Streaming Internet Radio | chart music | full albums

For the 2009 Conduit Awards, toolbar publishers were invited to submit their gadgets to the Awards for review by a panel of experts - 8,777 gadgets are currently listed on the Conduit toolbar marketplace, so competition was strong.  I had six gadgets accepted as part of the final 64 entries - for six gadgets to be accepted into the finals was a brilliant achievement.

To be in with a chance of winning the very first Conduit Awards, I had to concentrate on one gadget to be marketed – hopefully this would have a knock on effect for the other gadgets that had been accepted as a finalist in the awards. The gadget that I chose to be pushed forward in a marketing campaign was my We7 music playlist gadget.

A number of strategies were worked out for promoting the We7 music playlist gadget - then my planning had to be put into action. This involved several hours work every day. If the outcome was succsessful, all the hard work of promotion would have been worth the effort.

HERE'S WHAT I DID:

1) Target social networking
Music has a large audience on the internet, so this audience was targeted as part of a advertising campaign. I searched for music forums and groups on social networking websites, such as those found on Facebook.

Some of the groups listed on Facebook have millions of users, so if a fraction of people were interested, it would be a great start in getting things off the starting blocks – I was blown away… around 10,000 people downloaded the playlist gadget in the first few days of the Conduit Awards.

2) Have a competition
To get people interested in We7, and my toolbar gadget, I obtained £250 in vouchers from We7.com and offered them as a prize in a competition. I ran my competition in parallel to the Conduit Awards. To enter the competition, people had to install my We7 gadget. The competition was advertised on social networking websites and was a great success in attracting new users.

3) Tell a friend
I had already achieved tens of thousands of installations of the We7 gadget prior to the Conduit Awards, so this could not be ignored. I added a tell a friend button to the We7 playlist menu to encourage the thousands of users to tell their friends about my We7 gadget. You can find a similar button to the one I created for my toolbar on the marketplace.

4) Toolbar alerts
Alerts were used via my toolbar to encourage users to vote for my We7 gadget and to keep them updated of new additions to the We7 gadget. Alerts had to be used carefully – too many would have annoyed my users and made them uninstall. I used the alerts system roughly once every three days.

5) Blogging
Blogs were used to spread the word about my We7 gadget. Blogs can reach millions of people if used correctly, so they couldn’t be understimated. Blogging can be time consuming, so I used a free blogging tool from Posterous which allows users to auto post to several other services instantly. By filling in information on one blog, I could update four others at the same time. To help promote the We7 gadget on my blogs, I also utilised a We7 2go button – in a addition, I also provided code for others to embed it within their own webpages.

6) Preview it
People don’t like installing anything without knowing what they are getting. I offered a preview of my We7 gadget on the pages of my website, and also on my blogs to allow potential users to listen in to the music on offer. I was lucky in that the biggest selling album (Susan Boyle - I Dreamed a Dream) of the year was released during the Conduit Awards, so I utilised her album to attract users. As well as the music preview, I also explained in detail what was available via the We7 gadget.

7) Keep updated
The users of the We7 gadget are important to me, so during the work of promoting around the web, I also needed to keep the gadget updated for my users – this also had a knock on effect of encouraging those using the gadget to tell their friends about the music available.

The outcome
As a result of my intense marketing over the past three weeks, I managed to achieve my personal goal of having the highest number of downloads (the We7 gadget) during the 2009 Conduit Awards. It wasn't easy (but exciting) - it was like being in a horse race, constantly looking over my shoulder at my competitors. I have to congratulate everyone involved in the competition for making it really enjoyable.

If the first Conduit Awards are a sign of things to come - with high quality of gadgets being made available on the Marketplace, we can all look forward to a enjoyable and prosperous 2010.

Seasons greetings to each and everyone of you.