While traditional models of selling games online is alive and well with veterans of the B2C sector, we have also witnessed the rise of alternative, social approaches to online marketing strategies.
In this post, we take a look at the online video game industry and analyze two different marketing strategies utilized by B2C companies. Our goal is to see how these different strategies can be applied to other e-commerce verticals.
When I think about the major social video game companies producing massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, I think about Electronic Arts, Activsion Blizzard, and wunderkind Zynga. These are the corporations structuring our play on the Internet.
It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway), that the way we play and pay for video games today is different than it was 25 years ago. Back then, I had an Atari 7800 with 4KB of RAM. I could buy a cartridge of Joust from Toys “R” Us, put the game in the console and I was ready to be interactively entertained.
The game has changed. I no longer need to physically travel to a brick and mortar store to buy a video game, and my friends no longer need to physically travel to my brick and mortar home to play the game with me.
And though I understand that these companies produce great games, I’m more interested in breaking down the online shopping experience into distinct components and understanding its application to other e-commerce verticals. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under conversion optimization, Customer Engagement, Landing Pages, SaaS payment models, zynga ea ecommerce
Revenue recognition for software products can be a complex topic, but following these few simple guidelines will make consulting with your accountant a more pleasurable experience.
It’s all about accounting
A fundamental principle of revenue recognition states that money is considered revenue only if a product or service has been fully and completely delivered.
Immediate Delivery
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Filed under e-commerce and accounting, software revenue recognition, SOP 97-2
Another year come and gone and the e-commerce world continues to expand.
2011 saw the untimely and much mourned death of Steve Jobs, a new congressional bill called SOPA stirred up vigorous debate about the future of the internet, Netflix spent the year running around like a chicken with its head cut off and of course, you can’t step anywhere anymore with hearing about the rise of mobile and cloud computing.
Here at Building Keystones, we want to end the year with a look at some of our top posts and reflect on the eclectic e-commerce tips and tricks we spent our year investigating:
Yes! You Need A Facebook Strategy Now – Everyone from Lady Gaga to 1-800-Flowers are sporting Facebook stores. This post highlights the reasons why companies in the digital product space need to seriously consider developing their presence on various social media networks and how doing so affects their customer relations.
How Do You Handle Subscription Renewals? – With the maturation of SaaS products, digital content paywalls and downloadable software products, there is even more demand for improved multi-period subscription billing. So how do you handle subscription renewals?
Four Tips For Increasing E-mail Deliverability – As we noted in last week’s post, e-mail is far from dead. Check out this post from earlier in the year and make sure your email marketing campaigns are as effective as they can be. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under Customer Service, Email Marketing, Facebook corporate strategy, SaaS, subscription billing
