SoftGram Bi-Weekly for 02.05.2006, Vol. 2, No. 4 SoftGram Spotlight: Building a Vertical Promotions Portal for Your Channel ______________________________________ SoftGram is a Softletter Publication and is published on the first and third weeks of each month. To Subscribe to SoftGram, please visit us at http://www.softletter.com/aspx/Profile.aspx ========================================================= To unsubscribe from SoftGram, please use the opt-out link below: http://www.softletter.com/aspx/optout.aspx?u=[[user_id]]&un=[[UserName]] To change your profile and various user options, please use the link below: http://www.softletter.com/aspx/Profile.aspx Before you can use this option, please login into your account. If you have not changed your profile, your username is the first letter of your first name and the first seven letters of your last name. Your password is "softletter." Once you have logged in, you can choose to stay logged in via a cookie exchange and revisit the site anytime without having to go through the login procedure. If you block all cookies, or specifically logout of the site, you will need to login to Softletter to participate in the forums and change your user options at this link: hhttp://www.softletter.com/aspx/login.aspx To ensure you continue to receive your copy of Softletter, please add SoftGram@ezine.softletter.com to your white list. If you have any questions or concerns, please E-mail RickChapman@softletter.com _________________________________________________________ The latest issue of SoftGram is brought to you by: **** The Product Marketing Handbook for Software **** The Product Marketing Marketing Handbook for Software, 4th Edition is the definitive guide to successful software marketing and sales. Completely up-to-date, the Hanbook's 16 chapters and appendices, 690 pages, over 2600 checklist items, 300 cost-of-marketing line items, 20 case studies, 30 illustrations and figures, sample forms, free spreadsheets, and product management forms make the The Product Marketing Handbook for Software absolutely indispensable for any software company looking to succeed in today’s ultracompetitive environment. Find out about the Handbook at: http://www.aegis-resources.com _________________________________________________________ (Excerpted from the 02/15/2006 issue of Softletter) by Debbie Engnell, PromoPipeline In the IT Distribution channel, much is made of process flow, paradigms, new business initiatives and communication. Unfortunately, what these all have in common is one thing—they are all broken. Vendors continue to try to find a way to communicate product information and promotion information to both distributors and resellers. Distributors want to communicate promotions, special financing offers and new product offerings. Resellers want information when they want it, tailored to their needs, and their impression is no one is listening to them. In a recent promotional effort, an IT vendor decided to launch a promotion for a new product. E-mails were sent to almost 1500 resellers, banner ads were put in place, a distributor included the promotion in an E-mail newsletter and significant dollars were expended. This effort didn’t even make the industry numbers that tell us that E-mail campaigns typically reach: an 8 to 10% open rate and a 1 to 3 % conversion rate. And how many took advantage of the promotion? None. When resellers were asked if they had heard of the promotion or had received the E-mails announcing it, comments ranged from “I’m too busy to read most E-mail” to “I don’t remember seeing it, must have hit my spam filter” as well as “After I read email, I just delete it”. As this example illustrates, E-mail has no shelf life. Further emphasizing this point is an experience a well-known security software company had when it attempted to increase their installed base. The company launched a “buy five licenses get five licenses free” promotion that E-mailed their registered reseller base that had opted in for E-mails. After four weeks of no reseller redeeming additional licenses, follow up phone calls by the software company revealed that the E-mails had been read (or at least opened), but not kept; compounding the problem was that resellers couldn’t find information about this firm’s promotion on their web site. The experiences above illustrate the problems facing software companies who work with a channel. From the reseller view, the only avenues available to educate themselves about new promotional offerings are a never ending sea of E-mails or visits to the company’s web site, most of which require a unique user name and password to access (a usage obstacle many resellers refuse to overcome). But for many businesses, search has become the default way of operating. When is the last time any of us opened up a phone book before first trying Google? Of course, typing a term into Google and receiving 16,625,432 hits isn’t the way to go, either. Instead, vertical search portals are increasingly being offered as an alternative to traditional approaches (current examples of successful vertical portals include the various job and travel sites). Their effectiveness lies in the fact that most resellers are interested in promotions when they are writing proposals or preparing to buy products and/or services for their customers. Their higher value is derived from their usage method; using a portal or search engine is an active, not a passive, information relay. As a result, read and click rates are at least 4x more effective than E-mail, with far more predictable and measurable ROI. But what are the key elements of a high-performing vertical portal? _________________________________________________________ INFO POPS are sponsored by: License Technologies Group Since 1996, License Technologies Group (LTG) has been the established leader in providing solutions specifically designed for software publishers to more efficiently manage their software licensing business. Our systems and services support software license management, renewals management, eCommerce, Digital Rights Management, Partner Relationship Management and global fulfillment. We understand all of the nuances and best practices necessary to harness the power and profitability volume license and compliance programs can provide. Our experience in providing these solutions helps softwa practices and gain a strategic advantage on their competition. Smart Tools. Big Savings. http://www.licensetech.com ******************************* INFO POPS "LED technology is so cheap that now you can throw it away. So the Graffiti Research Lab has dreamed up “LED Throwies,” colorful little LED markers you can make yourself. They require a 10mm LED and a button-size lithium battery and are taped together with a rare earth magnet for superior stickage. Each “Throwie” costs less than a buck if you buy the ingredients in bulk. All you need is a magnetic surface and you’re ready for some LED throwing. This is said to be especially fun when you toss a bunch of them onto a metal surface that’s high off the ground, out of reach of interlopers who might spoil the fun. Once they’re stuck up there, they stay lit for up to two weeks. It’s harmless graffiti that’s actually kind of pretty." Excerpted from: http://us.gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/led-throwies-harmless-way-to-make-your-mark-154993.php ******************************* "For nearly a full year, SAP had been hinting that it would launch a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product and the speculation was that it would be software that would compete with hosted CRM specialist Salesforce.com. But SAP had a bigger problem to address. Many of its customers were holding mySAP CRM licenses but few of them were progressing to full implementations, said Robert Bois, research director at AMR Research Inc." Excerpted from: http://searchsap.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid21_gci1165970,00.html ******************************* "In the online retail world, the only thing constant is change. Merchants are continuously looking for ways to improve the design and usability of their web sites. Ironically, after making web site improvements, many web designers don't put any thought into what happens when an online shopper lands on a page that no longer exists! Too many times shoppers link from sites or even search engines and land on a bland generic 404 page that has no links or instructions. What do most of these shoppers do? Many will click "back" on their web browser, returning to the referring page and leaving that merchants site. In the brick and mortar world this would be equivalent to moving a door and not putting a sign on the location of the old door directing the customer to the new one. Most web hosts allow merchants to configure 404 or "Page Not Found" pages. What are some characteristics of a good 404 page?" Excerpted from: http://www.nexternal.com/nexus/subscribe ******************************* Axosoft is conducting a social marketing experiment. We are giving away 5-User copies of OnTime 2006 Small Team Edition, a product we sell for $495 for just $5 ($1 per user!) . This offer is just available through social marketing sites and there are no links to this page on the Axosoft web site. Excerpted from: http://www.axosoft.com/Products/ontime.aspx?cn=otm_stepromo ________________________________________________________ CHANGE YOUR SOFTGRAM SUBSCRIPTION : To unsubscribe from SoftGram, please use the opt-out link below: http://www.softletter.com/aspx/optout.aspx?u=[[user_id]]&un=[[UserName]] To change your profile and various user options, please use the link below: http://www.softletter.com/aspx/Profile.aspx Before you can use this option, please login into your account. If you have not changed your profile, your username is the first letter of your first name and the first seven letters of your last name. Your password is "softletter." To update your address or change your profile, please use the link below (this link takes you directly to your profile assuming you have chosen to stay logged in via a cookie exchange): http://www.softletter.com/aspx/myMain.aspx