Suggestion for Xara Marketing - This one is easy

[Sheff]

The other day I received an email telling me that since I was an Aura user that I could upgrade to Mirage for a discount.

I went to the Mirage site and I watched all the video tutorials. These were excellent tutorials. These videos were extremely large, but they were extremely informative. These videos achieved their purpose and I will probably upgrade shortly.

Video tutorials are the MAJOR missing thing on the Xara X pages. How hard would it be to put the Xara videos on the web? Not very hard at all. Encode the avi's to DivX and Quicktime and post download links. Done.

The Xara videos are really the fastest way to learn Xara. That is how I learned to use Xara. Sending users off-site to Talkgraphics and Xaraxone to learn your product is not the way to go.

If you're a potential buyer, and you go the the media review page, you will notice that 10 of the 17 review links are dead. The ones that still work when the page was created are at the bottom of the page. If you're a potential buyer, how many dead links do you have to click on to convince you to not bother with a potential purchase?

Video tutorials will do more to help sell Xara than dead review links or creative pricing. Video tutorials are what convinced me that I should upgrade to Mirage because I can see how to use it and integrate it into my workflow.

If it's Xara's intention to reskin the look and feel of their website in conjunction with X1 update, and at that point they will address offsite linking issues, then I apologize.

However, the videos can only help sales and help new users and potential users who have downloaded the trial version.

The videos already exist. There is no reason to only have them on the CD. Why aren't they on the website?

Sheff
www.sheff.com

[Sheff]

The other day I received an email telling me that since I was an Aura user that I could upgrade to Mirage for a discount.

I went to the Mirage site and I watched all the video tutorials. These were excellent tutorials. These videos were extremely large, but they were extremely informative. These videos achieved their purpose and I will probably upgrade shortly.

Video tutorials are the MAJOR missing thing on the Xara X pages. How hard would it be to put the Xara videos on the web? Not very hard at all. Encode the avi's to DivX and Quicktime and post download links. Done.

The Xara videos are really the fastest way to learn Xara. That is how I learned to use Xara. Sending users off-site to Talkgraphics and Xaraxone to learn your product is not the way to go.

If you're a potential buyer, and you go the the media review page, you will notice that 10 of the 17 review links are dead. The ones that still work when the page was created are at the bottom of the page. If you're a potential buyer, how many dead links do you have to click on to convince you to not bother with a potential purchase?

Video tutorials will do more to help sell Xara than dead review links or creative pricing. Video tutorials are what convinced me that I should upgrade to Mirage because I can see how to use it and integrate it into my workflow.

If it's Xara's intention to reskin the look and feel of their website in conjunction with X1 update, and at that point they will address offsite linking issues, then I apologize.

However, the videos can only help sales and help new users and potential users who have downloaded the trial version.

The videos already exist. There is no reason to only have them on the CD. Why aren't they on the website?

Sheff
www.sheff.com

[Ross Macintosh]

Sheff - I think you are right about how good a marketing tool the videos can be.

I've long suspected that more people would by the program if their first experiences with the downloaded demo could be productive. I imagine most download, try it for a few minutes but don't know where to start and then loose attention and move on. I'm sure that situation would be different if there were the 'movies' online. Those who watch even a few would without a doubt have a more positive first experience with the program.

Xara's movies are wonderful and they should indeed be capitalizing on them.

I use 3d software called SketchUp which has movies very similar to Xara's but they are available online. @Last, the makers of SketchUp, relies heavily on those movies to "sell" the program. In fact the demo lasts only eight hours! Within that time, with the help of the movies, a person can be remarkably productive - and convinced that it is the program for them. I'm sure any Xara demo user would also be sold by the demos and what they can achieve almost immediately after seeing those movies.

Ideally Xara would make more movies. Do ones on various tasks like "making a pie chart" or "make a birthday card" etc. etc.

Regards, Ross

[RAMWolff44]

Perfectly valid ideas!! I agree 100% with the both of you!! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Richard http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

http://www.ramwolffsworld.com//Publi..._Prowl_sig.gif

http://www.ramwolffsworld.com/RAMWolffsWorld

[Sheff]

Ross, I agree on Sketchup. That's one program I would like to get as well. And it was the videos that sold me.

Sheff
www.sheff.com

[OklaEd]

Sheff,
Good point regarding the videos ... I wish I could go to a website instead of my closet to get a refresher course on a certain effect. Actually, I don't look for the disk anymore ... I just make a post here and wait for one of you "experts" to bail me out http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Ross,
I like the idea of tutorials on PROJECTS (ie: birthday card, advertisement, newsletter, chart, poster, business cards, etc.) ... most other programs have templates for these things and new users might be drawn in more readily if they could see the projects they wish to create illustrated in video.

-Ed.

[Ross Macintosh]

Ya Ed, if the movies are a selling tool then Xara Ltd. needs to hook as many potential purchasers with them as practical. Their arrival at the Xara site is one foot in the door. The movies, if targeted to their interests could get the second foot in. The existing movies can convince them they want the program. Playing with the demo after seeing some movies gets Xara Ltd. the sale.

Eventually a new user will watch a movie titled "The Basics" - but you can bet you'd get more attention from a person browsing the site with "Making Counterfeit Money using Xara X". (Such a movie could show how fun & easy it is to make play money for the kids). Another area many site visitors might be interested in is cropping digital pics in cool ways. Xara can do things with digital pics that would blow away most consumers. I'm thinking about things like intersecting a star-like quickshape with an imported pic then adding some feathering or a drop shadow.

Fun stuff to think about. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Regards, Ross

[RTK]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Sheff: If you're a potential buyer, and you go the the media review page, you will notice that 10 of the 17 review links are dead.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
--- It's sad... http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/frown.gif no, more than that - it's insanely dumb! I can only imagine how many sales Xara Ltd. has lost because of something that could have been corrected in 15 minutes. If it's something people do before buying software that they don't know anything about, it's reading reviews. I can't imagine anything much worse than dead links on a commercial site - especially the one that could help you get a sale. *sigh* http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

Risto

risto@ristoklint.com

Visit my web site!

[RAMWolff44]

I agree there as well Risto!!

Oh Charles.............. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Richard http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

http://www.ramwolffsworld.com//Publi..._Prowl_sig.gif

http://www.ramwolffsworld.com/RAMWolffsWorld

[Jonathan Payne]

Just for fun, I had a go at creating a Xara demo video. If the forum plays ball, it should be attached to this message.

Can I tempt anyone else to try making a Xara demo video? To avoid blowing up the server and to keep modem users happy, try and keep videos under 300kb.

Jonathan

Top Tip: If you get Windows Media Encoder (free) you can make a video directly from an application and as long as you don't add sound, the videos are really small.