November 05, 2006

ESWC - Robert Martin: Marketing - It's What We Do

ESWC - Robert Martin: Marketing - It's What We Do

Event type: Conference

Date: 2006-11-04

Robert Martin is VP of Marketing at Infacta.

Infacta...

  • Make marketing software for micro-ISVs and SMEs
  • Their main product is some email marketing software
  • Sales are via their website only
  • They use Plimus [as does MCQN Ltd.] as their payment processor
  • Try to automate everything

70-80% of marketing goes through email

2 days after a customer has downloaded one of their products, they automatically send them an email from the CEO asking if they've had any problems installing or using the software, and if there's anything they want to know about. They've had a great response from it and refunds have dropped 60%!

They send a newsletter out once a month:

  • Includes info on any updates to their software
  • Aim to update their software once a month, even if it's just a couple of minor bug-fixes

Obviously they get permission from users before sending them the newsletter - let them choose:

  • Do you want reminders from us
  • Do you want the newsletter

Email newsletter contains:

  • Updates on software
  • Articles customers might find useful or interesting
  • Tutorials about some part of the software

Often just reuse blog content in newsletter

Try the newsletter email out in GMail, Hotmail, etc. to check how it looks before sending it out.

Keep track of what people click on from the email

Use Shareware Tracker for software updates

Affiliate/reseller marketing...

  • ~50% of sales
  • Affiliates get 30-40% commission
  • Most resellers sell the $249 version rather than $99 version

SEO - read www.google.com/webmasters.

Press Releases - try to release one every month or two

Search Engine Marketing (Adwords) - They didn't really make much money on it

Other areas where they market:

  • Blog - Google loves it
  • Articles / tutorials
  • Presentations / conferences - not direct sales but helps branding
  • Localisation
  • Magazines - mainly interest from press releases. They come to us, not other way round
  • MessagingTimes.com - a website of theirs:
    • Tried to get Adsense revenue but it didn't work
    • Using it to build community
  • Microsoft Office Marketplace. Sends them 40 - 50 people per day. If you've a connection to Office somehow, you can join

PollDaddy.com

  • Lets bloggers build polls
  • New service from Infacta
  • Generated lots of buzz
  • 20,000 visitors in the first couple of weeks

Basically they're trying lots of stuff. If it works good. If not then move on and try something else.

Customer service is king.

Release early and often mentality

Some stats:

  • Only 1 day since 1999 with no sale
  • 1 sale every 47 minutes since 2001
  • Sales:downloads ratio 2.92%
  • Visitor:sales ratio 4.9%

Measure and tweak.

  • See also Gavin Bowman's write-up
  • Tags: ESWC European Shareware Conference Cambridge Marketing Software

    Posted by Adrian at November 5, 2006 08:33 PM | TrackBack

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