Radium

Even though the music industry gets all of the press about piracy, stealing software is still alive and well. Actually, with the proliferation of torrent sites, it’s probably easier than ever to pirate software. But this isn’t a post about software piracy. Nope, this is a post about reaching potential customers is places you might not expect.

Rosetta Stone is a leader in proprietary language-learning software. If you’re not familiar with the product, their language software is priced per level per language, i.e., level 1 Spanish. With each language consisting of three levels and each level costing around $200, the software is not cheap. And, needless to say, software with a high price tag will be subject to piracy.

So the question becomes:
Can a person actively searching for an illegal copy of software be convinced to pay for it?

Most companies would probably say no and simply pretend these people don’t exist and hope they go away. But Rosetta Stone doesn’t appear to be ignoring this group and actually is going out of their way to target them.

Originally this post was supposed to be a non-rant about companies utilizing Google AdWords and mobile landing pages. However, a little bit into my research it became clear that most of the ads I clicked on directed me to the main company website. For mobile users, with a tiny 3.5-inch display, regular websites don’t always render images and text in a useful manner making these landing page useless.

If you’re familiar with Google AdWords, then you probably know that within the campaign settings you have the ability to target consumers with smartphones (i.e., full HTML mobile browsers). Google calls this “device platform targeting.” Even better, AdWords allows you to directly launch the iTunes Apps Store, Google Maps or YouTube applications from the sponsored ad.

This seems like a no brainer for companies selling apps and music downloads. Create a campaign – target only mobile users and direct them to your offering in the app store or on iTunes. Keep in mind that you can’t target specific types of smartphones (i.e., only iPhones or only Blackberrys) but with smart keyword and negative keyword choices, you can get pretty darn close.

Tom Tom AdWords ad and corresponding mobile site

Tom Tom provides a soft landing for mobile users and quick access to buy the app in the iTunes App Store.

When not searching from a smart phone, the same ad directs you to the regular website.

Digital marketing in a recession:
Hint – Don’t cut your budget and give away free stuff!

Forget about just weathering the storm and hiding under the covers. Now is the time to increase conversions, streamline your digital marketing and grab market share cheap! I know most companies will have the kneejerk reaction to cut their marketing and advertising budget. That’s fine if you want to lose market share and profits. But, if you’d like to keep your current customers and maybe gain new ones, don’t cut your budget – cut your costs and refocus your attention. Here are 8 steps to help you market electronically in a down economy.