Software Marketing Blog - Impact of Software Services Trends

Nov 18, Selecting a Business Plan Template / Tool

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:17:38 GMT

A good business plan template can help you put a strong business plan together. Don't reinvent the wheel! Check out these top resources and tools for your business plan.

Nov 17, Is the SaaS Model Better in a Slow Economy?

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:41:49 GMT

Switching to a SaaS model might benefit an ISV in the current economic climate, with lower initial customer startup costs and ability to scale in small bites.

Nov 14, Is your software product "Software" first or "Product" first?

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:49:39 GMT

When you think about your software product, how is that more than just the software code that you (or your employees/peers) have written? For those with technical backgrounds (like myself originally, by the way) it is often easier and more natural to focus on the "software" side of software marketing than it is on the "marketing" side. But that's actually the wrong way round! Dennis Stevenson has a couple of thought-provoking entries on the topic of Software versus Product in his "Original Thinking" blog. This was my comment back: "To me, "Product" means a solution to a target customer's painpoint .... whatever that might be for the particular product we're talking about (which includes documentation, support, marketing messages, usage models, etc). "Software" is just the code that makes up that application. The "Product" view must be what drives the process from beginning (product concept - hopefully from meeting a customer need) to end (ongoing support, etc). The "Software" part just comes in the middle to allow that solution to be created... And that is not intended to minimize the role of the "Software" part at all, but I totally agree that it's easy to forget all the rest that makes up a complete Product." Ultimately, the software should be driven by the Product needs (ie, customer needs, market needs...) but too often it is the other way around. How could you do a better job marketing your software product by making a switch in mindset? Put the customer first, and step into their shoes for a moment. And exactly who is your target customer? And what exactly is their painpoint that your software is addressing? Start with that, rather than thinking about "how do I promote my cool software?" and the rest of your marketing planning will be much easier. In the final analysis, it is your customer that defines what your Product is and how it is used... and how successful it will be. Check this article for some more thoughts about how to identify and profile your most valuable target customers.

Nov 12, Software Marketing Classes and Sales and Marketing Training

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:22:09 GMT

Here is our top list of online software marketing classes, sales and marketing training, etc

Nov 10, Software Business Marketing Strategy Course Registration

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:49:10 GMT

Nov 6, Effective Business Marketing Strategies

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:08:32 GMT

Develop effective business marketing strategies that will grow your software business

Nov 3, Newsletter Vol#1 Just Published: "The Software Business Advisor"

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:53:09 GMT

We have just published the first issue of our monthly newsletter, The Software Business Advisor. The Software Business Advisor is a free monthly newsletter aimed at helping business software vendors make sense of the changing industry. It provides tips, techniques and tools to assist in software business planning, software sales, and software marketing. By subscribing to The Software Business Advisor newsletter you will get timely information, tips and how-tos to help you better plan your software marketing strategy, your business model, and optimize results from your software sales. Click below to take a look at our first issue, and if you like it you can sign up to get the newsletter delivered monthly directly to your inbox.

Oct 15, Tips for a Slow Market: Keep Your Marketing Messages Focused on Short-Term Value

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:36:29 GMT

How can a software provider continue to increase sales and/or grow market share in a slow market? The key point was made very well by Mick Liubinskas on his "Web Strategy" blog: , "if your product is about reducing risk or reducing costs and the return is clear and short" then there could be opportunity. That's something every business software provider should take to heart: in the current times, folks need to look at their messaging and how they're selling, and keep laser-focused on developing a value statement showing customers how they address immediate financial painpoints... if possible.

Oct 10, How Does the Cloud Computing Trend Impact Enterprise Software Vendors?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:39:54 GMT

The IT cloud computing trend: what opportunities does it offer for business software firms?

Oct 8, Growing Software Sales in a Down Economy

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:20:09 GMT

With the current economic market changes, what can business software firms do to continue to drive strong software sales? The key is in maintaining a laser focus on your customers and their needs. How does the down economy impact your customers? What are their immediate pain points and needs? How can your software or solution address their pain? A down economy may require some re-positioning of your product or service, but ultimately software firms will survive by strengthening focus on the core areas that are going to drive sales. Now may not be the time to invest resources in a new series of glossy brochures... but focus your resources on efforts that will drive sales today. Keeping your sales strong in a down economy is no different than other times... so long as you maintain laser focus on the 6 key elements of strong software sales.

Sep 10, Six Tips for a Successful Software Launch

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:32:26 GMT

Software and services companies spend a lot of time and energy developing and productizing their software product or service. But many times the strategy for the actual software launch and marketing is an afterthought. The truth is that as much time and energy should go into planning the software launch and the ongoing software marketing strategy as goes into developing and testing the actual product. Check out these six key steps for your business software launch.

Jul 25, Software Blogs

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:23:00 GMT

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

Jul 23, Customer Relationship Management Strategies

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:54:30 GMT

Understand these top 10 customer relationship management strategies to improve your consulting or software business results.

Jul 21, B2B Internet Marketing Top Tips: Influencing Your Customer

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:40:58 GMT

B2B marketing strategies must include B2B internet marketing because the primary influence point for buyers is now the Web, throughout the purchase cycle.

Jul 17, Survey on Software as a Service in the Enterprise

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:25:59 GMT

Baseline reported this month on the results of an April 2008 Burton Group and Ziff Davis survey of Enterprise SaaS Usage. Most of the 252 CIOs currently using SaaS that they interviewed confirmed "that SaaS delivers robust applications - typically at a lower cost."

Jul 15, Business Plan Templates and Tools - Best Products for Writing Your Own Business Plan

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:21:36 GMT

Your business plan is your most important tool to optimize your business and your profits, and to allow you to communicate the value of your business to potential investors and partners. So your business plan is critical to your business success! However, it can be a real challenge to create a compelling business plan from scratch... Where do you start? It can seem overwhelming to a small business or startup, when there are so many variables: industry (horizontal, vertical), competitors, product approach (software or service, free or licensed, etc), pricing, distribution strategy... the considerations seem to go on forever. And naturally, no one likes to reinvent the wheel. Having the right tools is the key to developing a professional, concise and compelling business plan. Here is my selection of some of the most valuable business plan templates and tools to use to put together your business plan.

Jul 14, Business Plan Writing for Software Companies in a Service-Oriented World

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:05:49 GMT

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

Jul 10, Using Web Video Conferencing and Webinars as a Marketing Tool

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:04:48 GMT

Virtual events can range from using web video conferencing for a sales meeting with a single client to participating in a virtual webinar or tradeshow with thousands of attendees. A number of excellent, easy-to-use solutions exist to host your online meeting or webinar. Personally, I've used and participated in WebEx meetings many times and always had a positive experience, although their costs can add up quickly as meetings get larger or more frequent. There are more affordable and just as capable and reliable web video conferencing choices out there also. For example, iLinc (www.iLinc.com ) offers a strong product for hosting online meetings or webinars, and several others are available also. Check out the full article for tips on choosing a provider and best practices for hosting a successful web video conference or webinar.

Jul 10, Will SaaS All End Up as Open Source?

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:30:03 GMT

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) and open source have several business drivers in common, the main one probably being that a customer can deploy the software with minimal (or no) up-front cost involved. The attraction of open source is that the customer can deploy, manage, and keep the solution completely under their own IT control. But therein also lies the challenge: they need to have knowledgeable IT staff who can manage the open source software, upgrade as needed, patch as needed, support internal customer questions or requests, etc etc. The attraction of SaaS on the other hand, is that the provider takes on a lot of that responsibility... at the expense (or risk) to the customer of hosted application, hosted data, etc. So if the SaaS provider already is taking over responsibility for managing the solution, what risk remains for the IT or business customer to agree to go open source? The often-expressed concern from enterprise IT about going open source (issue of supporting it) has been removed. So why would a SaaS provider go with pay-for-license software instead of open source? With open source, they reduce their cost and dependence on 3rd party vendors (who might want an ongoing cut of revenue in exchange for using their software). And they have to provide support for the software to the end customer anyway... I think ultimately the direction SaaS is likely to go, particularly for the infrastructure pieces, is open source. As a software vendor, how do you counteract this trend?.... Or do you join it? Joining it and making your software open source with other means of revenue is certainly one option. But if you intend to continue to charge for software license or subscription, expect to continue to offer value-add business software services that the customer cannot achieve through an open-source route... and you must keep evolving to stay ahead of the curve.

Jul 2, Software Development as a Service?

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:58:02 GMT

Dennis Stevenson has an interesting article this week on his "Original Thinking" ITtoolbox blog on "Software Development as a Service." This would refer to IT departments that choose to outsource software development when it is not a core competency or competitive advantage for their business (the same arguments that are used for outsourcing applications and application management in the SaaS model). Of course, this is no different from outsourcing as we already know it, but that's his point... It follows the same "as a Service" model and he urges IT customers to consider it in the same way (in terms of pros versus cons, what to look for in a provider, and what types of projects to do "as a Service" and which to keep in-house). Of course, the same considerations could apply to an ISV...

Jul 1, Open Source or Other Variants of "Free Software" Model

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:16:14 GMT

In addition to the open source model, there are a number of creative ways companies can generate revenue with "free" software. There are a few resources out there to help with planning business strategy around open source or "free" software models.

Jun 24, Software Marketing Resource List

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:45:24 GMT

My recommended software marketing resource list for software vendors

Jun 24, Software Marketing and Advertising: Tips for Marketing Your Software Solution

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:20:46 GMT

Yesterday I posted on the best tactics for online software marketing. Today's post is on the offline software marketing and advertising techniques. These often require a bigger budget (which is why online is so key for small companies) but a mix is best. Just remember to keep any offline marketing laser focused on your niche and target customers.

Jun 23, Web Software Marketing: 9 Top Strategies for Marketing Your Software Online

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:14:56 GMT

I was asked recently "what would be the best marketing or advertising strategy for a small software startup trying to sell into the business environment?" So I figured I'd include my list here. Regardless of your niche, your approach should include both software marketing online and offline. I'll touch on online for now, and leave offline for another day. Here's the list:

Jun 19, Software Services Market Adoption

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:05:02 GMT

The software services market is gradually maturing. What business and IT functions are adopting SaaS first?

Jun 18, Develop a Software Marketing Plan that Wins - Consulting Services

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:01:05 GMT

We offer fixed-price consulting services to help you develop a winning software marketing plan and business strategy.

Jun 17, Value-Add Business Software Services: How to Optimize Your SaaS Offering

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:26:08 GMT

Providing value-add business software services can help you avoid commoditizing your software business with your SaaS offering. Find out how.

Jun 16, Writing a Business Software Proposal That Wins - 5 Key Points

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:46:12 GMT

The software and software services business is changing, and with that the software proposal becomes ever more important. Understand these 5 key points for writing a winning software proposal.

Jun 6, The Software Business Advisor Newsletter

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:48:11 GMT

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

Jun 5, Your Software Business Model: Should You Change?

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:36:04 GMT

With all of the hype about Software as a Service (SaaS) it makes it seem that every software vendor needs to switch to SaaS yesterday or risk being left behind. This really isn't true -- any change of software business model has to be thought through carefully, and has to make sense for your customers and business. You may have (probably rightly) determined that sticking with a perpetual software license as the only option is not going to work as your longterm strategy. But before you jump on the SaaS bandwagon, think about the other services-related options available to you that may make more sense for your business. Only you can really determine which is the right fit. Other (related) options for software vendors would be: * Subscription License: an easier way to get recurring revenue, and smaller initial customer commitment, without having to go the full hosted service route. * Open Source? if you think of the software itself as free, sometimes that frees you to think about other ways to monetize your business through support, other services, partners, etc * Consulting Services: what is the impact of the move to software services on your enterprise customers? If they have siloed applications and data (most do) and/or custom solutions that are not standards-based (most do too), it can make integrating in with a hosted services solution very tricky. Businesses need to develop service oriented infrastructure, and business processes that support a service computing model. Is that something your company has expertise to help with? What is the best software business model for you? You probably have more than only one option...

Jun 5, Software Service Trends are Fundamentally Changing how we do the Business of Software

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 04:39:59 GMT

Several software trends are changing the way the software business is run... As customers move to subscription-based services rather than perpetual software licenses, these software industry trends are having a significant impact on software vendors. The change is not only to the business model of the software company (product portfolio, pricing, etc), but impacts almost every aspect of doing business, including development, marketing, sales and support. To compete in this new marketplace, software vendors must understand the current software technology trends and their implications and factor them into their business planning....