Software Marketing Site Blog: What's New at Software-Marketing-Advisor.com

Feb 27, Software Business Plan and Marketing Strategy

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:29:03 GMT

Get tips on defining the best software business plan -- one-time software license, SaaS, subscription, or a hybrid model? Read more to learn how to write a strong business plan.

Feb 27, Software Resell Rights How to Resell Software

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:54:51 GMT

Learn about software resell rights, and how to resell software for profit or find partners to resell your software. Done right, software reselling can accelerate profits for both developer & reseller

Feb 4, Marketing Software Strategy for Software Product Companies

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:25:33 GMT

Developing a marketing software strategy can be a challenge for software startups that dont have a background in marketing. These are our recommended software marketing strategies.

Feb 2, How to Use Competitive Analysis to Define Yourself a Market Leader

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:57:06 GMT

How useful is competitive analysis? Well, sometimes competitive analysis can lead to dead-end marketing strategies that are just copying your competition's moves. A business version of "keeping up with the Jones's". Here's how to use it to re-invent or re-define your category so that you are the market leader in your subsegment.

Jan 25, Marketing Strategy Help for Software Businesses

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:09:49 GMT

If you are looking for quick, effective software marketing strategy help, consider our fixed-price software marketing strategies review service. Provides help with your business and marketing plan.

Jan 25, Software Marketing Consultant Services

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:20:11 GMT

Access our software marketing consultant services to get help with marketing strategy and business planning for your software company. See our affordable marketing coaching and business plan services

Jan 22, Using a SWOT Analysis to Fine-Tune Your Marketing

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:51:17 GMT

A SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is an effective way to make sure your marketing activities align with your business strategy. Why is that a good thing? It means that the money you spend on marketing is more likely to produce the business results you're looking for...

Jan 20, Developing Your Software Marketing Plan

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:15:55 GMT

Tips and resources for developing your software marketing plan. If you sell software or services, you will find resources for refining your marketing strategy and creating winning marketing tactics.

Jan 19, Software Advertising and Marketing: Guide to Software Marketing

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:21:18 GMT

This page provides helpful tips for software advertising and marketing. Whether you sell consumer or business software, follow this guide to software marketing to increase sales of your software.

Jan 14, What NOT to Post on your Customer Blog

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:09:51 GMT

OK, here's one of my pet peeves: if you have a blog or a twitter account linked from your business website, make sure the posts and tweets are targeted to your customers and what they care about. Seems obvious, right? But I see so many small technology and software companies that use their blog to discuss the trials and tribulations of being a startup...

Jan 8, Working with a Software Reseller and Finding Software Distributors

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:59:37 GMT

Working with a software reseller can ease the problem of how to scale your software sales and support. Here are some key tips for success in working with a computer software reseller.

Jan 8, Have you Updated your Software Business Plan for the New Decade?

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:27:37 GMT

Happy New Year! It's now 2010... do you have an updated software business plan or marketing plan to address the new decade? The software industry is changing radically with the move to SaaS, outsourcing and other trends. It's important to have a current business plan to make sure you're positioned to take optimal advantage of these changes.

Jan 4, Software Sales: Six Key Elements

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:26:45 GMT

Check out these top tips and templates to help you increase your software sales.

Jan 4, Identifying Your Best Target Customer Profile

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:06:29 GMT

Tips to help you identify when a prospect aligns with your best target customer profile.

Jan 4, Effective Business Marketing Strategies

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:53:43 GMT

Develop effective business marketing strategies that will grow your software business

Jan 4, Business Plan Writing for Software Companies in a Service-Oriented World

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:32:55 GMT

Guidance and examples to help you write a business plan for your software/services company considering new services business models.

Dec 30, Hot Software Sectors for 2010

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:34:06 GMT

Dennis Clerke of DaggerBoard Advisors offers his top picks for hot software sectors for 2010. It's an interesting list. I definitely agree with his #1 (emergence of "social commerce" or integration of applications with social networking and the new uses that drives)... and it's not just the main social networking players, but the software providers who leverage a social aspect within their application, or integrated with a social site. All three of the first items on his list (social commerce, improved online advertising, and mobile privacy) are quite inter-related, in the sense that growth of the first will tend to drive or accelerate growth of the others.

Dec 20, SaaS Business Plan Tips: Five Keys to a Successful SaaS Startup

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:22:38 GMT

A strong SaaS business plan is critical for a successful SaaS startup. Any software business needs a plan... but this is especially true for software as a service companies. Find out why.

Dec 8, Software Business Case Study: eMASON

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:36:16 GMT

I just read the case study on ISV eMASON on SoftwareCEO this week. It's an interesting example of a software company that managed to triple their business in 2009, despite the slow economy and turmoil in their target market of financial services. How did they do it?

Dec 5, Software Promotion Tactics: Greeting Cards for the Holiday

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 01:05:28 GMT

One excellent software promotion tactic can be sending a holiday greeting card or calendar. It can add a personal touch to your relationship with your customers. Get top tips here.

Dec 3, Software Marketing Resource List

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:18:50 GMT

My recommended software marketing resource list for software vendors

Dec 2, Software Marketing Downloads, Templates, and Tools

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:04:56 GMT

These software marketing downloads can help you improve your software marketing ROI: tools and templates for software marketing and business planning

Nov 21, Software Marketing Plan Template

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:17:55 GMT

This software marketing plan template will help you develop a strong marketing strategy for your software product or service. Complete with guide on software marketing in the recession. Check it out!

Nov 19, The Trend Toward Marketing and Selling Software Online

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:15:59 GMT

As I'm sure any software marketer knows, more and more of the sales and marketing of software is happening online. Even for high-price enterprise software, much of the initial customer data gathering and lead generation is often done online. Selling software online is about two key things: First, clearly communicate the benefits to your customer (in language they understand, not geek-speak or feature lists). Second, allow the prospect to experience the software in as real a way as possible.

Nov 12, Marketing Freelance Software Development Services

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:24:10 GMT

How can you grow your freelance software development business? We provide tips for marketing freelance services, how to freelance online, and finding freelance software development work.

Nov 10, Taming the Web Analytics Beast

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:20:40 GMT

Making sense of all the web analytics data that's available to you in an effective and actionable manner can be a real challenge. Here's a free webinar that could be really useful to all software marketers who sell or market their software online.

Oct 27, Know Your Target Customers: How to Identify Software Customer Profiles.

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:04:14 GMT

Do you know your target customers? Do you have a clear picture of your software customer profile? How to identify your most profitable prospects and target your software marketing message.

Oct 13, Testimonials: Software Marketing Success Stories

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:42:14 GMT

These customer testimonials highlight their software marketing success stories accomplished with Software-Marketing-Advisor.com. See how we can help you improve your marketing strategy.

Sep 25, The Best Software Marketing Tips: Question and Answer

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:27:32 GMT

Wondering where to find software marketing tips to help boost your software sales? Do you have a software marketing question? Check out our latest Q&A or submit your own question.

Sep 24, Software Sales Training Recommendations: How to Sell Software

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:20:22 GMT

Find out the best software sales training options to learn how to sell software. The most important thing to remember about selling software is that it is a solution sale. Check out other sales tips.

Sep 16, The Changing Enterprise Software Model

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:01:08 GMT

Yesterday, a panel of software leaders discussed the direction of the enterprise software model at the InformationWeek 500 conference. Here's what they thought about the changes in enterprise software deployment processes, sales cycles, and SaaS.

Aug 23, Software Blogs

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 02:40:30 GMT

Links to the valuable software blogs that I read related to software marketing and business

Aug 20, Software Market Trends and the SaaS Transition

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:47:17 GMT

Current trends impacting the software market include SaaS or Software-as-a-Service, subscription pricing, IT outsourcing, SOA Get an overview of software trends & what they mean for your business.

Jul 8, Question of the Week: The Best Digital Marketing Activities

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:24:17 GMT

Our site question of the week comes from RPK in India: "What are the best digital marketing activities that could be adopted for software enterprises?" Take a look at the response below:

Jun 17, Using Social Media for Software Marketing

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:32:52 GMT

Too many marketers incorrectly assume they should chase size or scale: How many followers? How many leads? How many visitors? etc... Rather than simply trying to do a great job building relationships with and providing information for the targeted subgroup they should really be focused on, even if that's only 50 people. I don't know the silver bullet for marketing using social media... like most, I am still testing the waters myself. But I do know that it seems to be a great way to learn more about your niche, and really really focus your target subsegment to identify those folks who could get the most value from what you have to offer. Take a look at the rest in my latest Industry Expert Blog post on SoftwareCEO:

Jun 17, Put Customer Usage Models First

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:26:56 GMT

New post on my Technology Marketing & Strategy blog: Technology Marketers Should Put Customer Usage Models First Usage models are commonly used for technology and software products in testing, use analysis, UI design,... But I think one of the most important applications of technology usage models is in marketing. Click the link below to read the rest.

Jun 15, SaaS Marketing: How to Sell SaaS

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:19:39 GMT

How is SaaS marketing different from marketing a licensed software product? Find out the main differences in how to market and how to sell SaaS compared to licensed software marketing.

Jun 11, Software Company Business Plan: Downloadable Software Business Plan Template

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:14:40 GMT

This software company business plan package includes all the components needed to plan your own software company: detailed software business plan template, financial sheets, marketing plan and more.

Jun 10, Check out the new blog...

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:43:54 GMT

I have added a new Marketing & Strategy blog to Software-Marketing-Advisor.com, primarily because I wanted to allow comments and to keep these two blog functions somewhat separate. This blog will continue... focused primarily on updates and new articles on the Software-Marketing-Advisor.com website. The Technology Marketing and Strategy blog will be where I will post the additional entries and commentary from now on... and it does allow comments also. Please check it out, and if you like it go ahead and subscribe. First couple of entries up already are on The Ten Laws of SaaS Success and SaaS Consolidation, with a new entry on using software usage models for marketing strategy planning in the works.

Jun 9, Writing a Good Software Case Study

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:46:17 GMT

Compelling case studies should be a strong tool for software marketing and sales, especially for B2B software and services. They give your target customer a specific example of how your software product can be used to solve a business problem that they can relate to. But when I was in the field doing technical sales and marketing for a major technology company, finding and using good software case studies was always a challenge: We had case studies and customer success stories put together by corporate marketing, but many of them never got used or were not terribly effective when they were. Im sure many of you have the same experience. Why? Follow the link below to read the rest on my blog at SoftwareCEO. Or, you can take a look at this incredibly useful case study template from Go-to-Market Strategies.

Jun 9, Software Development Business Plan: SaaS business plan + key SaaS metrics.

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:36:24 GMT

Download our newly updated software development business plan package including a SaaS business plan, marketing and financial tools, whitepapers and more. Plus key SaaS metrics to track your business.

Jun 6, SaaS Metrics: Software as a Service SaaS Business Planning

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:52:44 GMT

What SaaS metrics should you use to track the health of your software as a service business? In the SaaS model, key business metrics are different from a traditional software company.

Jun 4, Bootstrapping Your Software Business

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:57:13 GMT

Tim Berry of Palo Alto Software wrote a post on his blog yesterday on "10 Lessons Learned in 22 Years of Bootstrapping". Palo Alto is a multimillion dollar software company with 45 employees today (selling business planning software), but Tim started it out as a 2-person software shop (with his wife) using his one-man consulting service revenues to fund the product development initially. It's a good read on whats important in any business - whether youre writing a business plan for investors or not. Just goes to show that the software business is like any other business: you have to provide a solution that people want and need. The product details should come after that. Palo Alto's business planning and marketing planning software is a useful tool if you need to update/track your plan: Check out Business Plan Pro here.

May 28, Software Marketing in a Recession

Thu, 28 May 2009 11:59:17 GMT

Looking for some top tips on how to be effective with your marketing in a recession? Check out the results of our survey to see how others are focusing their software marketing for 2009.

May 27, Marketing & Selling Software Online: Top Tips to Increase Web Software Sales

Wed, 27 May 2009 11:00:23 GMT

This article covers top tips for marketing and selling software online. Web software marketing can be challenging if you don't bring strong traffic and convert them to buyers. Here's how to succeed.

May 21, Free Software Business Advisor Newsletter

Thu, 21 May 2009 13:54:49 GMT

The Software Business Advisor is our free monthly newsletter with information about trends in the software business, software marketing tips, software sales help, and business planning.

May 20, What's Different about SaaS Marketing?

Wed, 20 May 2009 10:50:45 GMT

How is marketing a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering different from marketing a licensed software product? It's a question I hear a lot... Basically, it comes down to a fundamental sales/marketing difference between SaaS and a licensed software product: you're selling a solution and not a product. That means marketing a software service is about solving a customer pain point, and the benefits of your solution to the customer... It's not about marketing a list of product features. Take a look at the rest in my latest Industry Expert Blog post on SoftwareCEO:

May 20, Software Marketing and Advertising Strategies: Four Low-Budget Tips

Wed, 20 May 2009 08:48:59 GMT

Software marketing and advertising can be a real challenge for small software companies with limited budgets. Get some valuable tips and strategies here.

May 19, B2B Marketing Focusing on New Media

Tue, 19 May 2009 12:06:02 GMT

MarketingProfs/Forrester research just released a report on trends in B2B Marketing for 2009. Here is what they found:

They surveyed 656 B2B marketing execs
Reduced budgets have forced B2B marketers to shift dollars to focus on new media/Web 2.0 tactics (63) (as one part of an integrated marketing program that includes traditional media) and narrower target segments (75).
Areas where budgets are holding/increasing are in search marketing, webinars, email marketing and company website.
Exec events and inside sales are considered among the most effective tools for lead generation.
Marketing budgets: 41 believed would stay the same for '09, 34 anticipate it decreasing (was only 6 a year earlier), and 25 anticipate an increase (was 49 a year earlier).

This is consistent with our (much smaller) software marketing survey... which we'll report on next week. It's not too late: to be included take the poll below. It really will only take a minute!

May 13, Creating a Compelling Software Tagline

Wed, 13 May 2009 08:27:54 GMT

How do you create a compelling software tagline for your company? First, what is a tagline? More importantly, what makes a good one? In her book "The Ultimate Marketing Toolkit," Paula Peters has an entire chapter dedicated to the tagline. (Take a look at my review of her book here.) Here is how she describes it: "A tagline is nothing more than a short statement about your business... The goal is to interest a reader, a viewer, or a passenger in your business... The tagline educates your potential customer market by elaborating on your product or service - all in a tiny, neatly wrapped little package of one line." A tagline is free, and it sells your business or product for you. Use it on your business cards, your website, your email signature, and any other communication that is seen by potential customers. Here are some ideas for creating a compelling software tagline:

Your tagline should be less than twelve words.
Your tagline should communicate one key message about your business. There are three possible approaches:
- Communicate a benefit
- Describe your product or service (especially if your business or product name does not make that clear)
- Address a specific customer segment
Tie the tagline into your unique selling proposition (USP).
B2B (unlike B2C) taglines need to indicate, in a simple way, what your company does for the customer.
Try to have a tagline that clearly differentiates you from your competitors.
Your tagline should reflect your core company values.
Think about what will be top-of-mind for your customer when/if they need a product or service like yours. Use that in your tagline.
Avoid vague and fluffy descriptions for your tagline. Eg, "where customers come first" is not a useful tagline, because it does nothing to further describe or differentiate your product.

In order to create a compelling software tagline, you need to first really narrow down on who is your ideal target customer, what is their pain point, and what is the unique value that your product or service is providing to them. If you're not crystal clear on that, take a look at this article on analyzing your target customers and their needs: