LiveCode Journal - Features

SQLite Diff: A Software Product Marketing Case Study

SQLite Diff - A Software Product Marketing Case Study

Hello revJournal readers! I am David Simpson, founder and President of .com Solutions Inc. and the developer of several products including FmPro Migrator, FmPro Script Diff, and now SQLite Diff. Richard Gaskin and I have spoken a number of times about software marketing and so at the Revolution Live 08 conference in Las Vegas this year, Richard asked me to write an article about some of my marketing techniques.

I just released a new product named SQLite Diff within the last week, and thought that this new product might serve as a case study in software product marketing. Since the product had not existed prior to being released on 10/10/2008, it can provide for some start from scratch statistics when comparing before and after web searches for the product name and various commonly entered search terms.

SQLite Diff - Product Naming Considerations

So to get started, the first thing I consider in my marketing efforts is what the product does. This product compares SQLite database files, so this functionality gives me ideas concerning the name of the product. I have chosen to use the term "Diff" in the product name, based upon the UNIX diff utility. I have chosen the first name of the product as "SQLite" since this is not a registered trademarked term. For products in the FileMaker Pro product marketplace, we aren't allowed to use the term FileMaker within our product names because FileMaker Inc. owns this name - so the replacement designation results in product names starting with "FM" or "FmPro". I consider the naming to be important, because the name will be used in press releases and will be listed on the many websites where I submit my software. I want the name to pop right up on the organic search results produced by the various search engines. The organic search results are the best place to be located, because not only are the results free, they are more authoritative to most users than the paid ads also displayed on the search results web page.

Product Development Marketing Planning

SQLite Diff started out as a tool for internal use, but it was developed with the idea in mind that I could release it as a tool for the general public. I had to add some features including the comparison of SQL code for Triggers, Views and Indexes and also added the colorized bars as backgrounds for the results fields. Once those tasks were done, I also worked on the marketing aspects of the application.

1) Icon design. When I pay to have icons designed, I specify to the graphic designer that I request a copy of the Adobe Illustrator files which were used to create the icon - I can then re-purpose the graphics file for use in various places within web graphics and on printed product literature. I prefer not to use any type of bitmapped icon for printed literature, so that is why I use the high quality Illustrator files for printed artwork like spec sheets and trade show booth posters which get enlarged significantly from the original size. I was able to reuse an appropriate icon which was previously developed for FmPro Migrator, thus saving $160 - $320 in icon design fees from my graphic design vendor Visual Pharm (depending upon icon type).

Here is what the icon looks like:

2) Plan and Implement Demo Limitations. It takes a little time to plan and then implement feature limitations for demo versions of products, but in general I always try to create a demo version. The main way that people learn about my software products is through press releases and demo product downloads from dozens of websites on the internet. Search engines find the info at these websites and include it in their search results. For a new company which doesn't yet have much visibility to the search engines, this may represent the main way that search engines will find your company.

For this new product I used my standard technique of limiting the product to displaying results for 5 tables/triggers/views/indexes. This way the prospective customer can use the software for an unlimited time, but the product just has limited functionality. In fact the program goes ahead and processes all of the info, but when I execute the code which displays the results, I just limit the number of rows of info which is displayed for the user if the product is the Demo version.

3) I created a series of placeholder web pages for software development testing purposes. These are used when developing the URL links built into the application.

Order download page. This is the secret web page the user gets directed to after they successfully pay for the software. This is the same web page I use when the user selects "Check for updates..." from the Help menu within the application.

4) Support web page. In the past, people also had problems finding the support page for my products, so once again, I have built a Help item into the Help menu, which takes the customer directly to the support page for the product they are using.

5) Final testing and development of the software. Once the features are completed, I compile and test both Demo and full versions of the software in order to verify that the product goes to the correct URLs, puts up the demo warning dialog etc.

During this part of the process (and even prior to this point) I am generally writing up lists of features contained within the product which I will want to highlight from a marketing perspective. I like to do this during development process in order to make sure that I don't forget anything when it comes to the design of the web page and the printed literature.

Post Development Tasks

At this point in the process the application has been completed, the Demo and Production versions of the application have been uploaded to the website directories, but no web pages have been completed yet which link to these files.

1) Create product web page. My typical product web page design starts with a product title graphic, used at the top of the product web page, with variations used on the home page, order page, Kagi product detail page and product literature. This graphic establishes branding for the product by showing its icon, title text having the product's color, and a simple statement about the product. A 2nd, and smaller line gives some additional product details.

Here are the graphics I created for SQLite Diff:

SQLite Diff - Product Page Title Graphic

SQLite Diff - Home Page Graphic (Slightly smaller graphic including Learn More button)

SQLite Diff - Order Page Graphic (Even smaller graphic, suitable for display on order page.)

I usually create the product page title graphic first, that way I have a chance to look at it and think about it as I am creating the rest of the product page text and graphics. It really does help to review these decisions over time, and in fact I did make slight changes to this particular graphic during the web page development process. This is where I go back and review the product features list I have been updating during the development process. These items provide the basis for the Top 10 Features list at the top of the product web page, and provide ideas for details I want to write about with annotated screenshots and associated paragraphs of text describing the product.

2) Update order web page. In addition to listing the product info and graphics, an important part of this web page is the named HTML anchor which gets used by the demo version of the software to link the prospective customer directly to this particular product. There are a variety of products on the web page, I don't want people to have hunt around looking for the particular product so I link them directly to the line of info for the demo product they have downloaded. This is easy to do, with a one line command in Revolution:

launch URL "http://www.sqlitediff.com/order/index.html#sqlite_diff"

Adding this feature to each of my demo products has almost eliminated phone calls from people asking "How do I order...", because they automatically end up on the correct place on the order page as soon as the Demo app launches. In fact, the only people who call to ask about how to place an order, are the purchasing department employees who have been instructed to order the software. Since the purchasing person hasn't downloaded the software, and they don't always see the "Order" link at the top of each page of the website - they call. But that is Ok, because those are welcome phone calls to get during the day.

3) Add product to Kagi. Kagi is one of my payment processors and for this product I made them the only payment processor. Once Kagi validates the customer's payment info, they send the customer a Thank You For Your Purchase email containing the text blurb I have provided, which contains the download URL. There are other ways of handling fulfillment, including automatic generation of license keys, but I am using the simplest method by allowing users to download a full-featured version of the product. But I still have to set up the product info in the Kagi storefront, edit XHTML for the store display web page and send a test order. But these tasks only need to be done once for a new product.

4) Create and write info for product support web page(s). This page should already exist, as it was already used for testing URLs during product development, but the page actually needs to say something useful!

External PR Tasks

1) Write up short text blurb. For some websites like Macintouch, MacNN and a few others, I like to send a short text email writeup about the product. This makes it a little easier for their editors to put the item on their website. If the editors have time, they may go to the website link for my product and write a short article. But I want to make it easy for them because I know that they are busy and I want to at least give them the option to just copy and paste the text I provide. I write up this info in advance, but don't send it until late in the afternoon on the day before publication.

2) Write up full press release. Using the short text blurb info and the product web page info, I create a complete press release for major product updates and new products which I release. I have been quite successful sending out press releases via prMac.com and in fact I find that some websites will see the prMac press release distribution as being more authoritative than emails I have sent manually. There have been websites which have regularly picked up my prMac.com press releases who have seldom published anything I have sent manually via email directly to the editors. And the cost of $16.75 per press release is very reasonable in the press release distribution business. I also use a few free (or nearly free) press release web sites too, but none of them have performed as well as prMac.com.

For SQLite Diff, I had originally identified two search terms which I wanted to target for my search engine optimization. These first two search terms are:
sqlite diff
compare sqlite

I have the first keyword set handled with the name of the product. But in order to optimize the 2nd keyword set I have constructed these two words together in the first sentence of the press release. By putting the words next to each other in the 1st sentence of the body text of the press release, it makes it easier for the search engines to determine that the words should be associated with each other. I wanted to put these into the title of the press release, but I ran out of space as only about 72 characters are allowed for the press release title on prMac. Here is the first part of the press release text:

[prMac.com] Fremont, CA - .com Solutions Inc. introduces SQLite Diff 1.18 as new product to compare SQLite Database Schema and Data displaying colorized SQL and Data Highlighting. SQLite Diff is implemented as a graphical application enabling developers to easily Drag & Drop two SQLite databases onto the application to start the comparison process.

When sending a press release via prMac.com, I usually submit the press release a day or two ahead of schedule, but I tag it with the text "EMBARGO UNTIL 10/10/2008" so that they don't release it immediately. I want all of my info to reach the press and get published on the same day.

3) Write info for product info fields/PAD file with Software Promoter. Software Promoter is a $35 Windows-only product I use to automate the submission of software product info to dozens of websites. There are a variety of other submission programs available as well which you can learn about with a quick web search. Most shareware/download websites use the same couple of dozen fields for product submissions and so once you fill out the info once in this automation program, you don't need to fill it out all over again for each website. This program also generates the PAD XML file which I upload to my website. I submit the PAD file to some of the PAD file repository websites which means that it will get automatically distributed to any websites subcribing to the PAD repository. Once a website picks up on your product's PAD file, they will generally poll the PAD file on a weekly or monthly basis in order to automatically pick up product updates. So this way if you update the PAD file on your website you can have updates occur on many websites without even having to manually go around to the websites to make a submission. Though I still like to go around to the most important websites to make sure that they got the update. And some of the biggest websites like CNET's Download.com and VersionTracker.com don't even poll the PAD files automatically, so you still need to perform your submissions manually, with Sofware Promoter auto-filling most of the fields.

Software Promoter - Product Info Fields

4) Submit product to RegNow/Sharit. Most shareware websites will request a RegNow or Shareit product ID when you submit your software. The commission generated from selling your product is one source of revenue for these websites in addition to their advertising revenue. So this task needs to be done before you actually submit the software to the websites, as you will need the product ID assigned by RegNow/Sharit website.

5) Upload product web pages and PAD XML file. Some websites seem to automatically poll the ReadMe.txt on my website in order to detect updates to my products. So if I am introducing a new release on a particular day, I will start uploading and testing the web pages late in the evening the day before product launch. I don't want any of these automated sites to find the new product version too early, or my product might not appear on their home page for a whole day.

This is also the timeframe when I will start sending emails to editors of various websites, so that they will have the info available for publication the next morning.

6) Submit software to websites. I have been submitting my software using the Software Promoter product I mentioned earlier, and typically I have about 50 high value websites where I make submissions in this manner. There is also value in considering an automated submission service like Submit-Everywhere.com. I haven't tried a service of this type previously, but it is worth considering, since they will attempt to submit your software to over 800 websites, of which they estimate about 200 successful submissions will take place. When they create a new login account for you, they will provide you with the username/password info and will automatically skip websites where you have already made a submission. You may or may not want to pay their $70 fee for each software update because websites which use a PAD file should automatically pick up future software updates for your products.

I prefer to send most of these updates on the official product introduction day, with prioritization for websites like MacUpdate, VersionTracker, Apple, and Freshmeat.net. If I make a submission early in the day, then my software will typically appear on the home page for a whole day, thus resulting in more downloads and prospective customers.

Software Promoter - Partial Websites List

7) Write and submit articles. For selected software products I will also write articles about the product for websites which may have an interest in the product. Writing articles takes longer than just the quick website submission process, but generally pays long-term dividends. For instance, SQLite Diff is a product which can be useful to Revolution developers, so I may propose its inclusion as a revSelect product, and also write an article about it for the revUp newsletter. I have also written articles for FileMaker Advisor magazine and the MySQL website. These articles represent some of the best PR you can get for a product because they are directed to your product's target audience. I continue to receive website visitors as a result of writing some of these articles a few years ago.

8) Create Google Adwords Ad. Google has been my best performing search engine in terms of converting ad clicks to sales, so whenever I set up a new product I usually set up a Google Ad for the product. As part of the keyword submission process for SQLite Diff, Google suggested a total of about 26 meaningful keyword combinations in addition to the first two I submitted. Maybe I should have done this before I created the press release, because I might have structured the text a little differently in order to provide matches for some of the additional keywords. But this is something I will review again as I submit future press releases for the product.

SQLite Diff Marketing Results - Product Introduction +1 Day

SQLite Diff was released on 10/10/2008, so now lets take a look at the effectiveness of my marketing efforts.

First, lets look at before and after search results using Google for the two search terms I was targeting:

Google search for "sqlite diff" search term - 10/9/2008 (PDF File Link)	Google search for "sqlite diff" search term - 10/11/2008 (PDF File Link)

The Google search for the "sqlite diff" search term on 10/9/2008 mainly shows programming source code diff results for some SQLite source code files. This is actually good for my product, because I can see that this term is not being used as the name of a competing product.

The Google search for the "sqlite diff" search term on 10/11/2008 shows that my product has taken the top 9 out of 10 organic search results - which is outstanding. The organic search results are generally considered to be the best place to have a product listed, because these results come directly from the search engine, they are considered to be more authoritative by potential customers, and they don't cost anything. I also have a 10th listing showing up as a Google Ad on the right hand side. These results are primarily due to the search term showing up as the name of the product in the press release distributed by prMac.com.

Search result items #2, #3, and #6 are the result of manually submitting the software to the Apple.com, MacUpdate.com and VersionTracker.com websites. Having a link from a high profile website like Apple.com, linking back to your own website is also a good way to improve your own website's Page Rank score with Google. Apple has a Page Rank index of 10 (out of 10) on their home page, and this top level downloads page has a Page Rank of 7. Any website having a Page Rank of 4 or above which links to your website will add to your own website's Page Rank value.

Notice that search result items #4 and #5 both link to my own website, but with different domains (www.sqlitediff.com and www.fmpromigrator.com). I often buy a domain from Network Solutions for $35 just as an insurance policy in case a product really takes off. This way I can prevent competitors from getting the same domain. The search engines don't always figure out that it is really the same website under different domains. I also have cross site links going from my backup website www.cgiscripter.net. This means that sometimes the search results will alternate between both of the domains, with results from both domains showing up in the results at the same time. The main reason for having this extra website is for testing and backup purposes in case the ISP hosting the main website goes out of business or experiences a severe outage. If disaster strikes, I can switch the domains to my backup website by pointing Network Solutions to the alternate ISP - and the change will occur rather quickly since I already have all of the files uploaded. You can think of this as an economical alternative to buying expensive hardware load balancers with servers geographically dispersed - but all for a cost of less than $10 per month.

Google search for "compare sqlite" search term - 10/9/2008 (PDF File Link)	Google search for "compare sqlite" search term - 10/11/2008 (PDF File Link)

The Google search for the "compare sqlite " search terms on 10/9/2008 shows links to web pages at SQLite.org, a Perl module and a few other articles at other websites about SQLite. There are also Google ads for SQL database comparison tools, but these products are not designed for SQLite databases. So this is good news, because it shows that there are no competing products readily visible via a web search.

Performing a Google search using the same search term on 10/11/2008, shows 5 SQLite Diff links in the top 10 results along with the Google Ad in the right hand column. The #1 search result came from the manually submitted MacUpdate software listing. The #6 result links to the press release which was manually submitted to the MacTech.com website. MacTech republishes prMac.com press releases automatically, but they also offer their own press release submission feature as well - which generally receives a high ranking by Google.

Another search I like to perform after releasing a new application, is an exact search for the product name along with its version number. This search gives me a quick way to determine which sites have picked up on the press release along with the web sites which have published the product submission into their software directories. This type of search is performed with Google by placing the exact search term within quotes. A search on 10/11/2008 for the term "SQLite Diff 1.18" resulted in 1300 results, and performing the search again on 10/18/2008 showed 17000 search results.

Conclusion

I hope that this article has been helpful to give you ideas for marketing your software products. My products have been successful in the marketplace not only due to software features, but also because of the marketing efforts I have undertaken. You might have the best (or even the only) product on the market with a particular feature set. But if customers don't know about your product - they won't buy it. I can also suggest that you keep trying new things with your marketing efforts. I frequently put modest amounts of money into a variety of advertising opportunities - because you just never know what the next great marketing idea will be. But as you can see with the techniques I have written about in this article, most of my techniques are either free or nearly free.