I'm curious.
I'm curious.
Do you sell a software product of your own making?
Do you operate it as a business?
I ask because I do both of the above, I've got some challenges and would like to seek some advice.
Do you sell a software product of your own making?
Do you operate it as a business?
I ask because I do both of the above, I've got some challenges and would like to seek some advice.
Hi Patrick, I do and learning how operate it as a business in grater scale than "one man show". Feel free to ask...
ReplyDeleteSame here, for quite some time now. Feel free to ask.
ReplyDeletewhat sort of challenges?
ReplyDeleteGot busy with some stuff.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, over the several years I've been developing/improving my software I've grown a pretty thick skin. I encourage people to give me feedback - opinions, criticism, likes, dislikes, suggestions, etc. I've gotten some useful feedback but for the most part it's like pulling teeth.
Secondly, my software is a niche time logging/reporting tool called CadTempo. It's targeted at technical oriented CAD operators/ CAD managers and such.
I keep a close eye on website visitor stats - downloads, page visits and the like. One of the pages is a feedback form which is accessible only from a link presented to the user when the software is uninstalled.
I often find that the software is downloaded and within a very short period of time there is a visit to the feedback page. Most always there is no feedback that is ever sent. The fact that I see a feedback visit so soon really pisses me off for some reason.
I want to figuratively grab people by the throat and yell at them "This is a time logging program, it takes TIME to do its job".
I understand in today's world instant gratification is the prime motivator. But I cant figure out how to give that instant gratification. Nor can I figure out a good way to encourage a longer usage time in order to give it a fair evaluation.
I've got other issues of course but I want to either figure this one out or learn to grow an even thicker skin.
Thanks for any thoughts.
my only advice is to grow a thicker skin and at all other times do what makes you happy
ReplyDeleteYes - sell software over the internet and accept credit card payments
ReplyDeleteYou have a sales funnel, right? That means you take visitors through several steps and educate them about your product, it's benefits and features, why others find it useful (eg. testimonials), and what the use cases are that it was designed to fulfill.
ReplyDeleteDo you have some videos on the main page? A brief overview, and maybe a more detailed tutorial.
Also, FWIW, I never leave feedback on these sorts of pages!
Imagine going to a Best Buy or something like that and every time you pick something up off the shelf and put it back down, someone hands you a card to fill out that asks what you though of it and why you didn't buy it.
You also might consider that the UI design might not be very intuitive. People who are using it will tell you it's fine. But the people who install it, play with it for a few minutes, then uninstall it, might not find it so friendly. They're never going to tell you that directly, because people tend to personalize things and for users in this scenario, they tend to feel dumb or incompetent or something along that line. So they're not about to tell you that.
And stop worrying about YOUR skin. The issues live in THEIR world. You just need to figure out how to make THEM feel more comfortable.
David Schwartz I've got a lot to fix with my web site, and yeah, I've also got to do some clean up on the UI. Thanks, you've given me some good stuff to mull over.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if this is your main business or not (if it is, I assume you sell 50-100+ licenses per month, which is a good number of users to get feedback from), but I think we have a lot in common.
ReplyDeleteI sell my software online, too, and have worldwide customers. Let’s focus on customer feedback, like you described: I had similar issues, never knew who exactly downloaded and how many downloads mean real users who knew what is the purpose of my software. So, these numbers of visitors, downloads soon became something I was chasing without the real sense of what these numbers mean.
Through all the articles about sales and customers acquisition, retention... I changed my strategy into trying to get real contacts, to keep in touch with users. So here are some changes I made that were successful for me:
- direct .exe downloads were changed to a download page where it starts downloading but now I have the opportunity to offer them a free 14 day trial license via email; or I show them custom message about something that is valuable to them - this was good because I started getting emails and I was able to get in touch with them
- free training: I offer free training with every license bought - this is how i started talking to users (online webinars, Skype...), getting their feedback by really talking to them. These actually proved to be best option to get real feedback about how they use it, why, when... ideas, suggestions on improvements...
- Webinars on new versions - this is my part of post-sales process that keep my users engaged with me, my software, pay for upgrades or yearly maintenance...
- email notification before release to get feedback on new features and get suggestions
- other valuable notifications for them via email
So, my focus was on slowly building email database that allows me to engage and communicate with users, get feedback and turn them into sales and have post sales contact for usage feedback. Cross sell and up-sell.
I'm one-man-band company, so even though I know my website could be improved to be more sales, marketing focused, I am happy with what I have with my limited time and budget that is stretched thin, anyway,
So, if you are like me, do the most necessary changes to the website. But if you can get a marketing person working on your website, is very good!
My thoughts are that the bare minimum for a website is:
- quickly identifiable products, services, what they are, what they do, how much it costs and how to buy it
- all the rest is secondary (about us, support, customer testimonials...)
- BUT! some distractions can put visitors off, looking at your website:
- your website design: An old looking website with clipart images... it's 2018! get a nice new website template and you have a new website for a very little cost.
- your Copyright ©xxxx year ranges from 2014, 2016 and 2018. If I land on page with 2014 - I'm out of there.
- I used to have the same problem with Support forums - a few messages in years. So I removed it, because when I see this on other websites it feels like this is dead product or company. I would remove Forums (Support) section, it's not used anyway! Or put something like Manual or other support instructions there.
- Even though you have date and version shown, so you can see latest release is in 2018, but you don't show any other details on 'compatibility' - what is it compatible with, does it support latest file formats, latest versions... (Autocad 2018?) - I would show the relevant info next to the version and date info.
So, to summarize what worked for me: not to get thicker skin, but to start thinking how I can improve my current process, approach, thinking of any area of my business - in this case: how can I get more, better feedback from users. The problem is not with them, but with my approach of reaching out to them: their attention span, interest level, understanding of my software, does my website follow sales funnel (like David Schwartz said, above).. these are NOT facts I'm fighting against, but these are facts I need to work with and understand them to get better results.
ReplyDeleteThis was a bit long, but it was fun thinking about it, since I went through the same thing, some year ago.
I do, see vidblasterx.com - VidBlasterX live video production, recording & streaming
ReplyDeleteI am also a one man software shop. My story is a little different than yours. I started selling my software in 1991. It's been supplemental income for me. I got burned out and did nothing for eight years. I slowly emerged from burnout to find the technology landscape had completely changed. I'm learning more about marketing every day.
ReplyDeleteDavid Schwartz and Mike Torrettinni have some great ideas. You might find the Association of Software Professionals asp-software.org - Association of Software Professionals | A community of real people using real names running real software businesses. helpful.
If I had to give one piece of advice it's this - get inside the mind of your target customer. What are they thinking when they go to your website? What are they skeptical about? What questions do they have?Same for the product - what are they thinking when they start the application for the first time? What do they want to do as soon as they start the app for the first time? Then write the software to answer all of these questions.
ReplyDeleteMike Torrettinni Thanks for all of that. You've touched on a number of issues I've been intending to address. You're thoughts are golden. In reality, for a number of years I've felt my software was not as reliable as it needed to be so I'd taken a very relaxed attitude towards it - it's not my primary business, but I'm hoping to change that. It still is not as good as it should be but I'll get there. There's been a number of times I've entertained the idea of abandoning the product but I just cant do that to myself.
ReplyDeleteI've got an embarrassingly small number of seats sold over the years and I do realize that quite a few "downloads" and visits are from bots other less well intentioned.
Mike Versteeg I'll check it out. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteMichael Riley I'm a little familiar with ASP. Do you remember Joel on Software - The Business of Software Forum? That used to be my go to source for these types of questions. Shame he shut it down.
ReplyDeleteSteve Maughan I thought I was in their heads. :-) The software was born out of my needs - but over time I've figure out I don't think like most.
ReplyDelete/good tips
ReplyDelete/sub
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I stumbled on https://www.producthunt.com/ the brainchild of Ryan Hoover. It appears to me that this only looks at "New" products and not seasoned products that have been in the mainstream for a while.
ReplyDelete