The Essentials of Successful Software Sales

Essentials of Successful Software Sales

• Nico Westerdale• President BitsDuJour– Leading US Based Software Daily Deals

Website

• Run Thousands of Software Promotions for 4+ Years

The Insane Headlines

Promotions are a Huge Market

Source: BuySellAds.com

The Way People Buy Has Changed

• 44% of Online Customers use Daily Deal Sites, and rising

• 60% of Subscribers receive emails from 2+ Daily Deals sites every day

• 60% of Email Recipients are Actively checking their emails at least once a day

Source: BuySellAds.com

Where Groupon Fails

• Traditional Merchant’s Overheads are High• Physical Venues cannot scale easily• Only 63% of Vendors said their Groupon was

profitable • 49% of Vendors said they would not

Advertise with Groupon again• 82% of Vendors unsatisfied with repeat

business• These Numbers Don’t Add up!• Software Vendors don’t have these problems

Source: Cooper Murphy Copywriters

Do The Math

• The Key to Running a Successful Software Promotion

• Determine our Per-Unit Cost• Look at some Real Sales Data• Determine how to promote and still

be profitable

Product Cost Calculator

• Determine the Variable Per-Unit Cost

Product Price $Total Hours Per Week on the BusinessHours Per Week Supporting the ProductLicensing per Product $

Per-Unit Product Cost

Calculate $12.35 ...

Percentage Discount

• Total Sales Revenue based on Discount

< 3

1

31 -

39

40 -

44

45 -

49

50 -

54

* 55 -

59

60 -

64

65 -

69

70 -

74

75 -

79

> 7

9

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Sales

Sales for Regu-lar Price < $35

Sales for Regu-lar Price >= $35

* Small Data Set

BitsDuJour.com

MUPromo.com

MacZOT.com

SoftwareDoD.com

MacAppDeals.com

GrabSomeDeals.com

SparCode.com

MajorGeeks.com

MightyDeals.com

GiveawayOfTheDay.com

MacAppDeals.com

AppSumo.com

StackSocial.com

Startups.com

Bundle Websites

Everything … and the Kitchen Sink

Who Purchases Software?

• Different Rules in Different Countries• Vendor Websites are not the Only

Place the Purchase Decision is Made– Download Sites– Forums / Social / Community– Coupon Sites– Promotion Sites– Search & Aggregators

• Different Types of Customers

Different Customers

Impulsive Buyers

Verifiers Researchers

Seekers Fans Devotees

Impulsive Buyers

Fills a Need

Great Deal

Urgent

Easy to

Buy

Verifiers

Want to

Know it’s The

Best

The Best Price

The Best Deal

The Best

Vendor

Researchers

Study the Competitio

n

Read the Manual, Forums,

FAQs

Ask Specific

Questions

Purchase Only After They Trust

the Answers

Seekers

Already Know What they

Want to Buy

Found a Deal

Through Search

Any Percentage Will Do

(even 5%)

In and Out as Fast as Possible

Fans

Subscribe to Your

Social Feeds

Will drop by

Regularly

Choose You First

Will Contribut

e if Asked

Devotees

Have Drunk the Kool-Aid

Want Insider News

A Huge Unpaid Asset

Cornerstone of your

Community

Make your case

• Make it clear what you’re selling

• Entertaining write-up• Lead with one point• Don’t say too much

Easy Purchases

• Main call to action is to “Buy Now”

• Lead with your percentage

• Show the deadline• All other links and

information are secondary

The Fine Print

• Features not Functions

• Spell out your license terms

• Testimonials help, comments are better

• Don’t let this detract from the main promotion

Trust is a Delicate Thing

• Show you’re a real Person behind the site

• Allow questions to be asked and answered

• Be seen to be responsive now, so you’ll be responsive later

• Handle problems (and problem people) easily

More is Available

• Show relevant alternatives that don’t directly compete

• Don’t overwhelm your main promotion

• Don’t blind them with Choice

Key Points to a Successful Promo

Easy Purchas

e

Correct Discount (not Price)

Limited Time

Trust & Transpa-

rency

Make it Fun

Successful Promotion

Extending the Promotion

• Creating a Deadline forces a ‘Buy Now’ decision

• Extending the deadline allows you to force the ‘Buy Now’ decision again

• Extending allows you to pick up new customers and persuade unsure customers

• We see 60% Sales in the second 24 Hours

Facebook Promotions

• Use Static FBML Page to entice Likes

• Use the real estate• Be yourself• Vary your posts• Reply and be

visible• Don’t overpost

Twitter Promotions

• The goal is to add followers and get backlinks

• Use Twitter OAuth to create your own promotion

• Use Bitly to track your clicks• Tweet like crazy

Spreading the Word

• Email Reminders / Newsletter• Comments / Contact• RSS / Twitter / Facebook / ShareThis• Forums: Deals.Woot / SlickDeals /

Industry Specific• DOTD Aggregators: DODTracker• Affiliate Program

Trends

• Customers Comfortable With Deals (and Expect It)– More Registered Users

• More Promotional Opportunities– The “Me Too” Factor– Specialization

• Promotional Sites Evolving– Coupon– Geographical– Local / Mobile / PoS– Digital Products

• Social Media Sharing Services• Specific PPC Ad Networks

Software is the Perfect Promotion Product

• Presentation Available @nicowest

Nico Westerdale

Your Product

Do The Math

Use the Services out There

Get Behind your

Promotion

Sales & Success