Marketing has changed so much in the past ten years. Back then you had to get your application into retail stores and do traditional advertising like print ads in industry magazines, which is quite costly. Such traditional marketing is no longer as effective. Print ads are declining in popularity and print publications are on the outs. Everything you need to sell your application is online which is great for your new software company because you won’t need to spend much money to market it. Viral marketing is the new black...and it’s highly effective.
Today there are so many tools available online - from social networking mediums to paid Adwords, blogs and search engine optimization (SEO). How often do you watch a video on YouTube? Have you done a Google search for anything today? Those are both prime places to advertise your product.
Keep in mind that if you don’t want to handle the marketing of your application, you might consider partnering with a friend who has some marketing experience or an interest in marketing.
Viral MarketingViral marketing is a technique that uses word-of-mouth to promote a product online. The viral marketing tactics that are the most effective are definitely the more entertaining ones. You see, the key to viral marketing is giving the audience something to talk about. So you either need to have something very compelling in your product, like an application that magically produces free beer, or your marketing tactic must be silly enough or outrageous enough or provocative enough to get people to talk about it.
I recently attended a web seminar on viral marketing where I heard the story about a dentist, Dr. Helaine Smith. Basically, she wanted to increase her new revenue, so she wrote an eBook titled “Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex” that spread through the internet virally. As I am sure you can imagine, with a title like that a lot of people read it and her business more than doubled!
Today, we see more and more businesses and groups using viral marketing techniques. There is a rock band, for example, that uses outrageous photographs to promote themselves throughout the internet. I had never heard of them, but people kept emailing me these weird pictures and I ended up going to their site to look at the whole collection. The pictures lure people to their website where they end up listening to and purchasing their music.
Another example, not software related but still noteworthy, was the 2008 film Cloverfield. Trailers circulated the internet through MySpace and Facebook that didn’t even mention the film’s title, just the release date. No one really knew much about it, but people were intrigued. When the film came out, people went to see it in theaters to find out what all the fuss was about -- certainly an interesting viral marketing technique. The use of vagueness and mystery got people interested.
Think of what you can do to get people talking about your application and you can get other people to do your advertising for you.Facebook is one of the free, social media marketing resources that you should definitely get yourself set up on. Create a profile (if you don’t already have one!) and use Facebook to promote your product. You can set up a fan page or a group and then start adding fans from your personal Facebook page or invite people who visit your website to join. This will not only promote your product but will help you build a community for it.
Examples:• REALbasic: http://www.facebook.com/pages/REALbasic/35750265881?
ref=share
• MySQL: http://www.facebook.com/mysql?
sid=da9a59f23e45774d16317c187bf02d68&ref=search
Flickr is a photo management website where you can make content about your application available to your target audience. Creating a Flickr page for your application is quick and easy, and most importantly, it’s free. Go to www.Flickr.com to create your account and you can start uploading screen shots, demos, tutorials, etc. to share with your users. You can connect to your friends on Flickr and build a following. As always, keeping your content fresh is key.
TwitterTwitter is becoming more and more significant in the world of marketing but many people are still confused about what it is and how it is significant. When I first heard of Twitter, I could not grasp the concept for the life of me. Basically, you just give your “followers” updates in 140 characters or less (called “Tweets”) about things going on with you. Initially I found it really frustrating to have to update my Twitter status, my Facebook status, the blog, etc. but now it’s becoming built into the way I use the internet. I see something interesting. I Twitter about it. I’m working on something cool and I just think “I need to update my Twitter feed.” It just takes a bit of time to adjust. Twitter things like “My new application that does X is now available: www.yourlinkhere.com”, or “Read a great article about object oriented programming - check it out <link>”. You can Twitter about anything you want, and it’s good to add a personal touch: “I’m going to Hawaii for a week - I’ll update again if I decide to come home.”
How do people find you on Twitter? Well, it’s a lot easier than you would think. Within a few days of launching my Twitter account I had about 15 followers, then 40, then 80, then over 100 and I had not done much to promote it. Every day I get more and more requests from people wanting to connect; I was surprised by how easy it was. You can build your contacts list by importing your address book (https://twitter.com/signup). This will help you get all of your friends who are already on Twitter connected with you. Also, by “following” other people more people can find you too. And the more updates you have and the more frequently you update, the easier it will be for people to find you on Twitter. Promote it and link to it in as many places as you can - your website, your Facebook page, blog, etc. You will build a following. Just keep Tweeting!
Education with Twitter is important. Tell people about your application - what it does, how they can benefit from it, without selling it to them. You don’t want your followers to feel like your feed is just a long-winded sales pitch or commercial. Talk about your product, your development tool, your life, any relevant news or topics of interest. It’s OK to make it personal - people like to feel connected with the people they are following. So questions like, “Should I swim with the dolphins at Sea World or join the Lord of the Rings fan club?” are totally appropriate. Your followers can respond to you by asking direct questions that you can then answer in your “Tweets.” No one wants to read a stuffy Twitter that only talks about product updates. Keep it interesting, make it funny and people will read it.
One thing I have to recommend for Twitter is to get Tweet Deck ( http:// www.tweetdeck.com/). It is a free application that will really help you discover what others are talking about, and who is talking about you. It’s basically a personal browser that shows you your Twitter friends, updates, replies, even Facebook status updates. It will show you everything you want to see in one browser and it’s free!
Free ListingsDepending on what your product does, there are websites all over that you can create a listing on to promote your product. Some examples are:
• The Code Project (www.codeproject.com)
• Upload.com (www.upload.com) - This site allows you to upload your product listing and promote it on CNET Download.com, VersionTracker.com and other sites within their distribution.
• VersionTracker (www.versiontracker.com)
• CNET Download.com (www.download.com)
• Apple’s website (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/) includes Mac software listings
• MacUpdate (http://www.macupdate.com/)
• i use this Mac (http://osx.iusethis.com/)
• i use this Windows (http://windows.iusethis.com/)
When you have a press release or product announcement you will want to send it out on the newswire via a wire services company, like PR Newswire (http://
www.prnewswire.com), Business Wire (http://www.businesswire.com), or prMac (http://
www.prmac.com), amongst many others. They will distribute your press release to a library of media contacts. Having your press release distributed on the newswire is a paid service. Investing in your marketing is very important, though, and it can yield great results. The visibility these types of services can afford you is far greater than simply posting a link to your press release from your own website. You need others to see it to drive the traffic back to your website. There are different distributions you can send your release to. For example, to send it to the US Technology list it costs close to $500 for the first 400 words; if you exceed that word count, there is an additional fee. But the Technology list reaches highly targeted media in the top US technology markets. There are also smaller segments you can send your release to if you don’t want to spend that much, or you can just post it to as many free sites as you can find.
Also, when you have news go ahead and register it with sites like Slashdot (www.slashdot.com) or Digg (www.digg.com). If a lot of people “like” your news you can get some great visibility. There are also sites that offer daily software promotions, like macZOT.com. For example, you could offer a 50% discount on your application and
How to Avoid Economic Ruin: A Survival Guide 27macZOT would push it out to their entire audience. An offer like this could yield a high number of sales in a short period of time.
Once you submit your press release, you will receive reports showing you what publications pick up your release. You will want to optimize those press releases with your main keywords about your product to get more pickups in the search engines. Make sure to use the most prominent keywords in the headline of your release.
A couple of things to remember when announcing your product in a press release:
• The press generally prefer paragraphs of 6-8 sentences.
• Avoid jargon.
• Make sure you are clear and concise.
• Make sure you explain why your announcement is significant - why should the
reader care about your product?
• Do not ask a question and then answer it in the same paragraph (Example: Why is
Product X important? It’s important because Product X makes money grow on
trees).
• Make sure the date on your press release is correct.
• Proofread many times for errors and grammatical consistency.
• Avoid puns and double meaning - say what you want to say, don’t imply it.
• Avoid the passive voice
One final thing to consider when issuing a press release is that you can generate some interest from the press, bloggers, and other media by sending them a free copy of your application to try out and review. Also, you can be proactive and solicit reviews. Identify the publications whose audience could most benefit from your application and contact their staff to tell them about your great application. Be sure to present the best selling features and explain to them what problems it will solve for their audience and how they will benefit from using it.
There is a press release template and sample press release on the next page.How to Avoid Economic Ruin: A Survival Guide
Press Release Template
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAIN TITLE OF PRESS RELEASE HERE Subtitle Goes Here (in Title Case)
CITY, STATE, COUNTRY (May 30, 2009) — In this paragraph include the company name, description of the product, and the news basically the who, what, when where and how of your press release.
Body of Press Release Body of Press Release Body of Press Release Body of Press Release Body of Press Release Body of Press Release Body of Press Release Body of Press Release Body of Press Release Body of Press Release Body of Press Release
Body of Release Body of Press Release Body of Press Release Body of Press Release Body of Press Release (One good thing to include would be a quote from you or a spokesperson for your company, or a customer or expert)
For more information about Product X, or to download the latest release visit http:// www.mycompanywebsite.com today.About Product X
Give a brief description of your product - what it is, what it does, what problems does it solve. Include a link to the product website.
About Company X
Include a short description of your company - what you do, who you do it for and why you do it. You should include a link to your company website here.
Press Contact Name
Press Contact Phone
Press Contact Email Address (Set up pr@yourcompany.com so all of your PR correspondence goes into one email account)
Sample Press Release
REALBASIC WINS ‘BEST PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE’ IN THE CODE PROJECT’S FIRST ANNUAL MEMBERS CHOICE AWARDS
AUSTIN, Texas, USA (May 19, 2009) — REAL Software, creator of REALbasic, a cross-platform development environment for creating software for Mac, Windows, and Linux, today announced that REALbasic won "Best Programming Language" during The Code Project's First Annual Members Choice Awards. The Code Project is one of the largest online developer communities in the world, with more than six million registered members.
The Code Project community was asked to rate their favorite software developmentrelated applications at http://catalog.codeproject.com. Each codeproject.com member decides which companies or products deserve recognition. See all of the awards here.
"Having REALbasic recognized as the 'Best Programming Language' in the Members Choice Awards is particularly valuable because it reinforces what our customers have been telling us all along - that REALbasic improves their productivity by letting them develop 4 times faster than any other programming language and being truly crossplatform, and that it puts the fun back into programming," commented Geoff Perlman, Founder and CEO of REAL Software.
REALbasic is a powerful, modern, object-oriented development environment and is used by professional and non-professional developers alike to speed the development of all kinds of software, like custom enterprise projects, vertical market software, business productivity utilities, scientific applications, and more.
REALbasic is offered in a 30-day trial edition and is available for download at http:// www.realsoftware.com/download. For more information about REALbasic visit http:// www.realsoftware.com.
About REALbasic / REAL StudioREALbasic / REAL Studio is a full-featured cross-platform software development tool suited to creating a wide range of applications, from utilities to enterprise-class applications. REALbasic Personal Edition for Windows or Mac is priced at $99. REALbasic for Linux Personal Edition is offered for free. REALbasic Professional Edition, required for cross-platform compilation, is $299. REAL Studio, geared for fulltime developers, is $1495. All editions of REALbasic and REAL Studio are now available and can be downloaded directly from REAL Software at http://www.realsoftware.com/ download.
About REAL SoftwareREAL Software provides REALbasic and REAL Studio, an object-oriented crossplatform software development tool, and REAL Server, a cross-platform database server, for developers who want to create and deliver software for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. REAL Software was founded in 1996 and is based in Austin, Texas. For more information visit www.realsoftware.com or call 866.825.2114. To view the REAL Software Blog visit http://www.realsoftwareblog.com.
Paid Search Engine AdvertisingGoogle Adwords can be a great place to start marketing your website. Adwords are the ads you see on the right-hand side of a Google search under “Sponsored Links.” As discussed earlier, Google has an organic search, which is the main content area to the left of the page and a paid search, which is Google Adwords. You can go to http:// www.google.com/adwords to set up your account. Google Adwords is set up so that you pay for each click on your sponsored link, but the great thing about the tool is that you can set up a daily budget to keep spending under control.
There is a tool within Adwords to help you identify what Adwords you should purchase, which ones will generate the most clicks, etc. You can adjust your settings at any time to help increase, or decrease, your exposure.
With Google Adwords you have to show that your ad is relevant to the search, so make sure to use your keywords in your ad. As with your website, keywords are so important. Make sure you use your keywords in your ads, on the landing pages those ads link to, all over your website, etc. An example: if you were selling inventory management software, you’d want to use keywords like Inventory Management, Inventory Control System, Simple Inventory Mgmt, etc. in your ad to show the user that your ad is relevant to what they are searching for. The terms the users, search for will show in bold to help make your ad stand out.
If you need help with keyword development, selecting the right keywords that will get the right traffic to your site, there are some resources on the web that help with just that! One option is Wordtracker, http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com. They have both a free option and a more advanced version for a fee. The free one, however, is quite sufficient. Other options for keyword development include Keyword Discovery, http:// www.keyworddiscovery.com and Google Adwords Keyword Tool, https:// adwords.google.com/select/.
Within the messaging of your ad make sure to include a call to action, something that you want the audience to do as a result of seeing your ad. Some examples of call to action phrases include: Buy Today - Save 25%, Download Free Trial Now, or Sale Ends Friday. To make your ad stand out focus on your unique selling proposition - the thing that makes your application really stand out from the others. One of Amazon.com’s first taglines was “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore.” That was their unique selling proposition and what made them stand out from their competition. Find your unique selling proposition and feature that within your ad content. One more tip: Remove common keywords like an, it, on, in, etc. You do not have a lot of space for characters, so you need to make every word count.
Once the user clicks on your ad, you want to make sure they are taken to a relative landing page, a page that tells them they found exactly what they were searching for. If they were to click on your Inventory Management ad and then be taken to a page that describes why the dolphin is your company mascot - they would probably leave right away because it isn’t what they were looking for. So make sure that you link your ads to relevant landing pages! Make sure you include a “buy now” link on your landing page. Don’t expect your prospective customer to find their way to your store. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to buy your product.
Test multiple versions of your ad. Google sets up an option so you can test your messaging by including multiple different versions of your ad and set them to run evenly. Google will run the one that performs the best by default. The message that gives you the highest ROI (Return on Investment) is the one you should set as your main message.
You will also want to set up negative keywords to make sure your ad finds the most relevant audience. Negative keywords are words that you want to remove from your search parameters. If you have your inventory management application, you will want to make sure to add broad or vague words like inventory, management, application, software, etc. to your list of negative keywords. If someone searches for management, they are most likely not searching for an inventory management software application, so they do not need to see your ad displayed in the search results.
How to Avoid Economic Ruin: A Survival Guide 33
Google Adwords is a bidding-based system, and since you will be competing against ads that have been developed and refined over time, start high with your bidding and then lower it as you see the results. You can change or update your bids or ad budget at any time. Google’s system is quite easy to understand, and there are a lot of resources within Adwords to help you if you get stuck.
YouTubeYouTube is the best tool for software developers because you can show the public what your application does rather than tell them. YouTube is searchable and people can find, view and comment on your video.
There are good software demo videos and there are really bad software demo videos. Here are some tips to create a good, quality demo video of your application:• Write your script ahead of time - this will help eliminate unnecessary pauses during audio recording.
• Focus on the features that will capture your audience’s attention.
• Avoid acronyms or technical terms that might confuse those who are new to your product.
• Practice before recording.
• Get a good headset with a microphone so your sound quality is as high as possible.
• Find a quiet room to record in that has minimal background noise.
• Speak slowly and clearly.
• Avoid long periods of silence.
• Review and edit - be prepared to record segments multiple times.
• At the end of your video, give your audience a call to action - try the demo, read a white paper, etc.
• FogBugz: http://media.fogcreek.com/fogcreek.com/FogBugz/60movie/
60movie.html
• MasterWriter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RyCYAUobGE
• Quick.tv: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1141rZm8pOk
• Donation Software: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qId0rBfvvkI
• Logos Bible Software: http://www.logos.com/demo
Starting a blog is an effective way to drive traffic to your site and promote your product. You can talk about anything related to your product, including your development tool, the industry, etc.
Updating your blog, website and Twitter, Facebook and Flickr can be really time consuming. But stick with it; after making it part of your daily routine it’s a breeze. Once you see the results you get from your efforts, you won’t mind doing it, and you’ll actually enjoy it and the new contacts you will make. There are certainly paid advertising opportunities for you to promote your application. This might make sense for you, depending on what your application does. You can do banner ads, white paper sponsorships, conference sponsorships, etc. The paid marketing activities can definitely yield you some big results but try the free stuff and see how it goes. Like I said, it all depends on what your application does.