Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

It's hard to give clear advice without knowing what sort of software you sell and whether you sell to businesses or consumers. However, some general tips:

1) Offer something that solves a problem your customers have. If you sell anti-viral software, create a guide on "Six Ways to Stop Viruses from Attacking Your Computer".

2) Check out Scribd, KnowledgeStorm, and TradePub for lots of white papers and offers as examples.

3) You can either use the guide as a means of growing your list (sign up to get the guide) OR encourage viral spreading by leaving out the opt-in. Make sure your name and contact info are included, and that you specifically tell people to share (but not sell) it.

Dear Elizabeth

Scientists and Engineers are notorious for not responding the idea of visiting a site because they can get something for free or can get a free gift. White papers are valuable, but they are also ubiquitous in your industry. Most prospective customers can’t even find the time to read the white papers they have already downloaded, mainly because they don’t know if they would be relevant or of benefit to them without reading them in some detail. Likewise, demo software for free abounds.

Feature limited demo software usually makes potential power users very frustrated as they are bound to find that the restricted features exclude the ones which they can use. Time limited software is better, but again, it is unlikely that they will have enough time over 30 days to work out how to use the package without training and will probably give up on it, having better things to do. We have never made a single CRM sale by sending the punter a demo disk without offering application and technical support. That’s no wonder as the product has about 3,500 features

I’d be inclined to offer something of real value such as a free 30 to 60 minute consultation to discover their needs (Wither on-site or by something like GoTo Meeting.) You could then offer them a time limited package lightly configured to one task which they have identified as being vital and which is not met by their current software. Whilst they are conducting the trial you must support them and this fact should be included in your marketing as knowing their application area and their business will allow you to offer advice and instruction to them on-line as they conduct a trial.

Whether or not it is possible to do this - it costs you money and time - will depend on the margin available in the product when it is sold, the average value of a sale and the conversion rate to an order which you think that you can achieve. You need to do these calculations before you commit yourself to a programme otherwise success in getting new customers could bankrupt you!

Gifts and presents have been shown not to be effective in this market. Ref-TAL Technologies and their SoftwareWedge range of data acquisition products. I believe that they stopped giving out free software without customer specific advice because for recipients could work out how to use it by themselves is unrealistic.

Even if they did master the basics, they usually didn’t relate it to their most pressing needs and therefore they couldn’t see the benefits or the relevance to their job.

I tried out a 45 minute consultation on-site or on-line as an incentive to buy our sales for our sales forecasting software. The benefits were that we got to know the customer, established his needs and could spend a few minutes configuring a very basic demo to their requirements for a web-based trial using their own data.

Of course, it should go without saying that you will be able to get all their contact details so that by loading them onto our CRM system, they could be further enticed to buy a product later when their budget might allow a purchase. And that’s for a sales forecasting software which a banana could learn how to use! (Bananas share 44% of the human genome – not a lot of people know that)

It worked. If it works too well, I can always telephone them to define the application and then ascertain if they were in buying mood, and if we was fit for their purpose. If they are just collecting information or have an invalid application, we can easily cancel the meeting to save them from wasting their time (Translation: To prevent us from wasting our time)

We also used to do the same with Reference Manager, a citation tool for researchers. An hour of showing them how to use it resulted in 78% more orders than just sending them a CD or getting them do download a free demo version. One client who took the download option didn’t immediately purchase. She said that it looked as thought it might be great software and an answer to a prayer if only she could work out how to use it in a 12 hour working day and with no spare time. After an afternoon on site explaining it to her and half a dozen others, she bought about 150 licenses for every researcher in her institution. Her enquiry was for one license only, for her use!

Good luck – it ain’t easy but I believe that the UK’s largest distributor of scientific, mathematical and engineering software has done something similar to good effect. An added benefit is that it allows their technical team to spend a few days a month which is satisfying in its own right whilst allowing them to gain real insight into the application side of their software

Best wishes


Steve Alker
Xspirt