The Best Way to Market Your Software is to Tell Your Story
June 30th, 2011 | 
Author: Case studies tell prospects how your product will benefit them.
Have you ever found yourself considering a purchase and wishing you could talk to a peer or read an article about someone else using the product? Well, you’re not the only one. Most people search for first-hand advice when considering a significant purchase. This is why a smart company provides that advice in the form of an application story, also known as a case study.
“We’ve used application stories about our customers with great success for many years,” says Mike Lazear, president of Huntington Beach-based Archway Systems, developer of VersaCAD software. “Sometimes the application is the story itself… Other times, the application story leads to something else. We landed a great VersaCAD product review in an issue of Machine Design by first telling the editor how one of our clients used VersaCAD to design a macadamia nut processing plant.”
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Families have most potential to drive mobile marketing.
On August 19, eMarketer published a short article, “Targeting Parents with Mobile Alerts,” that reported on the results of research by Harris Interactive. The research showed that, while young males remain technology’s early adopters, families with young children are driving the adoption of mobile SMS alerts. Why? Because parents of kids, especially kids under age six, are extremely mobile—running here and there among stores, entertainment venues and, yes, soccer fields (and other sporting events and activities).
These parents are interested in ways to save money and make their lives easier. They want coupons for movies, discounts on items they need to buy, and probably great ideas for more activities!
So, what does this mean to the marketer that offers items and services young families want? Incorporate SMS texting in your marketing mix. Offer ways for your target audience to sign up for text alerts.
Be seen in as many places as possible.
Social media, traditional media, online media, broadcast. There are so many ways to communicate to audiences these days that it’s hard to choose which tool to use, right?
Social media’s the darling, right? No, it’s just the newest option. I’ve been in the business long enough to remember when all the buzz was about “this online media.” Remember? Well, traditional print and broadcast media didn’t completely go away then, and they won’t now. The most savvy outlets are finding ways to reinvent themselves, to incorporate many communications outlet options for integrated approaches. Look at Orange County’s OC Metro. OC Metro is not celebrating 20 years in publishing, because they relied solely on print delivery. Neither should businesses.
What all these media options means for business is that your audience is fragmented, with some reachable via Twitter, others via Facebook, still others by traditional print publications, and so on. So, you need to implement an integrated approach to reaching them: Be seen in as many places as possible. Issue online news releases for online links and print write ups; post and cross-post links to social media sites and blogs; tweet about your offerings while sharing useful information. Integrate. Integrate. Integrate. Because, as Stanley Hurwitz said in his article, “Social media savvy for your business,” in the New England Real Estate Journal, “Being there enhances the chances prospective customers will see your news.”
“What problems do you solve for your customers?”
Once again David Meerman Scott has posted something very useful to the PR/marketing practitioner in his Web Ink Now post: “Single most essential PR pitching tip” http://www.webinknow.com/2010/03/single-most-essential-pr-pitching-tip.html.
This is a refrain I share again and again with clients, and that’s because it’s so true–for members of the media and for your prospective customers. Even when you are pitching a product, tell your audience what problem (insert challenge or need just as easily) it solves.
To quote an old advertising adage, “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.”
So, go out and share how problems are solved.
O, Canada! My Facebook Friends.
CMS Wire recently reported in its “Social Media Minute” that Canada is big into Facebook. Actually, it reported in More Figures on Facebook’s Worldwide Popularity that roughly 43% of its population is on Facebook. I was not surprised to read this. See, I have to thank a Canadian friend of mine for getting me on Facebook, and, once I was, I found many of my Canadian cousins and friends already very active on the site. So, go, Canada! DSJC.