Jul 23rd, 2007
Summer sales slump or a chance to boost your software business?
During the last weeks I saw several posts on various ISV and shareware forums where people complained that their sales had decreased and that summer is the worse period for software business.
Overall, I have to agree that in summer the business activity goes down. Nevertheless, summer offers a good chance to boost your software business in the long run. Let me explain …
This is not only the number of orders that is decreased in summer. The volume of support requests usually goes down also.
While you have less support job you may focus on your projects solely. Devote this time to planing, software development and improvement, market research and trends analysis. Summer is a good time to leisurely prepare and test a new product or a new release of your existing product to launch it in September or October when the business activity rises again.
Like Christmas, summer is a time for savings
As many businesses (And what about you?) try to keep their falling sales on a certain level they often setup special discount offers for summer months. Thus, it’s a good chance to buy business tools (software, SDKs, scripts, libraries, etc.) or to order some professional services (design, testing, copy writing) with significant discounts. Think about tools that you will need in future but it might be cheaper to buy them now.
Your news seem more significant against the summer lull.
If you have a news that might be interesting to your potential customers then don’t wait till Fall. Send your press release now. Because the flow of corporate news is not so big in summer your press release will more likely get in front of an editor than in any other period. Even a message about a minor version release may appear in the top news section of a huge portal or a magazine.
Announce in summer to reach your market on the peak.
Big paper magazines have a long publishing cycle. If editor picks your news for publishing or for a featured article writing then it will be printed in several months, usually 3-6. Therefore, if your send your press release in summer then it may appear in October or December issue of the magazine. Your message will reach the market right in the most active period. That will be great.
These are just a few evidences for the idea that summer is not a bad time for software business. Try to use the summer slack with the most possible effectiveness for your ISV business but don’t forget about the rest :-).
If your business is slow this summer, don’t send press releases only to catch the attention of journalists.
Write them to catch the attention of consumers!
Press release writers can get fabulous results from well-written releases that are optimized for the search engines.
A consumer who is searching online for information and types into the search engine box the same keywords used in your release will most likely find the release. They can then click through to your website and enter your sales cycle, even if journalists think your release isn’t worthy of their time and attention.
As a publicity expert, I get more questions about press releases than any other topic. So I created a free email tutorial that walks press release writers through the entire process, including how to distribute press releases online.
It’s called “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases” and you can sign up for the tutorial at http://www.PublicityHound.com/pressreleasetips/art.htm
It’s a long course but please stick with it. By the time you’re done, you will know more about press release writing and distribution than most PR people.
Thanks for writing the article above. It puts a positive slant on a negative experience
Something else worth considering (Do as I say not as I do) during the summer months:
Take a vacation, spend some time with your family, your customers don’t need you as much.