software marketing | Software Marketing Advisor Blog

Archive for the 'software marketing' Category

Software Business Case Study: eMASON

I just read the case study on ISV eMASON on SoftwareCEO this week. It’s an interesting example of a software company that managed to triple their business in 2009, despite the slow economy and turmoil in their target market of financial services.

How did they do it?

Basically, with a singular focus on quality and solving the customer pain point to the best ability, flexibility and easy customization, being really clear on their unique value, and making it as comprehensive as possible within the bounds of the single point of pain the application is solving.

I think we could all learn from these tips… bottom line:

understand your customer and feel their pain
know your unique value – what really distinguishes your solution from the competition
be fanatically customer-focused

Who is the Audience for your Marketing Messages?

Published December 7, 2009 marketing strategy , software marketing , technology marketing 1 Comment
Tags: marketing, marketing plan, software marketing, technology marketing

For marketing messages to be effective, you need to really think about who it is that you are speaking to. Too many marketers only think about a single audience for their message: the end customer. The end customer may be your primary audience, but they are not the only one.

There are a number of other audiences that may need marketing messages crafted specifically for them, including:

Online influencers, such as prominent bloggers in your field, influential websites and analysts,
Distribution channels,
Sales and marketing partners,
the press and media,
your ecosystem partners, such as complementary software vendors, hardware vendors or system integrators,
other key stakeholders that your end customer looks to for guidance or approval on their buying decision (this is especially important for B2B applications).

Your end customer will be influenced not only by your marketing messages directly targeted at them, but also by these other stakeholders and influencers. The more consistent messages they receive from different channels, the more likely they are to make a positive buying decision in your favor.

Bottom line: when crafting your marketing messages and marketing plan, don’t forget to build target messaging and budget marketing activities for all audiences that are important in influencing your customer’s purchase decision.

Get Your Software Marketing Plan in Order

Published December 3, 2009 marketing strategy , software marketing , technology marketing 7 Comments
Tags: marketing, marketing plan, software marketing

It’s December already… a good time to be thinking about your software marketing approach for 2010. Hopefully the economy will be picking up, customers will be looking for options, and you need to make sure your product is top-of-mind when they get into a buying mood.

At Software-Marketing-Advisor.com, we have just released our detailed, professional software marketing plan template package. It gives you all the pieces you need to easily put together a customized marketing strategy and plan for your software product, and we’ve even thrown in free consulting as well. You can check out the Software Marketing Plan package here.

The Trend Toward Marketing and Selling Software Online

Published November 17, 2009 software , software marketing , software sales 5 Comments
Tags: online marketing, software, software marketing, software sales, web software marketing

As I’m sure any software marketer knows, more and more of the sales and marketing of software is happening online. Even for high-price enterprise software, much of the initial customer data gathering and lead generation is often done online. I wrote a recent page on Software-Marketing-Advisor with some key tips for selling software online.

In an article published today on MarketingProfs, “The Surprising Evolution of Online Marketing in Software Sales”, Jayson Gehri talks about the trends in software marketing online, and some tools that could be quite useful to software marketers looking to extend or simplify their online marketing efforts.

Selling software online is about two key things: First, clearly communicate the benefits to your customer (in language they understand, not geek-speak or feature lists). Second, allow the prospect to experience the software in as real a way as possible. Jayson’s article gives some useful pointers to making the most effective use of online software demos.

For some additional help with selling software online, take a look at our list of key tips here.

How to Make Sense of Web Analytics

Published November 10, 2009 software marketing , technology marketing 2 Comments
Tags: internet marketing, marketing, online marketing, web analytics, web software marketing

If you’re wondering how to make more effective use of web analytics data (aren’t we all?), then this upcoming free webinar looks like it could be a useful one to check out.

Avinash Kaushik is presenting on “Actionable Web Analytics: Five Tips for Insightful Analysis”. In today’s tough economic climate it is not the lack of data on the web that is a problem, it is our ability to make sense of it all that is the challenge. In this deeply practical webinar Avinash shares his favorite tips for taking reams of data from your website and finding the nuggets of actionable insights in it. Bounce rates, segmentation, pan-session behavior analysis, key non-ecommerce success metrics and more strategies will be covered. You’ll walk away knowing how to improve marketing efficiency, drive insights into consumer behavior, and generate greater returns on your online investments.

Avinash Kaushik is the Analytics Evangelist for Google, and has published a couple of books on web analytics. It looks to be a worthwhile webinar, so check it out.

Why Having a Marketing Strategy Can Save You Money

Published October 9, 2009 business planning , marketing strategy , software , software marketing , technology marketing 1 Comment
Tags: business plan, business planning, software, software marketing, technology marketing

When it comes to planning your marketing activities, do you take a strategic or a tactical approach?

Or in other words… Do you have a plan for how your marketing will really impact your customer purchase decisions? Or do you just “shoot from the hip” in your marketing decisions?

Too many companies fall into the second category, especially technology focused firms (to whom marketing may not be second nature).

It may seem like a waste of time to sit down and plan out your software marketing strategy, but the fact is that doing so will make your marketing signficantly more impactful and will save a lot in your marketing budget in the long run.

Trade shows are just one excellent example… they’re very expensive, but many tech companies continue with that large expense in their marketing budget just because “we always have” and “our competitors have a booth there.” Neither of those are good reasons, unless you’ve really done the strategic analysis of how your presence at the tradeshow can influence your customer purchase decisions in your favor.

Ask yourself whether the tradeshow is an important part of your software marketing plan. Maybe it is better to pass on the booth, and focus instead on networking and customer meetings during the show? If you don’t have a strategy, you will never know which is the better choice for your business…

Make your marketing work for you, by regularly updating your business plan and marketing strategy, and using that to prioritize your marketing activities. You can get a head start by using our templates for business and marketing planning for both traditional software companies and SaaS providers.

What’s More Important: Marketing Process or Marketing Plan?

Published August 25, 2009 marketing strategy , software marketing , Uncategorized 4 Comments
Tags: marketing process, software marketing, technology marketing

7-Step Marketing Strategy Process

Too many leaders of small technology businesses think of marketing as either an afterthought (“Got the product ready… now I have to go market it!”) or a forethought (“Got to put together my marketing plan up front… then I’ll have my plan all ready to go when I launch!”).

The fact is neither approach is optimal. I really think marketing must be an integral part of the product or service development process in order to be as impactful as possible.

There’s just too much focus on putting together a marketing plan (whether before or after product development) as a “thing” that must be created. When in fact what’s needed is a marketing strategy process that is integrated with the product or service development process.

For example, here’s a good, simple summary of the marketing strategy process that could be adopted for any technology venture.

Some things to think about:

how does this tie in with your product definition and product development process?
where is the tie-in with sales?
how can the marketing function be as integrated as possible with the rest of the business?

Interview with David Taber, Author of Salesforce.com Secrets of Success

Published August 4, 2009 marketing strategy , software , software marketing , technology , technology marketing 8 Comments
Tags: CRM, software, software marketing, technology, technology marketing

This interview with David Taber, Author of “Salesforce.com Secrets of Success” on the Marketo blog is a worthwhile read for any software marketer, especially those in the CRM space or those who wish to more effectively utilize their own CRM systems.

Key takeaways? They may not be new, but they’re important enough to deserve repeating:

Focus on lead quality, not lead quantity
Have a clear process to drive the sales cycle, and make sure everyone from marketing to sales understands their role in the process
Figure out and track meaningful, quantifiable measures of marketing success

What are the Best Digital Marketing Activities for Software Companies?

Published July 8, 2009 marketing strategy , software , software marketing , technology marketing 4 Comments
Tags: internet marketing, software, software marketing, technology marketing, web software marketing

marketing-online The Question of the Week over at Software-Marketing-Advisor.com is about identifying the best digital marketing activities that could be adopted for software enterprises.

It’s a good question, even though a very general one, because there are many web software marketing options available for software companies, and most are very affordable choices especially for smaller software firms and those that sell primarily online.

I also find that many software companies just don’t make the most of their web software marketing efforts. The most important thing to remember is that having a website is no guarantee that your target customers will find you… it is too easy to get lost as just one of the hundreds of millions of sites out there. Your website needs a marketing plan, just as any brick-and-mortar business does too.

First, think about your target customer. Where do they go online to find information about the problem your software product or service is addressing? That is where your digital marketing efforts should focus:

the search engines (Google is by far the most important),
relevant online forums and blogs,
relevant directories,
industry websites, etc.

So, getting your website visible in those places is your goal. Make a list of the most important sites where you would like your website to be highlighted.

In general, these are my main recommended areas to focus on for internet marketing of software products and solutions:

SEO – make sure you’re following proper use of keywords, meta tags, and building inbound links to your website.
Blog – you should have a blog on your website that is updated regularly, and participate in other blog discussions and comments.
Participate in forums & discussion groups, including links to your website where appropriate (don’t spam!)
Write articles and publish white papers online
Issue online press releases
Advertising: PPC or online classified advertising relevant to your niche.
Webinars and virtual trade shows
Get listed in directories – both general ones, and online software directories relevant to your niche
Newsletter & email marketing (always opt-in)

You can find more detail in this article on building your web software marketing plan.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Software Marketing Advisor Blog