ASP Member Wins ESWC's 2009 Epsilon Award

Emsi Software’s a-squared Anti-Malware Wins ESWC’s 2009 Epsilon

ASP member Christian Mairoll of Emsi Software has won the 2009 Epsilon Award for Software Excellence at the 9th annual European Software Conference. Emsi Software’s a-squared Anti-Malware application was awarded the prize earlier this month at the conference in Berlin, Germany. The Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) was a sponsor of the European Software Conference.

Every year, the Epsilon Award recognizes the best software application from the European microISV and software community. Programs are nominated by software developers, a peer-review process that ensures that only the highest quality software is considered for the award.

In addition to receiving worldwide recognition for its software, Emsi Software was also awarded an artistic creation by a European artist, special prizes from the sponsors of the event and 200 Euros in cash which Emsi Software will donate to the SOS Children’s Villages organization founded in Austria.

The a-squared Anti-Malware Security Suite

The a-squared Anti-Malware 4.5 security suite for Windows features a double virus scanner plus behavioral analysis and stops viruses, spyware, Trojans, bots and rootkits from infecting PCs. In 2009, in seven independent head-to-head tests against other anti-malware software, a-squared Anti-Malware was chosen as the most effective.

In the latest test, run by the Malware Research Group, a-squared Anti-Malware 4.5 recognized 99.8 percent of the 554,891 malware files used in the test, a higher score than the other 21 applications tested.

While not as well-known as some heavily-advertised security solutions, a-squared Anti-Malware has a big and growing number of victories in independent tests.

The a-squared Anti-Malware 4.5 runs under Windows, costs $40 (US) for a one-year single-user license and may be bought securely online from emsisoft.com. You can download a 30-day trial version from the same web address.

10th ESWC to be Held in 2010 in Vienna

The 10th annual European Software Conference will be held in November, 2010 in Vienna, Austria. For additional information about the Epsilon Award and about the European Software Conference, visit euroconference.org or microisv.eu.

Photo Credits: Pictured above are David Boventer (left), the European Software Conference’s Executive Director and Christian Mairoll (right) founder and head of Emsi Software. Many thanks to Dave Collins of Shareware Promotions for providing photographs from the conference. Feel free to check more of Dave’s photos from the 2009 ESWC.

ASP member Wins ESWC’s 2009 Epsilon Award is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

The October 2009 book selection is “How to Become a Marketing Superstar – Unexpected Rules that Ring the Cash Register” by Jeffrey J. Fox. It’s about using common sense and sound business practices to find and keep customers. It’s about marketing. Most of the concepts in the book apply directly to mISVs who are trying to increase their software sales.

Last month’s Book Club selection was “Then We Set His Hair on Fire – Insights and Accidents from a Hall-of-Fame Career in Advertising” by Phil Dusenberry. The title refers to the creation of the Pepsi ad in which Michael Jackson had an unfortunate accident. But the book is about insights, ideas, creativity, advertising, and business.

Phil Dusenberry is the former Chairman of BBDO North America, an advertising giant that managed accounts for General Electric, FedEx, Frito-Lay, Visa, Mars, HBO, Pizza Hut, Polaroid, and Apple Computers.

One of my favorite stories from the book is about soup. The lessons apply to the software industry, too.

Dusenberry’s firm landed the Campbell’s Soup account in the 1980s. Soup sales were flat. BBDO did some serious research, and learned something unusual – lots of consumers had kitchen cabinets full of Campbell’s Soup.

Campbell’s Soup had been advertised for decades as a safety measure. It’s virtually non perishable, and you need to keep it in the house for emergencies. There was a huge disconnect between the purchase rate and the consumption rate for Campbell’s Soup.

What about shareware?

Most software companies ask their prospects, over and over, to download their software. Lots of people listen to this message and act on it. About one hundred times as many people download software as buy it, so the “download” message is being read, understood and acted upon. Just as the buyers of Campbell’s Soup didn’t receive the “eat the soup” message, many shareware downloaders aren’t receiving the “buy it now” message.

How did Campbell’s address their problem of stagnant sales? They changed their advertising campaign to stress the benefits of consuming soup, and not just buying it and storing it for emergencies. People started eating the soup that they had been buying.

What might software developers do to get more people to buy the software that they’ve downloaded?

The answer isn’t obvious or simple. You have to address each of the decision points where consumers are currently dropping the ball:

• Some prospects download and forget about your application.
• Some developers have named the program “setup.exe” so prospects have no idea how to find the program after they’ve downloaded it.
• Some people install it, intending to try it later. And they forget about it. Or when they try it a month later, the trial version has expired.
• Some developers have no quick-start guide or tips of the day or sample files that can get their prospects using the software quickly and easily, so the application is abandoned in frustration.
• Some developers use registration incentives that aren’t very persuasive, so people using the trial version rarely purchase it.

Again, you have to identify every decision point where users can either buy the application or not. Find a way to entice them into making a buying decision.

Campbell Soup’s new tag line was “Reach for the Campbell’s. It’s right on your shelf.”

What’s your solution to break out of the one-percent download-to-sales conversion rate?

These are the type of topics that we talk about in ESC’s Software Marketing Book Club. You can read more of these discussions in the “Learn More About Marketing, and Sell More Software” article in the September, 2009 issue of ASPects, the monthly newsletter of the Association of Shareware Professionals.

Learn more about the ESC on their website. Be sure to follow the Book Club announcements in ESC’s public blog.

Software Selling Ideas from Our Friends at ESC is a post from: Association of Software Professionals