I hope you take this in the most positive way possible. To be honest I read
your post this morning and was going to respond but had other demands and
was unable to respond until this evening. I believe that worked to your
favor because it gave me time to consider how I would respond.
In the many years I have been a member of this community, I don't believe
anyone has been turned down when they ask for help and it appears to me that
for the first time I can ever remember you have come to this group asking
for everyone's help. I hope that you are sincere in your request and are
willing to hear what people offer. My response is an honest effort to help
you succeed as member of this community and as a business person trying to
make a living.
Let's start with this,
My name is Austin Myers and I welcome you to the community and hope you stay
with us as a contributing member. Your latest version of your software is a
huge improvement over previous versions and shows you have a good
understanding of video and PowerPoint issues and that is something this
community is always looking for. You have a good deal to offer!
I know you want to sell your software and I know that it is easy to think
you have to get everyone's attention. That much is true, but getting
people's attention by being a pest instead of a help will never help you
sell your product. However making good friends by helping others is a GREAT
way to sell yourself and your products.
I have several software add-ins for PowerPoint as many others in this
community do, but we don't create posts just so we can answer them with an
ad or promotion of our products. We don't try to promote our products to
fix a problem if its not a good solution to the specific problem. In fact,
if you look through the posts you will see that the people selling products
and services answer all sorts of questions, not just the ones the sell our
products. What I am trying to say is that if you contribute to the
community, it will treat you very well on both a personal and business
level. Just something to think about...
Enough on that subject, lets talk about the suggestions you asked for. Your
product places a watermark saying "Evaluation" in the trial. I understand
why you do that but I can tell you its a bad idea. Mine and most of the
other add-ins that do well provide a real value to users when they install
the trial versions of our products. With my products users are allowed to
make as many presentations/videos as they want for a two week trial period
with no restrictions at all. I have found that when users, (including
myself when I use trialware) use software for a couple of weeks to produce
real finished projects (presentations) that they can distribute, they
suddenly "see" the value and do not want to give it up.
Sure, there are users that simply want to use the product for a one time
presentation, but so what? If they are really a one time use customer they
would never have bought the product anyhow. You still come out ahead
because when they distribute it, people WILL ask them how they did it and
that spreads the word on your product. Not only does it spread the word it
is spread with good feelings because you provided a real value to the person
talking about it.
You might consider altering your trial's capabilities, perhaps allowing the
user to convert 3 to 5 presentations and then place the evaluation watermark
on any new presentations until they register it. I am not saying that is
the only way to do it, just consider your options on how you can provide a
real value to anyone taking the time to download and install your product.
After all, isn't that why you offer a free trial? You want people to try it
and think it has real value.
Have you registered as a software vendor on the Office Online web site? If
not do it ASAP. It will drive traffic to your site and the visitors are
people that are looking to solve specific problems. If you can solve the
problems for them you are on your way to making a new customer.
Be accessible to your customers. A forum is a poor substitute for a quick
email response or a phone number customers can call. There is nothing more
frustrating than trying to finish something on a dead line, having a
problem, and then taking days to have it resolved or at least acknowledged.
You may not always have the immediate solution but at least your customer
knows you are aware of it and are working on it.
I could make a number of additional suggestions but I think I'll stop here
and let others jump in with some of their ideas and suggestions. Just
consider what I have said and if you find anything of value take it and run
with it. I wish you the best of luck and again, welcome to our community.
Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team
Provider of PFCPro, PFCMedia and PFCExpress
www.playsforcertain.com