Aug
13Customer analysis and goodies
Tags : Software Posted in: Tech Talk
I need to do something for sure. After the last PR update I seem to have moved up the ranking in other countries, South Africa, Australia etc. - probably just because my site is that bit older. I’m getting more downloads as a result.
I also need to program a part of the website where people who have purchased can login, get special offers, subscribe to newsletters, ask for keycodes etc.
by ML
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When I got my first sales around 2005, I use to analyse the hits and work out which pages they viewed and as much info as possible. So I could try and adapt my sites and programs.
However, I don’t do any analysis at all I don’t even look at analytics at the moment, I just don’t have the time.
The idea of making a home for customers on our sites…
I’m not sure whether its worth the effort.
A couple of years ago I was convinced that my programs were full of bugs and that was the reason for my poor sales.
I began frantically trying to gain any information I could about these problems, I added uninstall surveys, crash / bug reporting (which would pop up with any error, asking the user to send this data, anonymously if they wished).
I had to add lots of code and it caused lots of problems and I’m sure lost me sales / customers.
I now think that this functionality was not the best use of my time, I probably could have doubled my sales by concentrating on marketing and my websites.
As a result, I’m glad I have the functionality, but I still have a lot of marketing to do.
So I’m not sure how worthwhile it is to spend too long developing a customer centre.
I know from what you’ve said in the past that you get a lot of support work from customers. So I guess it could be worth putting simple together.
As far as sending out newsletters, I don’t think I’ve had any success from them, to existing customers I mean.
Personally I think existing customers COULD give you extra income, but I think new customers deserve more of your time.
Or maybe you could buy a support system instead?
In many - if not most - ways the customer part of the site is for my benefit. For example, people ask for unlock codes and currently they do this via email. I have a policy of 2 codes per purchase. With a web page, I could automate this and save myself the hassle of typing stuff out every time. I could also offer extra codes for a reduced fee by adding Paypal buttons and so on… Quite a number of people ask for a second code.
Same with new releases - with a single click I could send people a “newsletter” telling them there’s a new release.
It’s always been a strategy to make money out of existing customers, e.g. SliQ MC is a chance to make a new sale to someone who wants to do invoicing for more than one business. SliQ Plus will come along eventually with other features people have asked for and will be another opportunity for a sale.
By the end of the year I should have a few hundred customers and hopefully these present a significant resource in terms of repeat sales.