July 25, 2006

Cook up new ideas for improved marketing, sw productivity, and grabbing attention

by Gordon Graham, Editor, SoftwareCEO

It's summertime, but that doesn't mean the living is easy.

Many software execs work hard all summer getting ready for a new release, or a new marketing push right after Labor Day. So here's a grab bag of resources to help you make it to August.

First Up: a free service that helps cook up that sizzling new domain name you've been looking for.

Next, a site with some of the best articles we've ever seen on creating marketing materials. Then, a new book on white papers, and how to keep people's attention during presentations.

And finally, here's a website packed with articles on software productivity and best practices.

Name that puppy right, with NameBoy
Are you struggling to come up with the perfect name for a new product or service you're launching?

Want to protect the space around your existing name? Figure out the likely misspellings of your current domain and prevent "typo-squatting"?

Or just want to make sure your software firm is easy to find on the web?

Here's a free service that can really help: NameBoy. Billing itself "the first intelligent domain-name creator," this service takes the drudgery out of generating possible names and then doing a huge set of domain-name lookups to see what's still available.

It's been praised by no less than Seth Godin in his blog.

And if you've never used NameBoy, it's dead easy.

Type in a primary and secondary term, decide if you want to allow hyphens or rhymes, and click "go nameboy go!" In a flash, you'll see hundreds of names, including lots you would never dream up all by yourself.

Most will be nonsense, of course. But in just a few minutes, you can cover an incredible amount of ground with this site.

Come up with great sales tools, with these tips
Here's a site with a great archive of articles on software product management and marketing.

They're all written and previously published by Daniel Shefer, who works in business development with Sandisk. Some are four or five years old — but they stand up as though they were written this very morning.

Good sense is timeless, after all.

For instance, his article on "creating effective sales tools for reps" is one of the best we've seen yet on how to develop marketing materials that really work.

Here is a choice bit, featuring tips on how to write marketing copy that are music to our ears:

"The documents should portray a balanced image of the products, and the commentary should be unemotional and devoid of marketing fluff," writes Shefer.

"Hard facts in concise language provide the best picture and strongest ammunition for your sales team... Make sure all of your claims can be substantiated."

He recommends creating four types of competitive sales pieces:

• a competitive matrix that provides a feature-by-feature comparison with a competing product, and outlines why each feature is important
• a differentiator document that sums up everything your firm does better than the competition
• Questions to Ask, a list of questions that create fear, uncertainty and doubt about a competing product
• Facing Off With ..., a document that calmly acknowledges and answers any criticisms, valid or otherwise, that competitors can make about you.

He goes on to tell how to build each of these four. And that's just one of 15 articles on his site, covering everything from pricing software to running webinars.

Taken together, these articles are a fantastic resource for any product manager or marketer. And that's exactly why Shefer put them on the web.

"When I started my career in product management, there were no resources available," he says. "I created this site as a repository for my articles and as a resource for those interested in these topics."

And we're glad he did.

Get people's attention, by leaving your fly open?!
That's the attention-grabbing theme of a recent article by award-winning writer and consultant Robert L. Lindstrom.

He discusses how hard it can be to get an audience's attention these days. Then he presents some key pointers on how to get and keep the attention of your audience, including the following.

Real, concrete, sensual things are more attention-getting than hypothetical, abstract or mental concepts.

That's why bringing a prop with you works so well: It makes something abstract real.

People pay more attention to things that are near to them than things that are far away.

Newspaper editors call this "proximity." A bus crash in your town is news; a bus crash halfway around the world isn't. Unless someone from your town was in the bus; then the story is about something close, and it's news.

People pay more attention to things that are familiar. This echoes the well-known story-telling suggestion: move from the known to the unknown.

Ask your audience relevant or compelling questions.

"How much software did you sell last year? Would you like to sell more this year?"

Relate a personal story or anecdote.

It's true: people love war stories. As long as you have a point, and get it quickly.

Create suspense or dissonance.

Challenge or threaten people. Break their expectations. A sense of danger, urgency, or surprise certainly gets people's adrenaline going.

Beyond these, his article includes links to several other sources with even more suggestions. You can read the entire article here.

Presenters University, by the way, is an interesting site for anyone who makes frequent presentations. It includes lots of tips, templates, and articles. And there's a free monthly e-newsletter that tells you about the latest content on the site.

It's all sponsored by projector manufacturer InFocus.

New book on white paper marketing covers a lot of territory
White papers drive billions of dollars worth of sales of software every year, yet few people can say for sure what a white paper really is.

That's why any new book devoted to building more understanding about white papers is welcome.

In "The White Paper Marketing Handbook", renowned copywriter Bob Bly covers a lot of territory. In fact, he ties together everything from direct mail to webinars with the concept of "edu-marketing."

In short, today's buyers are burned out on sales pitches. So the best way to engage prospects, generate trust, and draw them into your sales funnel is to give them truly useful information.

And the most popular marketing device of this type is, of course, the white paper. In other words, the most effective tool for generating leads is content.

This approach means software marketers need to start thinking less like sales people and more like publishers.

What kind of unbiased information could you provide to prospects that would really help them? And how could you maximize the "halo effect" this would create?

For those just thinking about these issues for the first time, Bly provides good guidance. When he says that white papers are a combination of advertising and journalism, he's right on the money.

And his list of ways to prove the assertions you make in a white paper should be tattooed on the back of every marketing manager's hand for quick reference:

• awards
• benchmark test performances
• case studies
• customer testimonials
• design innovations
• number of users or installed systems
• number of years the system has been in operation
• reviews and third-party endorsements

Just telling people you have the best technology is not persuasive; that's just a sales pitch. You have to prove it, by creating a pile of credible evidence built up from the items listed here.

Because of its far-flung content, this book will be useful to any software marketing executive responsible for all the campaigns that your company launches.

On the down side, this book includes a lot of issues that have nothing to do with software. For instance, anecdotes about marketing mouthwash, prescription drugs, and carpet cleaning may not be applicable to your business.

And if you're a white paper writer, or a marketing person seeking the definitive guide to writing a white paper, you may be disappointed by the lack of specifics.

Still, we welcome any new resources that can help people use white papers.

Best practices in software development
For R&D executives and developers alike, here's a website packed with articles on software productivity.

If you're a fan of software metrics — and not everyone is — you can find a wealth of material at The IT Metrics and Productivity Institute (ITMPI).

But it's not all about metrics. The site also covers best practices in software estimating and development processes.

There's an e-newsletter to subscribe to, with all the previous issues still online at the site. You can read interviews with luminaries in software development, such as Ed Yourdon, Steve McConnell, and Michael Cusumano.

And if you don't know who those people are, you can check the list of recommended books.

All in all, it's a great site, packed with useful references and easy navigation. It's sponsored by consulting firm Computer Aid Inc. and it's well-worth a bookmark.