How NOT To Market Your "Niche" Software

In my constant, ongoing, never-ending, all-consuming quest for a word processor that doesn't make me want to commit violent crimes, I ran across a program called PageFour. Let me start off by saying that PageFour is an excellent product. This isn't a product review, so I will provide a link below for people who want to look into it further.

PageFour is the creation of an independant software developer in the UK, operating under the name imbt Software. It is intended as an alternative to the more business-oriented word processors, such as MS Word, and it is geared primarily toward people who write creatively. To this end, I think PageFour is an overwhelming success. The product does what I want it to do, the way I want it done, and it lets me turn crap on, rather than having to figure out how to turn it all off.

The software is available for download online. Essentially, you download a trial version of the software that allows you to test-drive all of it's features, but limits the number of files ("notebooks" and "pages," in PageFour parlance) that you can create. If you decide to use the product, then you can pay for a license that will fully activate the product on your system. At about $30, the price is very attractive and commensurate to the product offered, and the entire trial-and-purchase process seems very straight forward, and well thought-out.

But I don't think that I will be purchasing a license to use this product, and out of fairness to the developer I will have to delete the trial version of PageFour from my computer. The problem has nothing to do with the product, which is excellent, as I've already said. The problem is the manner in which the developer has chosen to present his word processor. I am at best a reluctant online shopper. This is due largely to my innate distrust of the Internet, and my reticence to provide personal information -- particularly bank or credit card information -- to anyone online, however legitimate they may be. The result is that I tend to scrutinize an online business much more carefully than I might were I purchasing something at a "brick and mortar" store.

To this end, I began to investigate the developer. I searched the product on the Absolute Write message board, where I had first heard of it. There wasn't a great deal of buzz about it, for a board of that size, but what references I could find were generally positive. I saw that the developer himself had joined the group and, in the appropriate forum, had attempted to promote his product. I also noticed that he had joined the forum in December of 2005, and that he had only made nine posts in all of that time, the latest being in March of 2006. For some reason that set off some alarm bells for me, particularly the date of the last post, or more specifically, the lack of further posts after that date. What was going on?

Curious, I went to the developer's blog. The latest post on that blog was dated October, 2006. Again I was struck by the date. Why the three-plus months of silence? Further down in the blog I came across an article by the developer entitled "Things I did Wrong--PageFour Deconstructed." In it, the developer outlines what he believes to be the main reasons that his product is not more commercially successful. That was all it took. My confidence level plummeted, and I decided not to pursue the issue any further.

Given that PageFour is clearly an excellent and useful product, I think the lesson is this: Even if you are a small, or independent software developer, don't act like one. Maintain a visible and professional presence. If you are going to have a blog in support of your product, update it regularly. It was quite evident to me, simply by checking the dates of the blog posts, that the blog was created about the same time the product was made available, and that both have slowly faded into silence as the product sales failed to meet the developer's expectations. Don't discuss your marketing failures, or, if you must, at least don't discuss them on the same forum that you use to promote the product you are having difficulty marketing. It's rather off-putting, and in at least one case (my own) resulted in a "thanks-but-no-thanks." It would be far better to remain silent on the issue, move on to your next (presumably more successful) project, and let the quality of the former product speak for itself.

I hope the best for imbt Software. If PageFour is any indication, I believe that this developer will offer many exciting and useful programs in the future. Until then, I hope that he (she, they) take a serious look at their marketing strategy, and use such tools as they have better to their advantage. In the meantime, my quest for the perfect word processor goes on.

And on...and on...and on...

You can check out PageFour, and the related imbt blog here, and here.