I see a lot of WordPress products and product websites as a consultant. I also get “pitched” a pretty decent amount, requesting me to check out someone’s new product to blog about here. Because of this experience seeing and judging products over the last few years, I have some things I’d like to recommend for product makers to potentially implement, or at least consider, to help market your products more effectively.
Most of my advice is geared toward theme and plugin shops, but some are also for support models, SaaS models, or whatever else someone could be pitching around WordPress.
Tell me quickly what your product is and does
You’d be shocked how often I see a website for a WordPress product that just confuses me from the get go. I don’t care that you just released version 0.6.5.1.
I want to know what your product does. Tell me, right away.
My attention span is very short, and I owe you nothing. Tell me what your product is, and tell me what it does. Tell me how it’s going to make my life easier.
Brand your product’s website
Personal blogs are almost never the best way to distribute a product. Many buyers will just feel more secure if they are downloading or buying something from something more “legit”. And that means you should probably distribute your product from some form of product or company based website.
If you intend to sell more than one product, I think it’s fine to distribute everything from a company site, and not have individual sites for each product. But that’s really a brand decision, and you have to choose how you want your entity to be perceived.
For instance, one downfall of separated sites is if one product takes off, it’ll be harder to get people to check out your other product. But on the other hand, if all of your products are demanding attention from the homepage, it could be tough for your true best products to stand out. I think iThemes strikes this balance well.
Logos and characters and color schemes are a good way to help me remember your product. But more important than anything else is to make your product name clear, easy to remember, but unique. Combinations of two words with missing vowels doesn’t help. I recommend you check out Lean Domain Search to choose a name. I bet you’ll be surprised how catchy of names you can find and have available domains.
Domai.nr is also awesome, but be careful you don’t get too clever for your own good. Even a simple domain name hack like Post Status’ poststat.us domain catches people up all the time. So consider yourself warned.
Have (and use) social media profiles
Social media profiles are another way to validate you and your business or company. But don’t be afraid for the social media profile of choice to be an individual or company that’s not the product. For example, most folks, and definitely Gravity Forms customers, know Rocket Genius sells Gravity Forms. Gravity Forms doesn’t need its own social profile.
And don’t just broadcast with your profiles. Invest in them. I probably make a good chunk of my buying decisions due in part to conversations I have and see on Twitter. Have a search for your product and company names saved, and respond to mentions in a non-creepy fashion when you can. Engage praise, and be sympathetic and apologetic to critique.
I like how WooThemes and WP Engine do Twitter, for example. Search the #WordPress hashtag if you want to see what I don’t like.
Your website should not be broken on small devices
You’re a web professional by default; act like one.
