Software Marketing Secrets » Resources

Naming Your Software

Peter Gillberg — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:19:19 +0000

Hi! Autumn is here, kids are in school and the house is suddenly very empty and silent. Perhaps time to get some work done

So how do you choose an excellent name for your software?

I found an outstanding and free report on how to name your product and company and I know this is a question that is often discussed by Micro ISVs so I felt I must share it with you…

It’s created by Igor, Naming and Branding agency and covers a wide variety of naming issues such as:

The Six Steps of the Igor Process
Step 1: Competitive Analysis
Step 2: Positioning
Step 3: Name / Brand Development
Step 4: Trademark Prescreening
Step 5: Creative / Testing
Step 6: Name and Tagline
Naming Tools
A. Naming Process Filters � Evocative Names
B. Name Evaluation
Blank Name Evaluation Chart
C. Name Taxonomy Charts
Studies in Naming
Studies in Branding
Case Studies of Igor Naming/Branding Projects

I especially enjoyed reading the studies in naming where Igor looks at “Chrysler Crossfire and IBM T-Rex among others. A couple of things that the report doesn’t cover and it is especially important when naming software – you will need to do research on how common searches are for the name, how easy it is to get listings for your name and if perhaps the name is already taken from some website.

You can download the report here (it’s in .pdf format).

If you have any comments about naming, please share your thoughts in the comments area below.

Best of luck with your cool new names

Peter – Your Software Marketing Secrets Guide

Other Software Naming Resources

Igor Naming/Branding Agency

Definitions behind business name jargon

WordLab

Brand name development

Benchmark Online Software Sales

Peter Gillberg — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:41:15 +0000

You have launched your software and started selling it online. You are actively promoting and are getting visitors and leads from different traffic generating efforts such as SEO, PPC, Banners, Shareware sites, Word-of-mouth, Resellers and other activities.

But the visitors aren’t really converting into buyers, at least not in any satisfactory numbers. Maybe 95% are leaving your website without taking any action…

So how do you know you are doing a good job?

Read on and find out how you can benchmark your conversion rates…

Digital River is the world’s largest provider of e-commerce solutions for software publishers, currently managing half of the digital downloads for the software market (according to themselves.)

A daughter company, Fireclick provides a service that you should check out, a software conversion benchmark index.

According to Fireclick you should have a conversion rate about 3.5 to four percent today, and as this is based on such a large part of the market the numbers give good guidelines of what kind of conversion rate you should have.

I would be hesitant to share my numbers with Fireclick, but the overview is free and you can check conversion rates for a full year back in time.

We have noticed that many different factors play a part in the conversion numbers. For example when you are launching a new major version of your software and are targeting previous clients you should aim for numbers in the range of 10% – 40%.

Among other factors you should take into consideration are:

Competition
Price levels
Niche
How well-known brand you have (company and product)
Yearly fluctuations
Traffic sources
Sales cycle
Product-/Upgrade launch

I will go into more depths on some of these factors in future blog posts.

If you are interested in improving your online software sales, take a look at my previous blog post on how to sell more software online.

We also provide a service on how to improve conversion on software publishers websites and we are currently looking for reference clients. You can contact me if you would like to know more about this service.

Until next time

Peter Gillberg – Software Marketing Secrets

A couple of great resources

Peter Gillberg — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 11:27:50 +0000

If I would read everything I wanted to there would be no time to work (maybe not such a bad idea). But the last few days I came across a couple of resources in different areas that’s definitely worth a few minutes of surfing time.

If you are following the development of Internet Video (all software marketers should…) two resources that is well worth visiting is Ken McCarthy’s SystemVideoBlog and Joe Chapuis The HotBizz Report, a video blog or vlog (what will they come up with next?)

If you are into copywriting you need to visit Michel Fortin’s blog “On Copywriting, Marketing and Life”. Excellent site with a lot of content if you are blogging.

Bob Bly is another copywriter that has done a lot of work for software and technology companies and his bly.com blog is definitely worth a visit.

A hidden gem for online marketing is MindValleyLabs blog. These guys really know their online marketing and it is well worth a visit.

Slowly but surely we are also adding resources to our own Software Marketing Directory. If you have a website that you feel belong in the directory, please email me information. Include a short description of your website and what you want the link to say.

See you soon

Peter Gillberg
Software Marketing Secrets

Software Marketing Directory

Google Website Optimizer Beta Tester

Peter Gillberg — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 11:14:30 +0000

SoftwareCasa/Software Marketing Secrets has been chosen as a Beta tester for Google Website Optimizer.

We have always been fanatical testers and during the fall of 2006 SoftwareCasa performed around 14 split tests of landing/ software product pages that increased conversion rates substantially.

We have now been included in the Beta tests of the new Optimizer tool that let’s you test all possible combinations of your landing page for increased conversion/subscriptions or whatever you are focused on.

With this new optimization tool we will have the ability of performing far more tests with more accuracy than earlier. One important aspect is that we will be able to run so called Taguchi tests which in simple terms mean that we can simultaneously test different factors at the same time.

We will share some of the test results with our Software Publisher Partners.

See the Google Website Optimizer video here

Sell More Software Online – 10 Tips

Software Marketing Directory

Peter Gillberg — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 16:53:51 +0000

Just started uploading the Software Marketing Directory with resources for every Software Marketer.

If time allows I will upload many more resources over the next few days.

If you have any suggestions of resources that should be included, don’t hesitate to post a suggestion here.

Software Marketing Directory Updated

Promotion Plans 2007?

Peter Gillberg — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 15:44:37 +0000

December is a busy season for many of us, but if you have a chance you should really spend some time planning your promotional calendar for 2007.

Based on an Excel template I have created a Promotional Calendar for 2007 where you can tie in your promotions to holidays.

Other than the holidays you can tie in promotions to News, Trends, Entertainment/Movie news, Product launches (Vista!), Industry news and other related happenings.

Download the Free 2007 Promotion Plan Here

(Left-click on the link above to open the MS Excel Promotion Plan)

PS. If you download the Promotion Plan, please make a comment if you find it useful or want to add something.

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