You are probably on this page because you are considering the writing of copy for your software product. Even if you are convinced that you need copy, let's validate your reasoning right now.

If you don't have copy for your product, your company is mute - it's not talking. And that's not good.

People need to be given good reasons to buy a product. Copy fills this critical role for product sales.

Graphics, slick web design, and social networking all play a role in the sales process today, but they do not substitute for a professionally constructed narrative for your product.

If you don't have copy, you are mute as a company. You're not stating what you offer or who you help.

Copy in a web site, in press releases, or in advertising literature gives you the opportunity to state the specific reasons why customers should buy your software product.

There are several elements to good product advertising copy. Let's look at the most important issues involved in developing copy for software products.

Benefits Are Always The Most Important Element of Product Marketing

Consumers and businesses both buy products for an outcome that they find desirable.

There is an old business saying that people don't really buy a drill - they want to have a way to make holes, and buying a drill is the best way to make holes. The hole is the benefit. Not the drill.

Benefits - desirable outcomes - are a key component of the marketing process. Benefits messages are also quite distinct for every market for products.

Your real business is selling benefits to your customers. Not widgets.

Consumers usually buy products for personal reasons: it makes their life easier, it helps them do more, it entertains them, or it makes lives more efficient by saving money or time, or both.

Buyers of products intended for business use are looking for cost savings, revenue increases, or improvement of processes. In other words, a product is purchased for a business because it will save money, will help the business earn more money, or will help the business run better.

Consumers and Businesses Require Different Marketing Approaches

Sell to consumers by leveraging their aspirations and wishes. Sell to businesses with facts and logic.

The consumer - an individual person who buys products for his personal or family use - is a customer who generally buys on impulse without lengthy analysis. Consumers are fashion and style conscious - they may not buy a product if the presentation or the product seems to be outside their cultural norms. Successful consumer marketing usually taps into aspirations, fears, and wishes.

Business customers usually demand a logical, objective, fact-based marketing approach that can justify purchase of a product. Metrics and figures are important: being able to assert a X% saving of labor, or money, is very persuasive in this domain. Business purchase decisions are often made in a group setting, so it is important to provide factual justification for the claims that you make about your product.

Generalization caution! Consumers can often be quite logical and rational in their decision making process when they move to the purchasing step. Conversely, business customers can be incredibly illogical in their reasoning, and a very important enterprise software decision may come down to which software vendor seems "friendlier" or has a better looking web site.

Copy Examples

Examples of software product copy that I have developed for my clients are available on this page.

Summary and Invitation

If you need copy for your product, you should be aware of the copy techniques and style that fit each type of product and customers.

Even if I can't be your copywriter this time, you should have a grounding in the facts about copywriting as it relates to software marketing so that you can select the right professional for the job.

Help on your next product copy project is just a phone call or an email away. I'd love to help you.

I hope that this paper has given you a good overview of the territory.

I have the familiarity with software products and their purchasers that allow me to develop top quality copy for every type of software customer. I enjoy finding fresh, new, creative ways to express the benefits of your product to your customers.

If you need a writer who can understand your product, and what you're trying to do for your customers, and who can communicate your message effectively to your customers, then I am your writer.

If you need solid product copy that turns prospects into believers, then please call or write: Don Wallace, at 513-932-2236; email don@donwallacewriting.com, or use this contact form, at your earliest convenience.