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Affordable
Site Promotion That Pays Off
MARCH 2002
Consider your
product or service, is there anything you could offer a potential
customer that would prove to be of value to him? How about a piece
of software that would help him specify or select your product?
Now, tie this software program to your web site and you have a
wonderful promotional piece for your company.
For example,
let's say that you produce a product that needs to be specified
by certain properties such as ambient temperature, fluid exposure,
abrasives and whatever else an engineer would need for information.
Now, at your web site's server, you place a database
that contains all of your products and their properties. Also
at your web site a visitor can download a piece of software (an
.exe file) that will help him to select the proper product for
his application. The software stays on his computer and can be
freely distributed so that he can pass it along to other engineers
at his firm or elsewhere. Your company name is now on all of those
computers and it resides there for as long as they keep the
program.
In addition,
when they start the program a splash screen comes up (like in
any other software program) which contains your company contact
information. While this splash screen is being viewed by the engineer,
the program is connecting to your web site and loading that text
database file into the engineer's computer's memory (RAM). This
will ensure the most current data is being provided and speed
up the searching process.
Now, the engineer
completes a form and answers some questions that will help him
make the proper selection. Once he submits the completed form,
a selection is made or a group is selected, depending on how specific
he was in completing the form. Once he has his selection, he can
either click on the product number to retrieve specifications
from your web site or click on a button to order online, if you
choose that as an option.
What are
the advantages of such a program?
- First, as
we've already mentioned, your company name and logo are now on
the engineer's computer and he is likely to use your software
frequently if he specifies products like yours on a regular basis.
- By offering
free distribution, your software can spread from desk-to-desk
and engineer-to-engineer to ensure that it gets into the proper
hands - even into the hands of those who may never have visited
your web site before.
- In addition,
you can distribute your software on a CD-ROM, business card CD-ROM
or via E-mail.
- The best
advantage, however, is that your competitor cannot easily copy
your program. It is written in C++ or Visual Basic or some other
programming language that would require a programmer with the
proper compiler to reverse engineer it. While reverse engineering
is possible, it's not inexpensive and it is illegal if you've
copyrighted your program.
How much
should a program like this cost? It depends on many things,
the size of your database and number of fields, the complexity
of the search and much more. Expect to pay a minimum of $1,000
but, overall, your cost shouldn't exceed $10,000 and the ROI
(Return On Investment) is immeasurable. Web-Kare would be happy
to quote you on such a project, but be sure that the program
you have in mind will actually be of value to your customer
or you'll be wasting your money. The ROI only comes when you
provide something of value that will be used again and again.
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