Ok, Now That I Have Your Attention, Let’s Talk About Marketing Software

Tasty Slices

• Nico Westerdale @nicowest

• Myself and Roger run BitsDuJour– Daily Deals Website for Mac & PC

Software– 24 Hour Exclusive Deals, Heavily

Promoted

• 1000s of Software Promotions for 5+ Years

Hands up Who’s Here for the Free Pizza?

Ray’s Pizza – New York City

The Insane Headlines

Promotions are a Huge Market

Source: BuySellAds.com

The Way People Buy Has Changed

Source: BuySellAds.com

44% of Online Customers

use Daily Deal Sites, and

Rising

The Way People Buy Has Changed

Source: BuySellAds.com

60% of Subscribers get emails

from 2+ Daily Deals Sites Every Day

The Way People Buy Has Changed

Source: BuySellAds.com

60% of Email Recipients are

Checking Their emails

at Least Once a Day

Where Groupon Fails

• Physical Venues Cannot Scale Easily• Traditional Merchant’s Overheads are High

Trash Talk

• Large Per-Unit Cost Means Wastage is Inevitable

• Printed Coupons are Confusing for Staff and Customers

• Coupon Redemption Rate is Low

• Customers Come Once… Then What?

Groupon Failure Stats

• Only 63% of Vendors said their Groupon was Profitable

• 49% of Vendors said they would not Advertise with Groupon again

• 82% of Vendors Unsatisfied with Repeat Business

Source: Cooper Murphy Copywriters

The Move to E-Commerce

Source: YipIt

10% of Groupon &

17% of Living Social’s

Revenue is now from

e-commerceWithin only 4

months of launching!

The Good News

• All Daily Deal Sites use Email as their #1 Way of Reaching Customers

• Software Vendors Don’t Have Any of These Problems!

How to Promote Software

1. Figure out How Low You Can Go2. Find out Where Your Customers Are3. Give Them Something Irresistible4. Make the Sale or Get Their Contact

Info5. Hook ‘em6. Keep on Selling

1. Figure out How Low You

Can Go

Product Cost Calculator

Product Price $Total Hours Per Week on the BusinessHours Per Week Supporting the ProductLicensing per Product $

Per-Unit Product Cost

% of People Who Purchase Again

Calculate $2.86 93%

How Much To Discount?

• Total Sales Revenue based on Discount

< 3

1

31

- 3

9

40

- 4

4

45

- 4

9

50

- 5

4

* 5

5 -

59

60

- 6

4

65

- 6

9

70

- 7

4

75

- 7

9

> 7

9

Sales

Sales for Regu-lar Price < $35

Sales for Regu-lar Price >= $35

* Small Data Set

Tota

l Sale

s R

even

ue

Percentage Discount

2. Find out Where Your Customers Are

Who Purchases Software?

• ISV Websites are not the Only Place the Purchase Decision is Made– Download Sites– Forums / Social / Community / Blogs– Coupon Sites– Promotion Sites– Search & Aggregators

• Different Rules in Different Countries• All Customers are Not the Same

Different Customers

Impulsive Buyers

Verifiers Researchers

Seekers Fans Devotees

BitsDuJour.com

MUPromo.com

MacZOT.com

SoftwareDoD.com

MacAppDeals.com

GrabSomeDeals.com

SparCode.com

MajorGeeks.com

MightyDeals.com

GiveawayOfTheDay.com

MacAppDeals.com

AppSumo.com

Startups.com

Bundle Websites

Everything … and the Kitchen Sink

3. Give Them Something Irresistible

Promotional Stats

• 94% Could Recall a Promotional Product From the Past 2 Years

• Consumers Made a Purchase After:– Receiving a Promo Product (20.9%)– Viewing a Print Ad (13.4%)– Viewing TV Commercial (7.1%)– Viewing Online Ad (4.6%)

Source: Promotional Products Association International

AppSumo Sweeps

• Premium Prizes

• Heavily Advertised

• Excellent Viral Hooks

• A Unique Shopping Cart for 100% Off Deals• Email Addresses Shared with ISV

100% Off Effectiveness

• In 3 Months…• Grew Email List by 60,000• Baseline Traffic has Doubled• Traffic Spikes of 10 Times the Norm• $5 million in Software Given Away• Sales up at least 20%

Did You Get it Yet?

• I want ISVs to Show up to my Talk

• Pizza is Irresistible to ISVs

• Pizza Doesn’t cost that Much

• = Free Pizza!

4. Make the Sale or Get Their Contact Info

Make Your Case

• Make it Clear what you’re Selling

• Entertaining Write-up

• Lead with one Point• Don’t Say too Much

Easy Purchases

• Main Call to Action is to “Buy Now”

• Lead with your Percentage

• Show the Deadline• All other Links and

Information are Secondary

I Want Email Addresses!

• If You Can’t Make the Sale, Then Get Their Email

• Turns Residual Traffic into Paying Customers (eventually!)

The Fine Print

• Features not Functions• Spell out your License

Terms• Testimonials Help, but

they’re not 100% Believable

• Don’t let this Detract From the Main Promotion

Build Trust by Being Yourself

• Show you’re a Real Person

• Allow Questions to be Asked and Answered

• Be Seen to be Responsive Now, so you’ll be Responsive Later

• Handle Problems (and Problem People)

5. Hook ‘em

Emails Make Sales

• Up-Sells• Cross-Sells• New Versions• Keep Giving

Discounts!• The Point is to

get People to Click

Why Come Back?

• Become and Expert in Your Area

• Be The First with The Latest News

• Community Content

6. Keep on Selling

More is Available

• Show Relevant Alternatives that don’t Directly Compete

• Don’t Overwhelm your main Promotion

• Don’t Blind them with Choice

Extending the Promotion

• Creating a Deadline forces a ‘Buy Now’ decision

• Extending the deadline allows you to force the ‘Buy Now’ decision again

• Extending Allows you to Pick up New Customers and Persuade Unsure Customers

• We see 60% Sales in the second 24 Hours

Facebook Promotions

• Use FanGate Page to Entice Likes

• Shortstack, Static FBML

• Use the Real Estate• Be Yourself• Vary Your Posts• Reply and be Visible• Don’t Overpost

Twitter Promotions

• The Goal is to add Followers and get Backlinks

• Use Twitter OAuth to Create your own Promotion

• Use Bitly to Track your Clicks• Tweet like Crazy

Spreading the Word

• Link Exchanges are Dead• Email Reminders / Newsletter• Comments / Contact• RSS / Twitter / Facebook / ShareThis• Forums: Deals.Woot / SlickDeals / Industry

Specific• DOTD Aggregators: DODTracker• Affiliate Programs• Promotions Move Fast and are Gone in Hours

Future Trends

• Customers Comfortable With Deals (and Expect It)– More Registered Users– Flash Deal Timeframes are Shortening

• More Promotional Opportunities– The “Me Too” Factor– Specialization

• Promotional Sites Evolving– Coupon– Geographical– HyperLocal / Mobile / PoS– E-Commerce Products

• Social Media Sharing Services• Specific PPC Ad Networks

Software is the Perfect Promotional Product

Nico Westerdalenico@bitsdujour.com

@nicowest

How Low?

Where Are Your

Customers?

Give Irresistible Offers

Make Sale or Get

Contact Info

Hook ‘em Keep Selling