Press On:: Casey Potenzone's Blog

Get Some Attention for Free

2010-06-22T20:31:09Z

Our team at Avangate maintains one of the best lists of free press release sites on the Internet, and its available here. The next time you are looking to push your topic, announce a new feature or product release or maybe a company change, consider doing it for free.

The software outlet store- several new channels in one

2010-04-29T18:56:08Z

I recently drove about 1200 miles north on Interstate 95 from Florida to the northern tip of New Jersey. One thing this trip does not lack are outlet stores... and there are some great ones along the way. I was thinking about the outlet concept and wondered why this wasn't done for software.

Outlet software would need to meet a couple of requirements to make this successful. First, I would only do this for products where there is a compelling reason to upgrade. If you don't have a strong enough reason; create one. But be aware that you'll have to drop the price to make the argument.

The marketing

Lower software prices- you will have to price the software based on the perceived value of the major features and value path you can offer on the upsell. Selling last year’s anti-virus definitions won’t work.
Core (key) functionality- The main point of the sale must still get across. Music players must play music, movie software – movies and presentation software should be able to be presented. Limit the features or highlight the upgrade during user interaction and let the product sell itself.
Captive Audience- Many 30 day trial downloads don’t even get installed. The user who pays for the software is much more likely to use it.

The upgrade path

In order to make this successful, the upgrade path needs to be clear with a compelling sales pitch.

In-product purchasing takes the customer straight into the cart
A condensed shopping cart cycle closes the deal in a few clicks - think one page checkout.
Instant gratification is a must: immediate key delivery and in-place upgrades

You can offer a few core features for $1-$5 or last year’s version from $15-$25 and create a new selling opportunity.

Value based pricing in a value driven economy.

Best in Class is a Sucker's Bet... At Least When You're Building Software

2010-03-14T11:41:13Z

Geoffrey Moore does a great job explaining how innovation can separate you from the heard and also how it can be a purely fruitless investment. The line between good enough and over developed has been crossed by every entrepreneur, learning from your mistakes and being able to find "good enough" is what makes us a profitable, and good product managers.

In this presentation Geoffrey Moore dives into how innovation makes successful companies and how it can separate you from the herd. There are a few gems in there, my favorite (I'm paraphrasing): Best in class is a sucker's bet. It will get lots of applause, but no-one will pay you.

Using Twitter to Promote a New Product Launch in a Congested Space

2010-03-02T19:58:36Z

The antivirus market is a very congested space, and getting your product recognized amongst all the noise is truly a marketing challenge. In this battle, the vendors must often displace an embedded product, usually one that comes pre-installed with the computer. AV vendors often find themselves fighting against powerful, entrenched companies such as Norton and McAfee, companies with multi-million dollar budgets.

In the battle for desktop space, these vendors have to be creative and willing to take chances to out flank the massive marketing budgets of their competitors. One of the more interesting moves I've seen is Sunbelt Software's use of Twitter. Today only (March 2nd) you can take advantage of their promotion and receive a free license to the new product, just click here.

Not only does this allow them to gain desktop share, but it also generates a list of customers and performs some serious web marketing. Each Tweet increases web placement and the likely hood of the product being found, adds another follower to their fan base, and ultimately educates the market.

The overall cost of the promotion is based on the percentage of that base that WOULD have converted (not all free adopters would buy remember). The return is desktop space and installs for a subscription product, SEO and a whole lot of free press.

25th Annual SIIA CODiE Awards

2010-02-24T21:34:22Z

This year I once again served as a judge for the SIIA CODiE awards, and I'm proud to say that all my favorites have made it to the finals!!! For the first time I was given the opportunity to judge the "Best Solution by an Emerging Company" category, and I was truly impressed. I also judged the "Best DRM Solution" and was able to reconnect with several friends from my previous space.

Before I give you a quick highlight, some advice for ANY software company competing in an awards: YOU HAVE SALES PEOPLE, USE THEM. When you have a huge opportunity, who do you send? This is who you should send to do your demos. If you want to bore the judge to death, put your engineer and product managers together and rattle off a few thousand features.

At the end of the day, the process is really no different then a sales call. Put your best sellers in front of the judges, not necessarily your smartest.

6.5% Unemployment Rate for My Network

2010-02-17T05:09:26Z

I'm in the process of organizing and scrubbing my personal contact lists. So far I've imported databases from Outlook, GMail, Facebook, Linked-In and a variety of other contact lists that I have connections to. This lists includes people from just about every industry and professional level. A brief sampling includes the likes of Michael Milken, the CIO of the FBI, various tech CEOs and CTOs, a mishmash of bankers, VCs, programmers, etc. etc. (and of course friends, I have at least a few of those).

Next, I cross referenced everything through Linked-in and updated the job profiles data. After cleaning all the data I pulled out a subset of 5,000 people who I could actually identify from name, title or notation. Of these 5,000 people, 327 of them are currently unemployed.

This little exercise allowed me to determine that my personal network has an unemployment rate of nearly 6.5%, that's a full 3.5 points better than the US unemployment rate (below, courtesy of Google). With the heavy focus I've had on startup companies in my career I honestly expected that to be MUCH higher... But then again, a bunch of them have sales and marketing in their blood, so maybe there's some "smoke and mirrors" being called into play.

54% of US Internet Users are on Facebook, 27% on MySpace

2010-02-16T20:12:01Z

Although you'd have to be basically be living in an Internet hole to be in this business and not aware of the problems MySpace has been suffering recently, their traffic and user base are clearly one to be taken seriously. An analysis recently published by Venture Beat, available here, highlights the traffic in percentages of US Internet population. With the US community numbering 205M, Facebook was able to capture 54% and MySpace 27%.

What I found to be truly interesting in this peace is the stickiness of the user base, proving that any organization invested in an online marketing campaign must invest in managing their social presence in order to be successful.

It also goes to the point that everyone we work with, in this little Internet world, is on the social sites, checking out our history, friends, postings, pictures, etc. We must take steps to ensure our online reputations are the ones we want people reading and knowing.

How to convert more shopping carts

2010-02-01T18:18:23Z

There are any number of theories out there on how to dress a page, which elements to chose, the flow and process, etc., etc. to convert shoppers into customers. Of course there are proven methods that work and those that don't. Beyond the obvious and the best practices, the art of converting shoppers to customers is just that, an art.

And this art is one that Avangate does so well. Not only does the team behind the scenes at Avangate have years of experience dialing up the conversion percentages, but we also have the tools to do it.

If you want to learn more about how the team drove IObit's revenues through these practices, and learn how you too can accomplish this goal, check out the latest case study here.

Turn shoppers into customers and win big smiles ;)

An Idea for Excess Ad Inventory

2010-01-14T21:45:07Z

Recently I've been working with some big names in software on unique opportunities and out-of-the-box ideas that work within our existing infrastructures and capabilities. In other words,, how can we take what we have and realize its maximum potential through additional productization... or said in plain English: do more with what we've got.

These meetings and projects are always fun. We've all invested time, in many cases, years on these products / platforms / partnerships. We know the space, and some brilliant ideas and left field thoughts are all being thrown against the wall.

Here's one that seems obvious, become a software affiliate and run your own ads to fill your ad inventory. It doesn't matter if you sell used Beanie Babies, write a blog on fiber optic splicing or rant against the world. One sale can make you $25. What other ads offer that upside on the action conversion?

Here's how- Signup for Avangate's affiliate program by clicking this link. Register for the top promotions, create little banner ads for the products or use the ones the affiliates provide, and put "Buy Now" links in your ad space.

Excess inventory put to good use.

Press Briefings, Analyst Pitches and Awards

2010-01-14T00:54:09Z

If you're speaking to the press, pitching analysts or up for an award you've either got a killer product, spent money on PR, or both. Chances are you have a very talented sales staff who is used to giving 5 minute pitches and responding to tough questions about your product.

USE THEM. You have professionals dedicated to doing pitches on your payroll. This doesn't mean you shouldn't have your product managers, development leads or other execs on the line. Whom ever you depend on to close your big deals should be leading the pitch.

It is after all a pitch.