Four marketing skills that software developers need to know

Four marketing skills that software developers need to know

 

Author: Justin James
Translation: purpleendurer, version 1st

 

　　Preface

If you are a newbie in software marketing, read the suggestions from developer Justin James.

 

 

 

Body

 

Although most developers work for an institution that is in a market action country and sells applications it develops, the booming mobile application development space has become small (or even "profit-driven ") independent software vendor (isV) becomes more feasible. Therefore, more and more developers are not only writing applications, but also trying their best in the sales market.

Unfortunately, pressing the F1 key in your ide or reading the documents in your programming language won't get the marketing knowledge you need to know. Here are four things you need to know about. They are related to marketing your applications.

 
1. Understand the relationship between applications and customers

 

In a recent article, I wrote about how applications need to be based on great ideas rather than powerful features. A common error is that the features provided by your application are not associated with the issues that customers need to solve. We always see that there is a large announcement version on the website, and the features listed above have nothing to do with users.

It is also helpful to use specific numbers to promote applications. For example, if your application is proven to be 80% faster than your competitors, it should be noted. "Faster than other similar programs" is suitable, but "80% faster than other similar programs" is better, because this is a direct measurement and there is no ambiguity about the superiority.

 

2. Focus on your information.

 

Your marketing materials should include a hook that captures the viewer's attention within five seconds, and an elevator pitch, a 30-Second Overview of the application.

 

* Purpleendurer Note: elevator pitch (ELEVATOR test, elevator provisioning, and elevator Marketing) refers to "clearly and accurately explaining the solution to the customer within 30 seconds of taking the elevator ". This is one of McKinsey's ways to test its statement consulting report.

 

This is not a simple task. I suggest you read the tips provided by the experts and even ask an expert to help you design your information. I have benefited a lot from the microconsult hosted by Bob Walsh. (Bob's website is also a great example of good marketing .) All your marketing materials, including website, written materials, and oral recommendations, need to focus on this information.

 

　　What should I do on my website? vs. What should I do?

I read a large number of press releases on software product recommendations and browsed many product recommendation websites. There are always three classic errors:

 

 

▲It is difficult to find the minimum system requirements for applications on many websites.
▲Many websites do not correctly differentiate product versions.
▲Many websites do not involve how applications help solve problems (especially when websites use specific product terms ).

 

When there are multiple versions of a product, the company often forgets to add a comparison chart on its website. If the chart only has advantages compared with the features and is not used, it will be useless. In Figure A, the reader does not know the specific circumstances of the characteristics. The worse case is that the trademark or brand name is listed as the characteristics.

 

	Standard Edition (Standard Edition)	Professional Edition (Premium Edition)	Perfect Edition (Awesome Edition)
Feature 1	Yes	Yes	Yes
Feature 2	Yes	Yes	Yes
Feature 3	None	Yes	Yes
Feature 4	None	None	Yes

Chart

 

Your company should focus on the benefits that your software benefits can bring, and have a version comparison chart of this product to show good/better/best benefit evaluation. Chart B provides the snapshots required by the audience. Readers should be able to click the benefit list to obtain more information about the benefits of the function.

 

	Standard Edition (Standard Edition)	Professional Edition (Premium Edition)	Perfect Edition (Awesome Edition)
Benefit 1	Good	Better	Best
Benefit 2	Best	Best	Best
Benefit 3	-	Good	Best

Chart B

3. Extensive attention to search engines

 

To attract audiences, your website needs good content, but you also need to ensure your goal. Get 0.1 million page views from people who are interested in the Text Processing application. If you sell the Text Processing application, this is indeed a remarkable achievement, if you are not selling such software, this data has no practical significance. Therefore, do not just drop the content on your website-make sure the content is related to potential customers.

Our goal is not only to engage audiences on a regular basis, but also to provide keywords for search engines to bring traffic to websites. Good content will be transmitted on social media websites.

 

4. record information related to solving customer problems

 

You 'd better write a blog or article on your website to illustrate how to solve your target customer's problems. You should mention the applicability of your product. I think this is the best way, because it provides new information and information for regular audience visits and provides good search engine optimization.

You need to do this once a week or every month. If you write too many useless notices (or worse, publish an explicit advertisement), customers will ignore you and remove you from their list. You need to make great effort to create interesting and unique content to encourage readers, and this content should help them solve problems rather than solve your problems.

 

　　What is social media?

 

Many people focus most of their attention on social media competition, such as search engines, when they need to focus on more traditional marketing models. Availability expert Jacob Nielsen recently wrote that many non-profit websites are focusing too much on social media and working hard to find information on their websites.

The effect of social media marketing is inaccurate. Every YouTube video is as pervasive as a virus, with millions of YouTube videos with 200 million comments. It is difficult to add Facebook, Twitter, and so many blogs to make people like you, catch up with you, or subscribe to your blog. It is even harder to keep their attention.

I think social media marketing strategies are still useful, but if you are just getting started, and there is a shortage of time and money, it would be better to do the following, that is, to concentrate resources on website information, and optimize the search engine for the website, rather than trying to compile a large number of Twitter followers.

 

　　Summary

 

I hope some basic application marketing knowledge introduced here can help you find the right direction. I would also like to hear your marketing suggestions and opinions. (End)

 

Http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/programming-and-development/four-marketing-tips-for-application-developers/3968)