Software Business

How to Promote your Software with One-Day Deals

One day deal is a discount-based selling method invented in order to promote impulsive sales. Its uniqueness consists in the fact that these sales are only there for 24 hours, thus, the name "one day deal".

Since this method was launched, more and more one day deal websites appeared on the Internet, and their success is already a fact. People are always attracted by bargains, and this is exactly what these websites are offering to the virtual customers.

Certain websites use only this method, since Woot.com (a famous one day deal site) launched it in July 2004, but other sites use it along with the conventional online sale methods; either way, its success is undeniable.

Usually, this type of websites resembles very much to blogs, mostly because they are being updated daily. Also, to increase the so-called "sale drama", the sites might have a chronometer shown along with every product, to know exactly how many hours, minutes and seconds the customers still have to purchase the advertised item at the discounted price.

How to Make One Day Deals Work for You?

A good, inventive and solid promotion is the key of any successful sale, and time limited sales are no different. Therefore, in order to reach high numbers in the selling department you need to let people know about the big event you are about to host on your website, or on other affiliate websites. The one day deals can be promoted in two different ways, according to online marketing researchers:

• Do it yourself: own one day deal through Blog, Forum, or Existing Customers
  Your existing customers are a great target, because not only do they know your products, but probably recommend them to their friends and relatives; thus, the connection is already established, and by making special offers for them, you make them feel rewarded for being your customers, thus making them to "stay in touch".

  For example, you can offer 50% discount on certain products for 24 hours to those customers who bring two other customers on your website, thus expanding your selling network; or, you can offer one day discounts to your already existing customers, thus making them feel "special".

• 3rd Party - Partners / Affiliates / Resellers
  You can promote your sales using third party services that run one day deals daily. These websites have an already formed audience and virtual customers who are visiting for discounts or special deals.

  These websites drive traffic and highlight your software on sale for one day, provided that you give them a percentage for every item sold on their site. For the Windows platform, you can use Bits Du Jour or SoftwareDOD, and for the Mac Platform, MacZot.

  This method should be considered as an advertising technique more than a sales technique; the revenues from the actual sales become irrelevant, because the one day deal sites also need to gain a commission, which make the financial revenue quite small.

This marketing technique through 3rd parties is interesting mostly because besides the people that purchase, the product is promoted by email marketing or RSS feeds to a much larger number of potential customers that might become valuable in the future.

Benefits and Experiences

a) Bits du Jour

If you decide to put your software on Bits Du Jour, you should know that your items must be discounted at least 40% from their original price and the commission for every sale they make is around 30%. The customers can buy the discounted products until the Midnight Central Time.

The great thing about the Bits du Jour is the set of tools to help the vendors make the most of their promotions. The one day deals are also spread through email marketing, RSS feeds and a number of affiliate sites that present the special offers on their pages.

Since the comments are so positive, Bits Du Jour sounds like an excellent plan, especially because of its already established name among one day deal websites. You can see right here a testimonial, a case study with ebook sale results or a discussion on joelonsoftware on this particular topic.

b) Giveaway of the Day

Putting your software on Giveaway of the Day, it is a more complex approach: you should give one of your commercial products for free for one day (with some obvious limitations: no support, no upgrade, no commercial use) with the goal to build a customers database which you can use for cross-sells later on or even directly in the process of downloading the free product.

Moreover, if the product license is limited in time, you will get some renewal sales when the license will expire. The software taken from Giveaway of the Day is yours to keep as long as the whole process of downloading, installing, and activation is done during the 24 hours that each program is offered. The programs you chose do not expire in 24 hours. Activation means the registration of each program; once registered, each program is yours to keep for the time you like.

This kind of propaganda works very well, because you're getting a big number of users for your product. The process of licensing can be handled both by Giveaway of the Day and your own custom registration system, and each item has a comment posted by Andrew Klein, who reviews all software listed on this website.

You should take into consideration the fact that people who visit this website have different IT backgrounds, so the items with greater success are those that the customers can use immediately, so as to avoid future support and tutorial questions.

The solutions seem to be the best especially for companies which are now starting, in order to make themselves and their products known, because Giveaway of the Day is a valuable marketing tool, that you should consider when selling software on the Internet. You can read here a case study on Giveaway of the Day or again, a discussion on joelonsoftware.com.

c) SoftwareDOD.com

The software on sale is discounted on this website for one day, but those who don't buy it have a second chance after 24 hours. Any new deal starts at 11:59 Midnight Eastern Time, and the discounts range from 10 to 90% off. All programs are purchased directly through the developers, having all the applications available with the same level of support as if they were bought at full price.

Usually, the offers are there from Monday to Friday, but there have been cases when the offers extended throughout the weekend. You can read more about this website in the SoftwareDOD launching press release.

You can find in this article a list with more Deal of the Day websites that I found quite useful.

Tips to Maximize a One Day Sale

1. Stimulate Impulse Purchasers
   Keeping prices under the fix sum helps the increase of impulse purchasers: "0,99", "9,99", "99,99", etc.
   
2. Choose your timing well
   It is better to choose midweek days, instead of weekends or holidays, because people are more active during the week. You should also plan for the one day sale in a period when you don't have other promotions running.
   
3. Draw attention
   E-mail marketing, messages to current customers, banners on the shop homepage or other advertising techniques should be used to spread the word about the special deal you have.
   
4. Track your activity
   Track your sales, in order to make up-sales/cross-sales later on, for future sales. The use of coupons is recommendable and practical because it helps both keeping in touch with customers and also provides an accurate tracking of the sales.

Conclusions

It is no longer a secret that one day deals are a successful marketing technique, especially because it is in our nature to love bargains. It is also true that not all the items featured in this kind of sales are highly qualitative, but this is a risk any customer should be willing to take, since deals were invented.

The main advantage of working with One Day Deal sites is in the big number of impulsive buyers that are constant visitors - just waiting for a useful product to be displayed. Also the interested visitors have previews of what there will be on sale the coming weeks, thus having them informed and prepared to buy when the time is right. So, it really sounds like a good business!

The fact that there is a time limit pushing customers - a deadline - forces people to make quick decisions, thus the huge success these deals have. Also it's a good up-sale technique to your current customers that already know and trust your products as they can buy a second product from you at an excellent price.

All in all, this marketing strategy is a worth trying experience, because one can hardly find a bad thing written about it on the Internet; both sellers and customers seem happy. Consequently, you're software business can only gain by this, so try it and let us know how it went! Good luck!

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