About three months ago, I had the great opportunity to spend some time with Successful Software as he went through a full review of Hericus Software and Zed Builds and Bugs. Andy took a look at the business, the product, and the marketing efforts we are doing and gave some very useful course corrections that we have implemented. After the review was done, Andy asked for a testimonial, and it's been three months now since the review - so where's the testimonal?

Well, the truth is that one of the things I like most about Andy's blog is the way that he will present a story or a scenario, and then back it all up with numbers, statistics, and real data that support his claims. To be true to this theme, I wanted to wait with the testimonial until such time as I could provide data to support my statements.

The basis of our request for Andy's help was to find the areas where we needed to focus our attention so that we can get more exposure in the marketplace, and more knowledge about our product in general. Secondary to that was to also get some direct and pointed feedback about the product itself and day to day usage of the product. The following table gives a summary of the success we have had since implementing the suggestions, and focusing our attention on the marketing of Zed Builds and Bugs:

What stands out most to me in the above list is that even though our total web traffic has not increased substantially, our overall downloads, conversions, and time spend on the web site have increased significantly. That means that our efforts to focus our advertising and communicate correctly to our target markets is paying off. We're getting much more qualified leads coming to our web site, they are spending more time looking at the site and the product, and more of them are choosing to download the trial version.

And of course, all of that really doesn't mean much without looking at the final number that drives the business: Sales. At this point I am happy to report that in spite of the downturn in the economy, total sales dollars have doubled since this time last year.

Part of the changes that we have introduced is also an expansion of the free version of our software. It supports teams of up to 5 users, and still has all of the great features you'll find in the full product. Since Andy's audience typically tends towards micro-isv's and startups, I wanted to let everyone know that the product is available for you so that you can take advantage of organizing your software development, automate your builds, and track your bugs and all of your day-to-day tasks using Zed Builds and Bugs.

So thanks again, Andy, your feedback and suggestions were timely, useful, and ultimately profitable!

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Posted by Hericus Software on August 31, 2009 10:17:00 AM CDT #