Many of you know Alex Krivov as the guy who runs jProductivity, the company that offers Protection Licensing Toolkit to keep pirates from stealing your software. Alex’s company also offers InstaTodo, a to-do list manager for iPhone and iPad that lets you create custom, reusable to-do list templates.

How do you get editors interested in telling their readers about yet another to-do app? The proven approach is to talk about its unique usage of reusable templates. Another approach is to send a press release that talks about InstaTodo’s built-in capabilities to manage an imminent emergency such as Hurricane Irene.

Hurricane Irene confronted millions of Americans with the urgent need to somehow prepare their families as this huge storm threatened to devastate the eastern part of the United States. InstaTodo users, however, were prepared with expert guidance. And the InstaTodo press release offered concrete ideas that would help people prepare for the storm.

jProductivity partnered with the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide InstaTodo users with Emergency To-Do lists, including FEMA’s Emergency Supply Kit, First Aid Kit, Unique Family Needs, Emergency Food Supply, and Useful Government and Non-Profit Organization Links.

InstaTodo users didn’t rush to grocery stores, trying to guess how many batteries to buy, or how much food and bottled water to purchase. With just a tap or two in InstaTodo, they had all of the information that they needed.

With thousands of editors and columnists looking for a fresh approach to reporting on the fast-approaching Hurricane Irene, Alex sent them the news story that they needed. Here’s PC World Magazine’s today@PCWorld blog posting covering the press release.

Many software developers can use today’s hottest news stories to help market their products or services. Start by thinking about how your software can benefit people in your target audience. For each group of prospects that you target, create a benefits profile that describes how their day-to-day activities would be enhanced by your software.

Next, think through how your software can be tied to current news items. How can your software users benefit from your application during a time of economic turbulence? How can your software help people land their next job? Will your program make people’s leisure time more relaxing, exciting, or fulfilling? Can you tie your application to a particular holiday?

Find a way to link your software to today’s hottest news stories, and your income will go up. It’s good software marketing.

– by Al Harberg, the Software Marketing Glossary guy

Using News Stories to Market Your Software is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

How can a small company – say, a small software developer – compete with a huge company? microISVs can learn a lot from David Ogilvy. Time Magazine called David Ogilvy the most sought-after wizard in the advertising business. Chapter 14 of Ogilvy’s classic book “Ogilvy on Advertising” is called “Competing with Procter & Gamble – Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” And the lessons from this 1983 book are as valid today as they were when Ogilvy penned it.

Ogilvy had competed against Procter & Gamble for decades, and he respected P&G’s advertising prowess. Yet in head-to-head competition, Ogilvy’s advertising firm helped his customers take significant market share away from P&G.

Procter & Gamble spent $700,000,000(US) a year on advertising back in the early 1980s. Their sales were $12 billion a year. P&G’s success was based on their intelligent application of sound marketing principles. Here are some of the things that P&G did to become successful. Today’s software developers can learn a lot about software marketing from P&G’s successful practices.

(1) Product samples

Ogilvy tells us that P&G distributed home-delivered samples on a massive scale. The company was convinced that if they let consumers try their products, they would want to buy them. This was a very expensive way to market consumer goods. They had to manufacture samples, postal-mail them to consumers, and be sure that grocery and department store shelves were stocked with P&G’s products when it was time for end-users to buy more.

Software developers have a much easier time distributing trial versions on the Internet. Once a software application has been developed, the distribution cost is nominal. No doubt, the cost of advertising and promoting your software, and letting potential buyers know where to find it, can be significant. But these expenses pale when compared with the costs of manufacturing and distributing samples of toothpaste or laundry detergent.

For prospects who land on your website, you have to decide if you want to sell them your software, or entice them to download the trial version. For most developers, selling software should be the primary goal, and coaxing prospects to download the trial version should be a distant second choice.

(2) Categories and competition

P&G never entered small categories unless they expected them to grow, Ogilvy explains. The consumer products giant simply wouldn’t spend time in niche markets. While this may be a good practice for well-financed publicly-traded software companies, many microISVs find it quite lucrative to find and dominate niche markets.

“They (Procter & Gamble) often enter more than one brand in a category,” Ogilvy wrote, “and allow each brand to compete with its sibling – with no holds barred.” There are some software developers who take the same approach. In addition to selling their software on the Internet, they’ll contract with a publisher to distribute their boxed software in stores, often under a different brand name.

(3) Market research

Procter & Gamble did a lot of market research. And Ogilvy believed that they created products that were better – and were perceived to be better – than competitive products. In addition to surveying potential buyers before creating a new product, P&G also did extensive test marketing. They would rather be right than first. This philosophy seems to contradict today’s wisdom that being first to market a new category of product is the most important factor in a company’s potential success.

It would seem that Apple has followed P&G’s example. Many years after the first computer tablets were introduced, Apple launched the iPad. By waiting, and by designing a tablet that people would genuinely want to use, Apple revived a tired old concept and turned it into a marketplace success.

(4) Advertising

Ogilvy pointed out that P&G’s ads stressed one key benefit. If they wanted to stress two important benefits, they would run two separate ads (versus stressing two benefits in a single ad). Most microISVs’ advertising is found on their websites. And most software developers’ websites present a library of information about their applications’ benefits and features. Perhaps developers would have more success if they followed P&G’s lead, and spent most of their time emphasizing a single benefit.

P&G’s commercials spoke directly to consumers. Many microISVs have been taking a similar approach by writing their websites’ sales messages in the second person. This means speaking directly to prospects, with lots of “you” and “your” and “you’re” words. In contrast to this conversational approach, other developers talk in the third person about their products, and occasionally mention “the user” as some abstract person who buys their software. Clearly, P&G’s speaking directly to potential customers is a more effective way to do software marketing.

P&G used unknown actors in their commercials. Compare that with today’s practice of getting celebrity endorsements from Hollywood stars, famous musicians, and sports heroes.

While it seems that P&G’s products were on television day and night, Ogilvy pointed out that less than one third of P&G’s advertising budget was allocated to prime-time advertising. Perhaps there’s a lesson there for software developers: If you’re buying search engine words, you don’t have to limit yourself to Google. If you’re buying text or banner ads on download sites, you don’t have to only buy from the highest-traffic sites.

(5) Product names

Procter & Gamble’s product names, Ogilvy pointed out, were short and simple. Today’s list includes Cascade, Cheer, Comet, Crest, Febreze, Gillette, Olay, Clairol, Ivory, Tide, and Pringles.

When they advertised their products, P&G never named their competitors. Rather, they would use a phrase such as “the other leading detergent.” Some software developers name their competitors in their websites’ sales presentations. For example, some microISVs create feature-comparison tables that show their applications’ features and benefits side-by-side with competitive products. And some developers offer competitive upgrades for customers who abandon an alternative product in favor of their own.

Should microISVs include the names of their competitors in the sales presentations on their websites? It depends. In some jurisdictions, it may not be legal to mention competitive companies or products. Where it’s legal, developers might try it both ways, and compare sales results.

(6) Talking about benefits

Ogilvy mentioned an interesting attribute of P&G’s advertisements that might have implications for microISVs: P&G showed consumers how the product will benefit them, without explaining why it might benefit them. Their ads promised softer skin, or a happier social life, and other benefits, tangible and intangible. And the reader or viewer of the ads was left to figure out how the products’ features would lead to these benefits.

Often, product users were portrayed as benefiting emotionally from using P&G’s product. And seldom did a P&G ad connect all the dots. Prospects were on their own to figure out how P&G’s consumer products would deliver all of their benefits.

Most marketers believe that advertising is more successful if you can offer – and prove – a specific, quantifiable benefit. Again, choose the approach that makes the most sense to you, and measure the results. Change your sales message, and measure again.

The bottom line

How do you beat a well-funded, well-known company like P&G? Or to bring the question closer to home, how can a microISV beat a well-funded, well-known software publisher? Take advantage of your strengths. You can move much more quickly than a large company. Once a microISV identifies an opportunity, it’s easier to allocate resources to working on the new development project.

And learn from Procter & Gamble. Bring their successful design, advertising, and marketing ideas to the software development industry, and sell more software.

– by Al Harberg, the Software Marketing Glossary guy

microISVs versus Software Giants is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

• There exist many kinds of sitemap file formats, each optimized for a particular purpose.
• Sitemaps can help your users navigate your website.
• Sitemaps can help you get your important pages indexed faster and more often.
• This article will explain the best usage of the most popular sitemap file types.

HTML sitemaps:

• If you link to your HTML sitemap from all pages in your website, and your HTML sitemap contains links to all important sections and pages of your website, you can ensure link juice (a.k.a. Google PageRank or similar in other search engines) flow to all your pages helping them to be deemed important and get indexed by search engines.
• A HTML sitemap structured in a sensible way can help users navigate your website. For this purpose, it may be a good idea to only include all the main sections/pages to avoid cluttering the sitemap needlessly.
• Tip: Use a combination of different HTML sitemaps: Create a single-page HTML sitemap with links to all important sections, but at the bottom include a link to another (possibly multi-page) HTML sitemap with links to all website URLs.

XML sitemaps:

• Google and other search engines created the “XML sitemaps protocol” for websites to offer an alternative way for search engines to find and index all your pages.
• Tip:  If you in the XML sitemap make sure to only include non-duplicate URLs and assign appropriate URL importance priorities, you can increase the chance of  having your important URLs indexed faster.
• Tip: The larger your website and the more complex your website navigation (e.g. Javascript and using forms/dropdowns etc.) the more useful having an XML sitemap becomes.

Image sitemaps:

• Image sitemaps is a Google-only extension of XML sitemaps.
• An easy way to tell Google about your images and how they associate to individual pages in your website.
• If you have a website that is heavy on using images and pictures, you should include an image sitemap.

Video sitemaps:

• Video sitemaps is a Google-only extension of XML sitemaps.
• You can let Google know of all your video content and on which pages your videos are found.
• If you have a website filled with video tutorials or similar, creating a video sitemap is almost a must.
• Video search results are often blended into the standard Google search results.

News sitemaps:

• News sitemaps is a Google-only extension of XML sitemaps.
• If your website features major news on a regular basis, you should consider a news sitemap.
• To be accepted by Google for news sitemaps, there are certain publisher requirements you will need to check and obey.
• News search results are often blended into the normal Google search results.

For more information:

• This sitemaps comparison article which has code examples and explanations of all sitemap file types.
• The help pages found in the webmaster sections of various search engines.
• The official XML sitemaps protocol page.

- Thomas Schulz, developer of the A1 Sitemap Generator tool

Creating Sitemaps for Your Websites is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

Above was my thinking when I created http://webhelpforums.com, and since then I have learnt a lot of things which I will now share

• Buy a separate domain: It gives you the opportunity to choose a good domain name for both SEO and branding purposes. If you are lucky it will give you one more domain in search results. It allows you to separate security aspects of running a forum from your main business website.
• Start with only a few boards in your forum: Nothing is worse than a forum with lots of near empty boards. You need to start slow to attract new forum members. Active boards with ongoing discussions and new posts will help do that.
• Be active in your own forum: For better or worse, this is your forum. Post articles, answer questions etc. to increase the quality and make the forum appear active.
• Be sure to promote the forum every way you can: It can e.g. be in articles where you write “discuss this article in our forum” or emails to customers such as order confirmations and newsletters.
• Consider allowing do-follow links in signatures: Although allowing do-follow links will attract many of the wrong people, it will also help you attract quality members that will be willing to spend their time posting useful answers, comments and articles in your forum. If you do allow do-follow links, be sure to look through member posts and delete their signatures if they lead to places of dubious quality.
• Combat robots forum spam: One effective measure is to add some nonstandard questions such as “spell company name with spaces in-between” or similar. Something truly unique to your forum. You can add new questions over time if spam becomes a problem.
• Combat other forum spam: Make sure to exclude member profile URLs in robots.txt. This will null and void most automated and semi automatic forum spam.

By following above suggestions, your forum will have a good chance to take off and help drive relevant traffic to your business

Thomas Schulz
http://www.microsystools.com

Creating a Forum for Website Marketing is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

I decided to do a little test and see whether my applications would run on Windows 8. Since I’ve been using VMWare Player to test my products on many different version of Windows,  I thought I would use it to create a new virtual machine for Windows 8. So I downloaded an ISO image of Windows 8, (I chose the 64-bit version with the developer tools included), created a fresh virtual machine, and started booting it with the Windows 8 ISO. However, after a few seconds I got an error: VMWare Player internal monitor error: vcpu-0: NOT_IMPLEMENTED… After searching the Internet for a solution, it turned out that the latest stand-alone version 3.1 of VMWare Player does not support all the futures required by Windows 8 preview! The solution was to upgrade to VMWare Player 4.0. However, it was not available for download from the VMWare web site. The only way to get version 4.0 was to download and install VMWare Workstation 8.0 that included not only the Workstation trial but also VMWare Player 4.0. So I did just that: downloaded VMWare Workstation 8.0 (it’s almost a half-gigabyte), installed it, and sure enough, it created a link to run not only VMWare Workstation, but also VMWare Player 4.0.

After that, I tried creating a Windows 8 virtual machine again. The first thing  VMWare Player asked me was where to install the OS from:

Selecting the ISO image

It’s important NOT to provide the Windows 8 ISO image at this point, but select the 3rd option: I will install the operating system later. Why? Because VMWare player does not understand the Windows 8 ISO disc contents yet, and providing it at this stage will only confuse it.

When asked to choose a Guest Operating System on the next step, I selected Microsoft Windows, and in the Version list I selected Windows 7 x64, since it was the closest thing to the x64 version of Windows 8 that the Developer Preview ISO image had:

Selecting the guest OS

Finally, after specifying the name and location for the virtual machine, as well the size of the primary hard drive (I chose 40GB), I clicked on the Customize Hardware button on the last screen, and adjusted the memory size to 2GB (since that’s what listed as a requirement for the x64 version of Windows 8 Developer Preview on the Microsoft web site). I also changed the number of processors to 2 and removed the floppy drive (who uses it these days, anyway?)

Customizing the hardware

One last step, after creating the virtual machine but before starting it for the first time, I’ve clicked on  the Edit virtual machine settings link and changed the settings for the CD/DVD drive to use the ISO image file that contained the Windows 8 Developer Preview:

Specifying the ISO image to boot

This step was needed to ensure that the installation of Windows 8 would begin as soon as I started the virtual machine. Finally, I started the virtual machine, and sure enough, the installation of Windows 8 started. It looked a lot like the installation of Windows 7, so I’m not including the screen shots here.

In the end, I was presented with the Metro interface, that I played a bit with. The best thing about it for me was that the usual desktop was just one click away. I clicked it, of course, and saw the regular Windows desktop, that looked almost exactly like Windows 7. (I missed the regular Start button though.) That’s what I used to install my applications and give them a try. I’m happy to report that the installations went smooth and my applications seem to like Windows 8:

My software runs on Windows 8 desktop!

Of course, it’s too early to do any real testing of Windows 8, it’s still a long time before it hits the shelves and there will be a lot of changes underneath. For now, it’s enough to see that my applications could work with Windows 8 and did not require major changes (at least that’s my hope at this point). How about yours?

[Update 09/20/2011] Another way to get VMWare Player 4.0 (until VMWare makes it available for a direct download) is to upgrade from VMWare Player 3.1, using the Software Update command on the Help menu. This way would wouldn’t need to install VMWare Workstation 8.0 just to get VMWare Player 4.0. [/Update]

Andrei Belogortseff
WinAbility Software

Do your applications play along with Windows 8? is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

In his book How to Close Every Sale, Joe Girard explains how business people should handle objections. And much of his advice applies to selling software on the Internet, too.

Joe Girard has been named “the world’s greatest salesman” by The Guinness book of World Records. In 15 years, he sold 13,000 automobiles, with no fleet sales and no leases. Joe Girard knows a lot about selling!

On the Internet, you have to anticipate objections and answer them. One risk, of course, is that you may be raising objections that your prospects would never have thought of on their own.

You can reduce the number of objections by delivering a comprehensive sales presentation.

“You must realize that your answer to every objection doesn’t have to be 100 percent satisfactory,” Girard explains. Sergio Zyman says something similar when he reminds us that we don’t have to win every round to win the fight.

Life involves compromises. And your competitor’s software has its problems, too.

Objections are good things. They indicate that the prospect wants to buy, but has a specific problem that you need to deal with.

People aren’t always honest when they raise objections. For example, people who believe that they can’t afford your service or product may not want to admit that. So, they fabricate other objections.

Never get into an argument with a prospect, Girard advises. Don’t back them into a corner. You may win the argument, but you likely won’t close the sale.

Joe Girard lists the six most common objections that you have to be prepared to answer. Again, his advice applies to Internet sales, too.

(1) I can’t afford it.

If you’re selling business software, explain how the software will pay for itself. If you’re selling entertainment software, tell your prospects that they deserve to enjoy your software – they’re worth it.

(2) I want to talk it over with my spouse.

(3) I have a good friend in the business.

(4) I want to shop around.

(5) Give me some brochures, and I’ll get back to you.

(6) I have a specific objection about your product or service.

Answer the objection, Girard urges us, and close the sale. When microISVs sell software on the Internet, Girard’s advice might be that you anticipate the objection, and include the answer in your product descriptions and in your FAQs.

– Al Harberg, the Software Marketing Glossary guy from DP Directory, Inc.

Handling sales resistance online is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

Paco Underhill’s book “Why We Buy – The Science of Shopping” is about how people buy items in retail stores. But the lessons that he teaches us apply to software marketing on the Internet, too. Tiny changes to a store’s layout can make huge differences in sales. Changing signs can increase or decrease sales. Lots! It stands to reason that the same principles apply to software developers’ website layouts, and to software marketing results.

“First you have to get your audience’s attention,” Underhill tells us. “Once you’ve done that, you have to present your message in a clear, logical fashion.”

If you don’t start by getting their attention, your message won’t be absorbed and acted upon. If you give them too much information, you’ll overload them.

In the old days (whenever that was), many buying decisions were made at home because people were loyal to particular brands. More and more, decisions are being made after people arrive at the store – or after they arrive at your site, if they’re buying software like yours.

Shoppers are busier than ever. You can’t waste their time on your store floor. Or on your website.

Underhill explains, “Putting a sign that requires twelve seconds to read in a place where customers spend four seconds is just slightly more effective than putting it in your garage.”

On the Internet, you can do things to control how much time people spend on your site. Write well, and they’ll absorb your message more easily, and feel more comfortable about it. Write poorly, and your prospects will struggle to understand what you’re saying. Copywriting is a critical part of software marketing.

Smart sign placement in a store is designed to grab shoppers’ attention. The same is true on your web site. Learn how people scan web pages and you’ll sell more software.

Underhill ends his “How to Read a Sign” chapter by describing a sign that he particularly liked. It was in a hotel elevator, and it said, “You Look Famished.” Below the sign were the menus of several of the hotel’s cafes and restaurants.

– Al Harberg, the Software Marketing Glossary guy from DP Directory, Inc.

Sell More Software with Good Website Signs is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

If this is true, then a good software marketing strategy would be to communicate the loss that prospects will suffer if they don’t make a buying decision.

* Rather than talk about how much money they’ll save by your software’s productivity gains, talk about their ability to stop losing money by not using your app.

* Rather than talk about the new functionality that your program offers, talk about the gains that their competitors are making by using it.

“Fewer than 5 percent of all marketers ground their product claims on benefits to the customer,” Fox tells us. “Fewer than 1 percent of all marketers dollarize the value of their product and sell with numbers.”

Fox believes that the best marketers quantify their product’s savings potential, and talk about the consequences of not making a purchasing decision.

I’m not convinced that this tactic is the best way to maximize your software marketing. This approach could lead to a very negative website. And all of that negativity could tarnish your company’s image.

I would suggest that you consider weaving a little of the “fear of loss” talk into the mix. But don’t let it dominate your sales message. Instead, sell a solution to a problem. Or sell the benefits that your software will deliver.

– by Al Harberg, the Software Marketing Glossary guy

Software Marketing and Fear is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

In their book “What Were They Thinking? Marketing Lessons You Can Learn from Products That Flopped,” Robert M. McMath and Thom Forbes tell two stories about products that weren’t successful until marketers figured out how people were really using them.

Poor positioning leads to poor sales

Kleenex was launched as a cold cream remover. It didn’t sell. Research revealed that people liked the idea of having disposable paper handkerchiefs. So Kimberly-Clark repositioned Kleenex – and made a lot of money.

Liquid Downy was developed by Procter & Gamble as a way to soften diapers. People started using it to soften all of their washables. So P&G repositioned the product and sold quite a few bottles of Liquid Downy.

Software marketing means positioning your applications

The lesson applies to software, too. Find out how your customers are using your software. You might find that there’s an entirely new market that is a natural fit for your program. By tweaking the sales message on your website, you might sell a lot more units.

Your website can position your application in many different ways. You can present it to the buying public as the most affordable, the most expensive (and worth every dollar), the simplest to use, the fullest-featured, the best supported, the best documented, the fastest, or any combination of these and many other attributes.

Software tools versus software solutions

Many microISVs position their Windows utilities as neat toys. Many successful companies, on the other hand, position similar software as a business solution.

Business and home users won’t take the time to figure out how a software utility will improve their lives. Software developers need to paint them into a word picture in which they’re enjoying the benefits of your application. Paint a picture of a solution, not a tool.

Positioning is one of the most powerful software marketing tools that microISVs can use to increase software sales. Positioning should be the driving force behind the sales messages on your websites.

– Al Harberg, the Software Marketing Glossary guy from DP Directory, Inc.

Positioning Your Application is Smart Software Marketing is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

Making things worse is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer security warning each time a Vista or Windows 7 user starts to download software from the web – “The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?”

You can sell more software if you eliminate this frightening message. All it takes is an Authenticode code signing certificate.

If you sign your downloads, your prospect will still see the “Are you sure you want to run this software?” part of the warning message. But they won’t see the “publisher could not be verified.” portion.

And, with a single click, end-users can view your certificate and feel comfortable that they’re downloading exactly what they expected to download. The code signing certificate ensures that the downloaded file has not been tampered with after the original publisher created it.

With a code signing certificate installed, software developers can sign EXE, CAB, DLL, COM, OCX, JAR, VBA, Mozilla object files, Silverlight files, Active X controls, and MacOS 9+ files.

Code signing is an effective way to increase software sales by minimizing the risk associated with downloading files from the Internet.

To learn more about buying an affordable Code Signing certificate from K Software, visit http://codesigning.ksoftware.net/. K Software is an authorized Comodo reseller, and offers Comodo Code Signing Certificates at significant discounts. Join ASP and receive even more attractive discounts on code signing certificates.

Sell More Software with an Authenticode Code Signing Certificate is a post from: Association of Software Professionals