Software Mogul

A Simple Metric That Can Help You Grow “Good” Profits Like Crazy

admin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:02:44 +0000

For those of you who don’t know about The Net Promoter Score (R) it is one of the best (and simplest) metrics to help a company grow.

I’ve written a case study about it here Case Study: Using The Net Promoter Score in Software Companies, ISVs and MicroIsvs to Boost Sales and Lower Customer Attrition Rate

And, I’ve come across a nifty little primer on it that takes only about a minute to read and get the ‘gist’ of it… It is a PDF called “The 2-minute guide to the Net Promoter Score: All you need to know about NPS in a cartoon format” and you can get it (without even giving your email address or registering) by clicking the link.

The folks at Directness BV in Amsterdam, The Netherlands created it.

Jason Bedunah
The Leader in Helping Software Companies Leverage Social Media, Web2.0 and Direct Marketing Principles to Sell More Software.

Can Social Media Make Direct Mail Campaigns More Profitable?

admin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:07:39 +0000

Yes.

I believe you should be using both. As great as Twitter and Facebook are, it is still difficult to scale. It would take me about an hour to get on the phone and have one of my database marketing friends hand me the name of every man and woman in the United States who is ever likely to buy your product or service.

For example, if I had a “stop smoking” product I could buy a list of 2,455,650 and have it at my Lettershop by end of business. (36,211 people were added to this list this month.)

Try getting that level of targeting on Twitter or Facebook. You can’t… but that’s ok because that is NOT what it is all about.

So, what is it about?

It is about conversations… finding them, joining them, adding to them, pushing them forward and helping EVERYONE out in the process.

How can Twitter, Facebook and other Social Media make your Direct Marketing Campaigns more successful?

Here’s how: Along with your direct mail (or print ad) include your social media information. The way direct mail works is that only a very small percentage of people will be ready to buy RIGHT NOW… that leaves a bunch of people who ARE interested but, for some reason, just won’t move ahead right now… and, others who aren’t interested and may never be.

Direct Response Advertising is structured to get the BUY RIGHT NOW part of that group. But… what about the WILL BUY BUT NOT NOW group? It is LARGER than the NOW group. Probably five times, maybe even ten times, larger.

This is where the social media comes in. Invite them to join you. I put the invitation OUTSIDE of the main sales pitch on another slip of paper or postcard. Appeal to their self-interest… “For more tips on curbing smoking cravings follow me on Twitter/Facebook/MySpace/Wherever”

Now, when they get ready they’ll know where to find you and your campaign becomes much, much more profitable.

Jason Bedunah
The Leader in using Social Media, Web2.0 and Traditional Direct Response to help companies sell more software.

Software CEOs… Monitor Millions of Online Sources for Mentions of your Software with Filtrbox

admin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:39:47 +0000

Oh man…

My life just got easier.

Whenever I want to watch “market conversations” about a product and category I used to go to search.twitter.com and search for the product, the category, the search terms AND the major influential figures…creating a new “Feed for this query” and putting each on a tab in Google reader.

Then, I’d go to Google News… do the same thing and create Alerts. Same with blogs…etc, etc, etc.

But, now I don’t have to!!!

An ingenious piece of software has been created that does all this automatically and quickly! And, it does it with a LOT more sources than I can reasonably manage. It monitors MILLIONS of sources for your search terms and has them ready for you to peruse whenever you log in.

They monitor Social Media, Mainstream Media and Blogs. You can even add your own sources if they don’t cover them (unlikely).

It’s amazing.

I don’t have any special interest or a business consulting relationship with FiltrBox… but I DID become a customer a couple of days ago.

Imagine having someone in your company go through the blog postings mentioning your company/product and commenting corrections or adding to the conversation…

…imagine noticing a trend in user’s complaints via social media sites, investigating and responding hours later, to make sure a small hiccup doesn’t turn into a tsunami of discontent.

Watch your competitors like a hawk! Know MORE about what the market is saying about them than they do!

Hey, hopefully I’ve convinced you it’s worth a look! http://www.filtrbox.com

Jason Bedunah

P.S. If you currently use it and think it’s great comment below how you use it… Or, if you’ve used it and think it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, comment that as well.

Case Study: Using The Net Promoter Score in Software Companies, ISVs and MicroIsvs to Boost Sales and Lower Customer Attrition Rate

admin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:41:37 +0000

I’ve pasted a short proposal I created for a project for a software client last year.

After studying the company for a bit I decided we needed to create better Feedback Loops between the customer’s and marketing. We had almost NOTHING in place other than a team of 10 customer service reps who, of course, only got called when the customer had a question or a complaint.

The CSRs were trained to handle the situation BUT the types of questions and the contents of the complaint weren’t being recorded in a way that could help us get to the root causes to know what to change, drive the change and, eventually, preempt the problem/complaint/question before it even occurred.

Here is the initial report I emailed to the CEO to begin discussions…

The Net Promoter Score Initiative (Rough Draft)

Main Points:

· All customers are not equal. Some customers (called Promoters) actively promote the company via positive word of mouth and referral. Others (called Detractors) HURT the company by negative word of mouth.

· A company can increase its GOOD profits by decreasing its number of Detractors and increasing its number of Promoters.

· Management needs an Operational Number related to customer satisfaction to measure, watch and improve. Traditional Customer Satisfaction Surveys don’t work. They are considered a nuisance by most customers, mainly due to their length. However, most customers don’t mind answering 2 simple questions.

· The Net Promoter Score, the % of Promoters minus the % of Detractors, provides a metric that has been proven empirically to be related to revenue growth.

o NPS = %P - %D

· On a scale of 0 to 10:

o 0 to 6 are Detractors,

o 7-8 are Passives, and

o 9-10 are Promoters.

· The NPS provides a way for management to gather information and use Root Cause Analysis to improve operations and the customer experience. By watching changes in NPS, management knows if its efforts are having an effect on customer loyalty.

· I am proposing we measure NPS at two customer contact points.

o When customers call the Call Center (The Call Center NPS)

o By surveying a percentage of completed orders from 7 days ago (The Completed Order NPS).

§ The information system should remove customers who have already been surveyed in the last 30(?) days to keep from becoming a nuisance.

· There are trade-offs in the two main methods for conducting NPS surveys, via phone and via email.

o Email

§ Negatives: Assumed lower survey completion rates.

§ Positives: Candor, Less labor intensive, automation.

o Phone

§ Negatives: More intrusive, less candor, more labor intensive

§ Positives: Assumed higher completion rates

· The survey method needs to use the same data gathering method at each measurement point and across time to be meaningful. I suggest using email for both The Call Center NPS and The Completed Order NPS because the Candor factor allows us to dig deeper into Root Causes.

· To establish a baseline NPS I recommend pulling a random set of customers who have placed an order in the last 3 months (starting from September 1 and working backwards 3 months) and asking those customers the Ultimate Question via email.

· The Ultimate Question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?”

o Follow-up question: “What’s the most important reason for the score you’ve given?

o Or, “What is the most important improvement that would make you rate us closer to a ten?”

The Call Center NPS

o After handling the customer’s concerns ask:

o At the end of the call “In a few minutes you’ll receive an email with a link to a survey that will help us improve our customer service. The survey has 2 or 3 simple questions to answer and it takes most people less than 60 seconds to finish. Can you help us by opening the email and answering the questions?” (By getting their explicit commitment I expect we’ll see higher completion rates.)

o “Okay, the subject line of the email is “X” and you should receive it shortly.

o The CSR Portal sends the email after the call terminates.

o If the answer to the “someone give you a call” question on the emailed survey is ‘yes,’ then the NPS system emails the information to the CSR Manager for follow-up.

o The CSR Manager calls, apologizes and probes for the root cause of the customer’s disappointment, develops an appropriate solution and records the root cause for future review by the management team.

Completed Order NPS

o Every day the NPS System pulls the orders shipped 7 days ago, filters out the customers who have interacted with the Call Center (because they will have been surveyed already) and sends them the NPS Survey Email.

o If the answer to the “someone give you a call” question on the emailed survey is ‘yes,’ then the NPS system emails the information to the CSR Manager for follow-up.

Root Cause Analysis

When a customer agrees to have someone give them a call on the survey this is a chance to get feedback and look for root causes.

Until/Unless we can find a proven follow-up system that others have used successfully with NPS I’m proposing this:

Dissatisfaction stems from a difference in what the customer expected to happen versus what actually happened. Their expectations weren’t met.

Some expectations are implied and obvious. They expect to get the product on-time, in good shape, in the right quantity and with the options they selected.

Other expectations are set by product copy or competitor’s positioning.

This plan will require a few new database tables and potentially some modifications to CSR Portal.

Conclusion

Previous companies who have implemented NPS have noted that the simple act of following up with dissatisfied customers has helped lower the number of Detractors.

Both the Call Center NPS and Completed Order NPS are calculated weekly by the system. The goal is to continuously drive this number up by creating less Detractors and more Promoters.

On a regular basis (bi-weekly?), a cross-disciplinary team get together and discuss the most common ‘root causes’ to decide which solutions make business sense and put a plan in action to effect the changes in the organization.

We can also relate NPS to RFM codes and track both over time.

You can read more about NPS in the book The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth by Fred Reichheld

The program was a success and continues to yield benefits. We used the actual wording of the Promoter’s responses as fuel for the ad copy in emails, web content and direct mail catalogs.

The ad copy became more real and connected more with the prospects because
it was in their own words… we were communicating like they were!

Comments from Detractors are used to probe “Root Causes” inside the company’s operations and then develop solutions with department heads.

This INCREASED second and third purchases AND lowered the attrition rate.

Promoters now promote more… and, Detractors detract less! The result is more money for the company and better product and service for the customers.

Win-Win!

Jason Bedunah

To Sell More Software Focus and Diverge.

admin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:08:30 +0000

To sell more software, focus more.

Narrowing your focus allows you to hone in on your unique point of differentiation in the marketplace AND more thoroughly target the prospects who need it.

If done right, you should have almost no direct competitors. Most companies should look like “almost what I need but not quite” vendors.

To do this, take a facet of the market or some characteristic of the solution and diverge. Is the only thing differentiating your positioning statement (aka your focus) from your competitors the name before the slogan?

If you can swap the names from the positioning statement and it still be true… you haven’t found your unique differentiation point.

But, what if your solution IS pretty much the same? Then, focus on specific segment(s) you want AND serve them… not only with your software solution but by sending them great “How to” information. Letting them know about OTHER products that can help them. Having a service presence at their conferences.

In short, they should view your company as assisting their success.

The right focus can make your software solution intensely appealing to a select group of prospects. This impacts EVERY facet of your marketing communications and makes it MUCH easier. It also DROPS the new customer acquisition cost to delightfully low levels.

A unique differentiating focus provides the following benefits:

Clearer direction for how you spend your time, money and resources.
Better “word-of-mouth” marketing across the prime prospects because they look to you as the leader.
Higher level of loyalty, less attrition rate because there are fewer competitors and you are committed to their success.
A well-defined set of criteria for identifying the prospects who can benefit most from your solution.
Fewer competitors, because there are fewer companies who do what you do
Better margins, because focused solutions command premium pricing.

When prospects understand your focus, they’ll seek your solution out! Because they feel like you are JUST for them.

Then, buying your software will be a no-brainer.

To sell more software, focus more.

Jason Bedunah

The Leader in using Traditional Direct Response, Social Media and Web2.0 to help companies sell more software.

The Biggest Marketing Mistake I See Software Companies Make

admin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:32:22 +0000

Everywhere I go I see it.

The biggest marketing mistake software companies make always glares at me. But, it makes me smile, because it is easy to fix (and, it makes me look like a genius-hero).

If you fix it, you’ll immediately find your customer acquisition costs seem ridiculously small. It allows you to be much bolder than all your competitors. In fact, when completely fixed, your competitors will have difficulty keeping up with you in any way whatsoever.

Sound like a dream? It’s not.

One company who fixed this problem was able to pay affiliates TWICE the initial sale price of their product.

Imagine this: You’re a skillful affiliate and you have the choice between promoting two products that are essentially the same. Everything else being essentially equal, you get paid DOUBLE the commissions, who are you going to spend all your time, expertise and money promoting?

The one that pays you twice as much for the sale, of course.

Now, why would a company pay out TWICE what they took in from an initial sale?

They could do it because they understood the TRUE value of their customer. It’s often called “Lifetime Customer Value” or something similar. If you keep track of what your customers purchase and when, you can derive this number AND another number called “Expected Days to Break-Even.” This is how many days it takes for customers to have purchased enough from your company to cover all the marketing and fulfillment costs.

They didn’t start off paying 200% of the initial sale… No. At first, they gave affiliates what everyone else in the category was giving, still a healthy 50% of the first sale.

They went to work creating a ton of “back-end” offers for their newly acquired customers. Some of them were their own products and services… others were products/services by reputable companies they pitched to their “house list.” They received a portion of each sale as commission.

Each back-end offer added to the average Lifetime Customer Value.

By fully developing their “back-end” offers this company had a very thorough understanding of what a client (on average) would purchase and what their value looked like over time.

Armed with this knowledge they put the nail in the coffin in their category by sucking up all the affiliates with the 200% commission rate. With the affiliates wrapped up and working like mad, the company itself not only garnered more customers, it received the branding and SEO benefits of having the best keywords getting pointed to their brand (via the affiliates’ efforts). After a few months, 8 out of the first 10 for their primary kewords were affiliates of theirs!

With such huge payoffs the affiliates were also able to bid more on ppc keywords than competitors.

Within a few months, this astute company shifted the entire category towards them. They left all their customers gasping for air… most of those with “internet-only” strategies were put out of business. Others were forced to focus on other, less profitable, aspects of the category to stay alive.

They attained the Leadership position in less than a year after implementing this strategy and haven’t looked back. Their closest ‘competitor’ is one-tenth their size. Their dominance has kept new competitors from entering which allows their profit margins to stay incredibly high.

The biggest mistake I see software companies make is NOT (usually) on their new customer acquisition efforts. It is ALMOST always that they do not increase their back-end sales pipeline to the maximum.

Consider this:

Once a customer has purchased from you, your company is no longer a stranger to be wary of… but, a valued Advisor.

Contacting these customer is MUCH more economical because you already have their contact information.

Charging a HIGHER price is easier because they already trust you.

So, what else could you sell? What “back-end” offers can you create?

The easiest is a “heavier-duty” version of whatever you already offer. Hopefully, you are already doing that.

Here’s what I like to do…

Make a list of what OTHER things a person buys when they purchase your solution. (It doesn’t have to be software… someone who buys website software may be open to logos and/or graphic design as an example. However, offering them a wireless plan wouldn’t make sense and would probably be frowned upon by almost all of them, not to mention not likely to be profitable.)

What do they purchase BEFORE… what do they purchase AFTER… what would be optional BUT highly useful to them if they did?

I begin brainstorming in this manner until I have a list of things to work with that are directly or tangentially related… If you already offer any of it but DO NOT have a process in place to make sure it is promoted regularly then mark that down to delegate to someone.

If you do not offer it but could develop it fairly quickly then add it to a future projects list. BUT, before you begin spending resources on it, I like to discover if it will pay off. So, I find someone who already sells it and become an affiliate or vendor. I send a test promotion to my list and see if it brings in profits.

Does it look promising? If so, then we continue selling it until we are ready to launch our version of it.

Using this methodology it is NOT uncommon to double or triple your Lifetime Customer Value. Knowing this AND the days to break even will allow you to become all the more aggressive on your initial customer acquisition efforts.

By knowing your numbers you will know how much to spend on front-end advertising, how much to pay affiliates to get them to work like crazy for you, how aggressive you can be on the initial product pricing.

Adopt this strategy and mindset and you, too, will soon be able to suck the lifeblood out of your market. Poor competitors, they won’t even know what hit them.

Jason

P.S. To learn more about how I find potential joint-venture partners read “Discover Rich New Oceans of Prospects for Your Software.”

Discover Rich New Oceans of Prospects for Your Software

admin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:25:30 +0000

One of the most amazing things to me is how few companies attempt to get other companies to endorse their products or services to clients.

You’d think they’d be all over that…

It’s not as hard as it sounds. CEOs answer phone calls from other CEOs… especially, when they are doing it for the purpose of making each other more money. (Call me crazy but I think CEOs like making money.)

How do you discover companies who already have
the ear of people who need your solution?

Here’s how I do it…

1. List the customer segments you are going after.

2. For each segment ask yourself:

What do they buy BEFORE they buy software in my category?
What do they buy about the same time?
What do they buy immediately AFTER?

It doesn’t have to be software, it can be anything. Another approach is to ask, “What life/professional event (or change in the status quo or decision) would make someone aware of the need for my solution?”

3. This should give you a fairly large list of products/services. I’d list them as general categories and then list the top 3-5 companies in each category.

After a few days of this you should have a ton of companies who you could approach about a possible recommendation of your solution to their house list.

4. Next, I’d have someone create a one-page synopsis on each company listing it’s history, the current CEO, a rundown of its product(s), etc.

5. Then, I’d write a one-page proposal detailing how you think introducing your software to their current house list could benefit them. I have a standard one-page proposal outline I use based on the format found in the EXCELLENT book, “The One-Page Proposal: How to Get Your Business Pitch onto One Persuasive Page” by Patrick Riley.

If they have snail mail addresses offer to pay for the costs of a small test to their list to see what kind of responses and results they receive.

6. Send each proposal via FedEx.

7. Follow up a few days later with a phone call.

8 . If you strike a deal and it proves profitable for both of you, then encourage them to make the recommendation of your solution part of their automatic processes. This will ensure a steady stream of sales for both of you after the initial windfall of rolling out to their entire list.

The new customer acquisition cost for these sales will be EXTREMELY low… probably much less than a tenth of your current costs. But, this strategy yields MORE than a flood of instant and easy sales… it has the added benefits of creating a lot of buzz and adding credibility to your brand in the market place.

Get as many up and running as possible.

It’ll be worth it!

Jason Bedunah

Can Twitter Really Help Software Companies Sell More Software?

admin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:50:10 +0000

The answer is yes… BUT, not in the way most people think it can.

If you do it the wrong way, you risk getting branded a slimy spammer.

Twitter is about conversations and people don’t want to have conversations about giving you money. Certainly not when they hardly know you… If/when they DO want to have that conversation THEY want to be the ones to initiate it.

Instead, they want to have conversations about things that interest them… or, problems they are trying to solve… or, goals they are striving towards.

One of the best things you can do is get REAL clear on how your software makes a person’s life better. What area(s) it helps them improve.

I mentioned in an earlier post “7 Ways to Sell More Software (or anything else) Using Web2.0, Social Media and Direct Response Principles” the importance of developing your Positioning statement.

Does it help them save time?

Do better work?

Play harder?

Save money?

Make them a lot more money?

Smarter?

Getting clear on this will help you, and others in your company, start and participate in VALUABLE and meaningful conversations with your followers, many of whom are also prospects.

If your product helps people create better logos then tweet:

links to the creation of logos
interviews with top designers
case studies of how your software has helped designers produce better logos, and
valuable videos that show logo design techniques (using your software of course BUT applicable to logo design in general).

Give. Give. Give.

They’ll love you for it. They’ll follow your tweets more closely. They’ll click those links. They’ll read those resources.

Then, when they realize all the good you’ve done them, they’ll feel great about giving you money.

They’ll also feel great about recommending you to others. Retweeting you. Talking about your blog posts. Talking about your brand.

The result: More sales. Good karma.

Jason

P.S. Here are some excellent blog posts on this very subject.

One is by a software company owner who started off direct messaging others to buy his software but then learned to use Twitter as a tool for conversations and has profited in more ways than one: 999 Followers, or How my Twittering Has Changed. A very honest and candid post by someone who now “gets it” and is doing very well.

The other is by Chris Brogan, a Social Media Expert… “50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business”

7 Ways to Sell More Software (or anything else) Using Web 2.0, Social Media and Direct Response Principles

admin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:24:52 +0000

Your prospects are busy. They don’t care a bit about your software. Their bills are due, the kids need to be picked up from day care, they aren’t getting enough sleep and they don’t trust advertising.

How are you going to break through? How are you going to catch their attention long enough to let them know you have something that could really, really help them?

Robert Collier, a famous adman from the early 1900s said it best… “Start with the conversation already running in the prospect’s head.”

1. Make it All About Them

You need to develop a Position. This ‘position’ clearly and succinctly communicates what your solution does for them. It also presents a point of differentiation from your competitors.

Your Position allows you to get into and STICK in the prospect’s mind.

Whole books have been written on Positioning (see authors Al Ries and Jack Trout) but here it is in a nutshell. You need to decide WHO you are talking to… what their NAGGING problem is… how your product solves it… and how your product is different from the alternatives.

When you answer those questions you are ready to develop the Positioning statement.

For Tax Prep Software it might be… “Shaves 137 minutes off the average tax prep time, and finds an extra $527 in deductions.”

2. Discover Patches of Organic Fans and Develop the Business.

When I used to write advertising for all small businesses (not just Software companies and ISVs), I noticed quite a few Dentists contacting me “out of the blue.” I decided to investigate and discovered that a dentist I had previously written an ad for was referring me to his colleagues at dental conventions.

Apparently, dentists had a hard time finding an agency that understood how to really bring in the business. Over the next few years I honed a special pitch and developed targeted marketing for that niche. It created a nice income for me by really speeding up the sales process.

Put in a system to discover this… If you have customers select their profession or industry when they purchase, you can create a simple system for noticing surges (up or down) and look into it further. Your software may be getting used for reasons you may have never thought of… Then, you could create an entirely new website for this group with specific testimonials, case studies, tutorial videos, etc.

3. Get Aggressive About Video!

The benefits of video can’t be overstated… particularly for software services. Showing your software in action helps melt resistance to purchase (or even trial) away and makes the user feel like she has a better shot at getting the full benefits. Most people won’t sit down and read 8 minutes of text BUT many will watch an 8 minutes of video (if it’s done right).

For an example of video to sell software, done right, go to Jason Demos Basecamp’s Dashboard. Notice the video is a bite-sized 49 seconds long and focuses on one main area without going TOO in-depth and getting mired in details.

All sites selling software should have these types of short, demo videos.

No exceptions.

4. Use Case Studies and Testimonials.

It’s surprising how many companies STILL don’t do this… In every split test I’ve ever seen, testimonials boost the conversion rate. Case studies have even more impact. It’s even better if they are VIDEO case studies or testimonials.

5. Follow Direct Response Advertising Principles… and DON’T rule out advertising in traditional mediums (print, radio, direct mail)

Forget about touchy-feely ads that don’t educate AND describe the benefits of your solution to the prospect in plain english. Every communication needs to serve, educate, inform and sell. This doesn’t mean acting like a snake oil salesman or a late night ginsu knife hawker. It means you develop the compelling business case for your software, give clear instructions on how to order and ask for the sale (or some other conversion on the way to a sale).

Anything less and you are leaving money on the table… and WILL get passed up by a competitor who follows direct response principles.

AFTER you have your online strategies humming along, including utilizing Web2.0 and Social Media strategies, I suggest testing some direct mail and/or print advertising. It is important to narrow your focus and go after the prospects who are ALREADY buying or naturally inclined to buy your software. While there is TONS of money to be made online, if you want to hit the BIG LEAGUES, there is still much, much more money to be made by marketing off line. (I know I will catch flack for the last sentence… but, it’s a simple matter of mathematics which I’ll flesh out fully in another post.)

6. Use the power of Joint Ventures!

Make a list of who is ALREADY talking to your prospects… Then, reach out to them and set up a business relationship for them to promote your products to their customers. If you can prove that many of their customers are already using your products and love them, you will have a much easier time convincing them. Likewise, the prospects, who already trust your new JV partner, will be more likely to trust you.

You will have to share some of the revenue… but you will have almost NO acquisition cost. Win-win!

(For more on this strategy, including an 8 step process to use read “Discover Rich New Oceans of Prospects for Your Software.”)

7. Use Social Media to Connect, Support and Improve.

There are already many, many savvy software companies using Twitter to make customers aware of outages, blips in service, updates and to ask questions. This is a FABULOUS use of Twitter to connect, support and improve.

Look at the Tweet below:

This Tweet provides BlinkSale with an opportunity. Do they have a process in place to take advantage of it?

If BlinkSale was my product I’d have a process in place to see just how big an issue this is… I’d contact @overmortal to see EXACTLY what the issue was… I’d do some searches to discover if other people are also having it and make sure that we have the solution handy in our FAQs and other documentation. If it were big/important enough, we’d add it to future features roadmap (or bug fixes) of the software.

What if this message got Re-tweeted thousands of times? Both users and non-users (but, prospects) could assume it has NO Excel support. One (or more) of them could then post this in a forum or blog which is indexed by the search engines… something that may have been really “nothing” pops up in all future searches for BlinkSale, whether it is true or not.

Scary.

But, by having a process in place to handle such possibilities Social Media can help you Connect, Support and Improve.

Jason

P.S. Can you think of other ways to increase software sales? If so, share them in the comments!

The Lost Art of Attack Ads: How to Cripple Competitors By Exposing Weakness

admin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:56:34 +0000

If you aren’t the leader in your category… OR, you are currently the leader but there is a rival gaining ground quickly and stealing minds from you, then here is a strategy that will put a damper on them.

The strongest competitor has picked out a particular strength or clear benefit and used advertising to dramatize it in the minds of consumers. The problem is you cannot be all things to all people. By picking a strength or clear benefit you’ve also left a weakness.

There is no way around this because of the way the human mind works. Everyone realizes there are trade-offs and in order to be really good at something it is assumed you aren’t as good at some other things.

Your competitor has a strength or a clear benefit. If they are successful then enough people already believe it. You want to leave that alone.

Instead think about their weaknesses. Make a list of them. Find the one that is most scary to consumers and dramatize it.

Here is one of the most brilliant attack ads ever written. Very simple. Extremely effective.

For The Millions Who Should Not Take Aspirin

If your stomach is easily upset… or you have an ulcer… or you suffer from asthma, allergies or iron-deficiency anemia, it would make good sense to check with your doctor before you take aspirin.

Aspirin can irritate the stomach lining, trigger asthmatic or allergic reactions, cause small amounts of hidden gastrointestinal bleeding.

Fortunately, there is Tylenol…

Killer copy. Sales took off immediately and vaulted Tylenol to #1 in short order.

Notice how long they took before even mentioning their brand name. This is important. If you do it too early then people will categorize the communication as mud-slinging. You want the information to go into the mind BEFORE they have a chance to categorize it as an attack. Get them worked up emotionally first.

Dramatize the competitor’s weakness FIRST and then hit the prospect with your strength.

An attack ad is MUCH different than a comparison of benefits and features. It is not an ad that says, “Our product is better than y product because we have more xyz, are cheaper, etc.”

No.

It must exploit a weakness that logically FOLLOWS from the competitor’s strength. Then, your STRENGTH must compensate for the competitor’s weakness.

Jason