How to go about software market launch?

[nancyosas]

Launching a licencing software in few months. Any suggestions on steps to take for a successful market launch? Thinking of using Facebook marketing for ad.

 

[fisicx]

Are your prospective customers looking on Facebook for software like yours?

If not you need to advertise in the places they are looking.

Is this for your freelancing marketplace or something new?

 

[nancyosas]

Are your prospective customers looking on Facebook for software like yours?

If not you need to advertise in the places they are looking.

Is this for your freelancing marketplace or something new?

Thanks for your response. Its for a different business. While some of my ideal customers are on facecook my concern is that most people now access facebook through their mobile devices but my software is for PC/laptop users

 

[fisicx]

Maybe so, but do your prospective customers use Facebook to find software?

Or it is something they are more likely to search for using Google?

When you did your market research what did the results show about your target users?

 

[nancyosas]

Maybe so, but do your prospective customers use Facebook to find software?

Or it is something they are more likely to search for using Google?

When you did your market research what did the results show about your target users?

I think when it comes to search Intent, Google will always come first but I had used facebook for business evaluation and got positive feedback. Now its almost crunch time and I am starting to second guess my initial plan and was wondering if anyone here have successfully launched softwares and their experiences.

 

[fisicx]

What sort of software? Who are you targeting?

Facebook will always give you positive feedback. But it's unlikely these are your target customers.

I build WordPress plugins. I do my research, build a solid support site and get it to rank for a range of keywords and then upload to the WordPress plugin repository. Because that's where my target users look for products like mine.

Where do your target users hang out? Where do they go to get help with their existing software?

The launch always comes after some solid market research. Not facebook. Good research costs money and can take many months to complete. And it can result in a complete rework of the product.

 

[Ozzy]

Now its almost crunch time and I am starting to second guess my initial plan and was wondering if anyone here have successfully launched softwares and their experiences.

My core business is software, a product called eFiling, and we have never advertised on Facebook (or indeed any social media). We tried some LinkedIn ads and that didn't work, but we do have some basic brand advertising on Google but we don't really need to do that as our website SEO performs well for us.

We tried a lot of different approaches, and found the most successful for us was these options;

• Sending letters in the post, we won our largest client through this method.
• Contacting prospects through LinkedIn, this is our most successful method.
• Having our software listed on the Government website as a Government verified platform for doing what it does (Government/company filings). People looking for what our software does see us listed there.
• Attending industry conferences and events.

The lesson for this post is as said above, you need to understand where your customers are going to be when they are in buying/research mode. If they are not thinking about work when on Facebook they are not going to respond to your ads on there.

 

[DontAsk]

Licensing what? Other software?

Launching a licencing software in few months. Any suggestions on steps to take for a successful market launch? Thinking of using Facebook marketing for ad.

Licensing what? Who are the target customers? What industry segment?

 

[nancyosas]

My core business is software, a product called eFiling, and we have never advertised on Facebook (or indeed any social media). We tried some LinkedIn ads and that didn't work, but we do have some basic brand advertising on Google but we don't really need to do that as our website SEO performs well for us.

We tried a lot of different approaches, and found the most successful for us was these options;

• Sending letters in the post, we won our largest client through this method.
• Contacting prospects through LinkedIn, this is our most successful method.
• Having our software listed on the Government website as a Government verified platform for doing what it does (Government/company filings). People looking for what our software does see us listed there.
• Attending industry conferences and events.

The lesson for this post is as said above, you need to understand where your customers are going to be when they are in buying/research mode. If they are not thinking about work when on Facebook they are not going to respond to your ads on there.

Hi Ozzy, thank you very much for your comment. That was very insightful.

 

[fantheflames]

If you were to consider any social media advertising route, I'd suggest LinkedIn as that's professionals and businesses.

It would also depend on your strategy for the targeted advertising campaign i.e. who you are targeting, type of ad, and the journey they go through. And of course, your offer. This might be a learning curve but would work out less costly than Google.

Facebook I'm not sure would be the right place for you to start. I think contacting prospects on LinkedIn and via email would be a great place to start, though as Ozzy mentioned!

 

[fisicx]

But you have to be active in your marketing. New software needs to be promoted to target customers. Just advertising isn’t enough.