From Software Business Community

Marketing of software

Software marketing is the branch of marketing related to software products or services. It's, basically, all techniques and strategies to match an offered product of a given company with the expectations of the consumers to maximize its sales.

Definition of software marketing

Far from the time when software was a word-of-mouth industry where only customers with specific background could afford such products^[1] different types of advertising software products emerged. The importance of software marketing got more and more importance in the sales strategies of software companies as the computer software industry has, over the past 10 years, grown into one of the world's largest industries with world-wide sales estimated to be in excess of $100 billion.^[2]

Types of software marketing

Software are divided in four types : Freeware or free software, Trialware, Shareware and paying software. This big four categories are defined by the marketing used for their distribution:

• Free software can usually be downloaded in Internet, given in magazine or with other products like hardwares when it's compulsory for their use. The software is completely free and no charges are required to obtain it.

• The marketing of shareware is based on a free version of the software but with a reduced number of functionalities. Purchasing the license is compulsory to open the blocked functionalities.

• Trialware: In opposition to shareware marketing, the trialware marketing consist in giving the costumer a full use of the software but for a limited period of time. As in the previous marketing strategy it is necessary to purchase a license to continue using the software.

• Paying softwares are usually professional and sophisticated. However, some paying software can be for free for an exclusive private use.

Relevance of software marketing to software business

Marketing is the link between the company producing the product and its consumers. As the costumers of software products are global that gives more importance to the marketing of the software. The complexity of producing some softwares have to be balanced by a marketing campaign that simplify the software product in order to attract more consumers.

As the consumers of software are getting more and more global, Internet software marketing is getting more and more funding from the software companies. ^[3] Marketing strategies observed on the Internet are various when it comes to offering samples to a product. shareware and shareware marketing show how offering samples gives access to better distribution opportunities on the Internet.

Markets in which technology assumes a central role are becoming driving forces of the economy. The software business is a market centralized in technology and encompasses almost all of the business process in an electronic way. While digital software marketing tend to target the largest and most international audience possible, digital distribution reduces further the reproduction cost (essentially to zero) because customers can and do create their own copies when downloading them directly from the company’s website. ^[4]

As the communication is easy through Internet Software marketing will be more a consumer consulting function than a marketer of goods and services. The customer can have a direct influence on the product he sees and the marketer can have a feedback while marketing his product.^[5] From simple transactional marketing perspective, marketing thought has evolved to incorporate a relational marketing perspective. ^[6]

Example of software marketing

Theoretical approaches

The 4 P’s of Marketing applied to Software Marketing:

• Product - Take a good look at the software you're trying to sell. Does your software meet the needs of your target market?

• Price - The first thing most people look at is the price. Questions to answer are : is your software too cheap or too expensive? What message is the price of your software sending?

• Place - If your visitors are unimpressed by your website, they're less likely to buy your software. What does your website say about your business?

• Promotion - you need to let people know about it, is your product being seen by the right people? Is your Software marketing campaign suitable for your product or service.

Currently interesting research questions

See also

• Shareware marketing

• Trialware marketing

• Direct Sales channels

• Software marketing campaigns

References

1. ↑ Al Harberg, Word-of-Mouth Advertising for Selling Software, DP Directory, 2008.
2. ↑ Keith D Brouthers and Yvette M van't Kruis, Competing in Software: Strategies for Europe's Niche Businesses, Long Range Planning, Volume 30, Number 4, August 1997 , pp. 475-476+518(2)
3. ↑ Alexia Gaudeul, Software Marketing on the Internet: the Use of Samples and Repositories, 2008.
4. ↑ John George, Weiss Allen and Dutta Shantanu, 1999, Marketing in Technology-Intensive Markets: Toward a Conceptual Framework, Journal of Marketing; Oct99 Special Issue, Vol. 63 Issue 4, p78-91.
5. ↑ Achrol, R.S and Kotler, P. 1999. Marketing in the Network Economy. Journal of Marketing, 63(4): 146-163.
6. ↑ Egan J and Harker M; The Past, Present and Future of Relationship Marketing; Journal of Marketing Management vol. 22 Issue: 1 pp. 215-242 2006