Branding For a Software Company

John at Duct Tape Marketing has a great definition of branding that I would like to share:

“Branding is the art of becoming knowable, likable and trustable”

So with this definition in mind, how can something like this statement above apply to any software company of any size? Does Microsoft or Oracle need to brand their software anymore than they already have? Some people trust and like Microsoft and Oracle and some people don’t. I think more where this applies to is company’s who have a multitude of products or services and are well known in the marketplace for some piece of software.

Branding takes alot of patience, time, money and creativity. You cant just buy a Super Bowl Commercial and expect that it will instantly brand you. (ok..maybe GoDaddy is a bit of an exception) Buying the back cover of trade magazine is a good start but for some is expensive. I feel that in todays transparent world, a great way to brand yourself is to open up the doors, knock down the walls and show the IT community that you are all about collaborating and solving the pains of their world as well as being a thought leader in your respective marketplace. You can have the best products in the world, but if you play the secracy game with the public, branding will be difficult.

Here are a few (yes a few) ways to build a good brand in software

1. Start a blog. A good blog..not a chest pounding advertisement, but one which adds value to your expertise

2. Hire an evangelist.

3. Build a wiki or a community centered around pain and have that evangelist dedicated to fostering both

4. Educate educate educate through as many new mediums as you can (podcasts, video, white boarding sessions etc….)

5. Do a super bowl commercial (kidding)

6. Do things that are fun for your audience…show them that you are real

7. Monitor your reputation online and comment and acknowledge people that talk about you and your industry.

This is just a start, but if you manage to do the above you are well on your way to branding your organization

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Bring on gifts…not

About 14 months ago we tried our first giveaway at my organization. It was met with some trepidation and some folks flat out were against it citing as to why we should give someone incentive to download an asset. It was a huge success and has since been duplicated many different ways across the company. We have given away Zunes, Xbox’s, monitors, soundocks, iPods, T-shirts and even gift certificates to people just to either try our stuff or read a darn white paper.

I say no more. Stop. I have since see some people in our company that treat this sort of incentive as cocaine and are wanting to give away some trinket or toy just for the sake of getting more leads with a complete disregard for the quality of the lead.

I agree that every once in a while we should give something fun away to give incentive to people and to let the marketplace know that we are a fun and vibrant company, but enough is enough. I have this strange feeling that the marketplace is either getting sick of our gimmick giveaways and in some strange ways almost expecting it. I have a feeling the some marketing people are the crack addicts want to give away this sweet thing just to boost lead count. I think its time that we stop being the dealers and start to be innovators again.

What is wrong with giving away something that the client is not only going to gain value from but also give them something that shows our commitment to that particular space? Sure, a book or a subscription is not as sexy as an Xbox, but we need to start giving out all of our candy all of time and give the marketplace a time to WANT to see something from us as opposed to the fat kid hanging outside your house everyday, cause they know you throw out a pound of chocolate every day.

It sure is fun to work on a program where we are giving away something for fun, but it might be even more rewarding to go back to the basics of marketing again and make something that is traditionally not appealing sexy again.

Who is with me?

 

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Tech Brief or White Paper

Ok..so if you are an IT person, what gets you more excited to read, a tech brief or white paper?  There has long been a debate at places that I have worked saying that one is better than the other and I am interested in hearing from any of you on what is better for you to read.

Lastley, I have a survey question for you….or better yet a survey incentive.  Lets say that you as  a member of the IT community have some valuable information that we want you to share with us. Is  is a real pain for you to fill out survey’s with no incentive or would you rather  have some sort of  nugget of of incentive  be offered to give us  what you need.  We plan to  do quite a few survey’s this year and I want to know what gets you excited to fill them out.

As always….let me know what you think.