You should have noticed that I can safely be called a tool junkie. I am no expert and I don’t like criticizing even rather a poorly created tool preferring to find some unique concepts and possible areas of implementation of any tool I come across. Anyway, I love tools and thus have to deal with new ones almost daily. The two important conclusions I’ve arrived at are:
- A tool is one of the most powerful ways to promote a site;
- With bad marketing even an awesome tool may end up never getting noticed.
So how to promote a good tool to spread the word and earn money?
- Invite beta-testers, it would be great if those beta-testers are well-known experts blogging on the relevant topic. I am often asked to beta-test new tools and I always agree because I enjoy testing new tools – apart from just loving to play with applications, this also gives me more inspiration and ideas. Similarly, many people from SEO niche I know usually agree to the offer to beta-test.
- Launch a tool for free first. Even if you are not going to make it free afterwards, you will thus get more publicity (free tools are more eagerly reviewed) and encourage more people to sign up and try it (these will be your customers and promoters afterwards). When the tool is still free is the best time to promote it with press releases and guest posts announcing it.
- Contact relevant blogs with the correct pitch: don’t push it and do listen to what those bloggers will tell you. I am for one often offered a live presentation featuring all the tools options. I usually reject the offer because I love exploring new tools from scratch: if the best features cannot be found without presentation, then the tool is not that good after all. If the developer starts bombarding me with emails explaining why I still need the presentation, I just have to stop responding.
- Create a demo account to allow bloggers and experts to login instantly and quickly check all features.
- Always offer free trial or basic free account. If people are unable to try it, they won’t buy it no matter how much positive publicity they come across.
Category
SEO
