to love the discussions in AISIP's members' newsgroup. It costs $24(US) to join AISIP for a year. Visit http://www.aisip.com/. I strongly recommend AISIP membership to any developer who wants a peaceful, productive place to share marketing, sales, and technical ideas with other people in the industry.
There's an HTML version of this newsletter on http://www.dpdirectory.com/3news030.htm And there are 29 back-issues with wall-to-wall marketing ideas on http://www.dpdirectory.com/3newsltr.htm To subscribe, please send me a note - al@dpdirectory.com If you have software developer friends who would benefit from reading this newsletter, please tell them about it. Thank you!
Asking how long your web pages should be is like asking how many grits there should be in an order of grits, or how many Pips Gladys Knight should have. If you're curious, Gladys had three Pips, Dion had three Belmonts, and Dave Clark had four Fives. Your web pages should be as long as required to tell a convincing sales story to your target audience. There is no right or wrong length. Some people claim to know the proper length for web pages. They don't. There are researchers who watch people as they navigate web pages. These researchers suggest that their observations let them properly define the right page length for every web site. Their findings cannot be applied to your situation. People who are observed, and who know that they're being observed, don't act the same as they would act if they weren't being observed. More importantly, the proper length of your web pages depends upon a number of factors that are unique to your software: (1) How interested are people in your software? If you're marketing a Windows wallpaper manager, then you'd better tell your story quickly and convincingly. Your prospects know that installing a wallpaper changer isn't going to have a huge impact on their lifestyles. They're not going to read a long web page. Page length matters. By contrast, If you're marketing mission-critical business software, you can describe your application in detail. You need to start with a crisp overview that puts your software in context. Mention the main benefits immediately. But you can - and should - talk in detail about all of the program's features and benefits. Use long pages, short pages, comparison charts, bullet points, screenshots, movies, and anything else that will tell your story effectively. Don't be afraid to create long web pages. (2) How much do you have to educate your prospects? If you offer a simple utility, or a program that even a computer novice can master in just a few minutes, then you don't need to use long web pages to tell your story. By contrast, if you need to educate your prospects, then use as much space as you need. Some software doesn't fit neatly into well-known software categories. This inability to be easily classified might be your program's unique selling point. Start by explaining the main benefits of your application, and take as much time as you need to ensure that prospects understand how your software can make their lives better. Sometimes you need to tell multiple stories. Perhaps you have a utility that would be intuitive for experienced Windows users, but a real challenge for newbies. The correct solution might be to link to a "Quickstart Guide" for the experienced people, and point to a much longer, more detailed explanation for people who need hand-holding. (3) How do you want to position your software? If you're selling an application that you claim is easy to use, and requires almost no training, then you'd better have a short web page to describe it. If it takes a half dozen screen scrolls to understand your program, you're not going to convince anybody that it has an easy learning curve. By contrast, if you're positioning your application as a powerhouse, then you need to give people an in-depth description of its features and benefits. The very fact that you have a long web page reinforces the power and complexity of your app. Similarly, your testimonials page can be huge. People may not read the entire page, but they'll be impressed by the number of users who have endorsed your software. (4) How many people contribute to the decision-making process? If you're selling education software, you may have to deliver a sales presentation that satisfies the needs of kids, parents, teachers, school administrators, and tech support people. Similarly, for business software, you have to appeal to the end-users, their managers, the accounts-payable people, and support staff. The right answer might be to have one humongous web page. Or it might make more sense to have one page for each stakeholder. Don't give a second thought to the length of your web pages. Just make it easy for key people to find the information that they need to contribute to the sales decision. (5) How will prospects read your web site? If prospects are going to read your site online, then it might make sense to split your sales message into multiple pages. For business software, managers might ask their secretaries to print the information. In that case, you'd be more effective if your sales message were on a single page. A few more things to consider: - Page-loading time isn't important. Psychological page-loading time is very important. As long as you put something immediately onto your prospects' screens, it doesn't matter how long it takes to load the rest of the page. They'll be busy reading the sales message that you've displayed immediately. - Like most users, I use my web browser's "find in this page" function a lot. If all of your information is on a single page, it's easier for prospects to find it using the browser's "find" function. If you have a lot of web pages, you might want to look into offering your web site visitors a real search function. - If you want to include Google Adwords or any type of advertising on your web site, the more pages you have, the larger the advertising impact you might make. - You might spend less time using your web log analyzer if you have fewer pages. On the other hand, you might be able to get much better marketing information from your web logs if you have lots of pages, each with a separate sales message. - It might be easier to maintain your web site if you have a smaller number of large pages. Or it might be easier to maintain a large number of tiny pages. If you only update pages every few months, then you're better off with lots of small pages. It really depends upon your work habits. The bottom line: "How long should my web pages be?" is a silly question. There's no "one size fits all" answer. Don't listen to so-called experts who tell you that users don't know how to scroll, or that scrolling (versus paging) causes disorientation. Make the right decision for your unique situation. Choose the page length that results in the most effective sales message that you can craft.
20-20 Hindsight
If I Knew Then What I Know Now - CEOs and Other Smart Executives Share Wisdom They Wish They'd Been Told 25 Years Ago by Richard Edler (published by Berkley Books) The Big Picture - The author asked successful people, "What do you know now that you wish you'd been told twenty-five years ago?". Since he was in the advertising industry, a lot of the people he asked were ad people, too. The responses that he received are fascinating. You're going to like a lot of these old-timers' advice. Much of the advice is contradictory. Some CEOs advise people to spend more energy following the rules, while others advise youngsters to follow their dreams. What it Means for Software Developers - The book isn't about the software industry. But most of the advice applies to people in all industries. The book starts with a quote from Dr. Gerald D. Bell, a professor at the University of North Carolina's Graduate School of Business: "You are 100 percent responsible for your own happiness. Other people aren't responsible. Your parents aren't responsible. Your spouse isn't. You alone are. So if you are not happy, it's up to you to change something. It's not up to someone else to 'fix it' for you." Imagine how quiet the alt Usenet groups would be if people followed that piece of advice! "Have a goal. A goal is just a dream with a deadline." - Marjorie Blanchard, author. Edward Kosner, the editor-in-chief of Esquire Magazine, said "Nearly all the missteps I've made over the years editing Newsweek, New York Magazine, and now Esquire came because I convinced myself that I had to act precipitously or decisively when, in fact, there was plenty of time." The Bottom Line - All of the tidbits above are from the first 15 pages. The next 225 pages contain equally stimulating advice. It's not a book of gentle advice. For example, Dick Butler, an advertising executive and international consultant, said "Life isn't fair. It isn't going to be fair. Stop sniveling and whining and go out and make it happen for you. In business, I see too many people who expect the financial tooth fairy to come at night and remove that ugly dead tooth from under the pillow, and substitute profitability just in the nick of time at the end of their fiscal year." You can read the book in an hour and a half - if you don't want to think about the advice you're being given. It takes quite a bit longer to read if you take the time to think about how these experienced business people's ideas can help you in your software business. I highly recommend "If I Knew Then What I Know Now". One last bit of advice - "Do the important, not the urgent." I interpret that to mean that, if you're reading this newsletter in a newsgroup, you should sign up and get it delivered to your inbox each month. 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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