On my last software release on 11th November, I changed the product code/ unlock code format to make things easier for my customers. The change also means I don't have to issue new unlock codes when someones buys a new PC. My old system was getting to be a bit of a burden and I was getting 3 or 4 new unlock code requests a day. I took a tip from Dipsys and encoded the customer's postal address and email address into the code. If the code gets handed out to other users, I'll know exactly where it originated.
Anyway, the interesting thing about changing the format is that when I get a purchase I can now tell whether someone started the trial before or after the change. I'd read advice on the web saying that if someone was going to purchase shareware they more or less did so immediately. In my case though, this isn't true. Three weeks after the code change, I'd say 90% of purchasers still use the old format code.
I don't know whether to be worried by this or not. With the credit crunch and all that I could be paranoid that I'm not getting any new customers and I'm just exhausting the supply of people who downloaded a trial a month ago. However Google Analytics shows an increase in traffic lately not a drop-off so I must still be getting a fair number of new trial users. This is a bit complicated to work out though since I sometimes get bursts of visitors spread over a day or two when my free SliQ Submitter program gets posted on a forum or on someone's SEO blog. Someone wrote up a complimentary report on SliQ Submitter a week or two ago and called it the GrandDaddy of all free directory submitters. I got about 60 visitors referred from that blog post over the next couple of days.
If my recent experience shows that most people take advantage of the trial period then I'm glad. I want people to use the full trial period to make sure they are happy to purchase. Hopefully it reduces the support overhead in the long-term.
by ML
Showing posts with label Sales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sales. Show all posts
Sunday, 30 November 2008
Friday, 24 October 2008
Support for customers in non-English speaking countries
This might be a strange post since we have a German contributor but I'd like to see if anyone has expxerience of providing support to people in non-English speaking countries.
At the moment, I sell software in English only via a .co.uk site. This allows me to target the UK, US, Australia, India etc. but there is an untapped market in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and so on. The thing that's put me off for now is providing support or even answering simple queries. My wife was (once) fluent in German and lived in Germany for a couple of years. The trouble is that her German is now rusty and neither of us speak anything else but English.
Does anyone have experience of providing support in this way? How do you cope? Is it a problem or are customers happy to switch to English?
by ML
At the moment, I sell software in English only via a .co.uk site. This allows me to target the UK, US, Australia, India etc. but there is an untapped market in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and so on. The thing that's put me off for now is providing support or even answering simple queries. My wife was (once) fluent in German and lived in Germany for a couple of years. The trouble is that her German is now rusty and neither of us speak anything else but English.
Does anyone have experience of providing support in this way? How do you cope? Is it a problem or are customers happy to switch to English?
by ML
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Keep Nagging For a Purchase
When I first thought about selling shareware I read all sorts of different advice about how to encourage people to purchase. The problem was that lots of advice conflicted.
One piece of advice I got was never to stop people using the software package, i.e. don't have a trial period. Let them use it forever - maybe one day they'll decide to buy! This is a Winzip kind of scheme - but it hasn't made me purchase Winzip after 3 1/2 years of seeing the nag screen.
The same people who made me paranoid about unlock codes made me paranoid about the Winzip scheme.
In the end I went for a trial period with a nag dialog showing when the package starts. The nag dialog serves 2 purposes - it lets people know I'd like them to purchase and it also lets them know how long they've got left on the free trial.
I've since read that the best strategy is to nag more often, e.g. when the package is closed as well as when it starts. I've also read that long trial periods are useless - if people buy they usually do so within a day or two. I did have a trial period of 60 days initially and found that a fair few people - 50%? - actually waited the whole 60 days before buying so I'm not sure this advice is good.
Any thoughts?
by ML
One piece of advice I got was never to stop people using the software package, i.e. don't have a trial period. Let them use it forever - maybe one day they'll decide to buy! This is a Winzip kind of scheme - but it hasn't made me purchase Winzip after 3 1/2 years of seeing the nag screen.
The same people who made me paranoid about unlock codes made me paranoid about the Winzip scheme.
In the end I went for a trial period with a nag dialog showing when the package starts. The nag dialog serves 2 purposes - it lets people know I'd like them to purchase and it also lets them know how long they've got left on the free trial.
I've since read that the best strategy is to nag more often, e.g. when the package is closed as well as when it starts. I've also read that long trial periods are useless - if people buy they usually do so within a day or two. I did have a trial period of 60 days initially and found that a fair few people - 50%? - actually waited the whole 60 days before buying so I'm not sure this advice is good.
Any thoughts?
by ML
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)