Thanks to everyone who participated in the first Marketing Test Kitchen initiative: “Add to Apps” button. Overall, it was a huge success. The number of vendors using “Add to Apps” buttons grew significantly, causing a large increase in installs driven by button traffic. Before kicking off the second Apps Ecosystem Marketing Test Kitchen initiative, we want to recognize the winners of the first one.

Congratulations to the 6 winners, who will get additional exposure on the featured and notable section of the Marketplace front page:
Outright, Producteev, Insync, Mavenlink, Zoho and Manymoon

Established vendors such as Manymoon and Zoho improved performance of existing buttons and newer folks like Outright and Producteev added buttons to capture new business. If you didn’t get your button up for last week’s contest, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it now! Adding a button helps improve your overall performance in the Marketplace and will prepare you for future initiatives.

Now let’s take a look at the next Marketing Test Kitchen…

The Next Challenge:
Publish your most compelling customer success stories by Thursday, Dec 2nd on your own blog and share it with us at marketing-test-kitchen@google.com. We will feature a few of the top stories on the Google Enterprise Blog (see examples here and here) and also rotate the winning vendors into the featured and notable sections on the Marketplace front page. Note we will feature every submission in the Marketplace Success Stories blog, so just by submitting a story you will end up on the front page of the Marketplace.

It’s easy to participate: Find a compelling customer, tell their story, publish it on your blog, share it with us, and track your performance.

What makes a compelling customer?
It is important to find a customer that demonstrates the value of your integrated features with Google Apps. Make sure that your customer gives explicit approval for using their story. Here are some qualities of a compelling customer.

• Highlights the value of your app: For example, their use of your app in conjunction with various other web apps, such as other Marketplace apps.
• Hard data to support success: Numbers that justify strong gains are important, ie: 50% productivity gains, 10% increase in revenue, 20% reduction in IT costs.
• Passionate about Google Apps and the cloud: A genuinely passionate customer can explain the advantages of a cloud-based business and more easily help prospects understand and transition.

How can I make it easily consumable?
You can use the standard template from the developer site or find a more creative way to deliver it. You can create your own format that tells the story of the customer’s success. Here are some ideas to go beyond a typical blog post:

• Be visual: Use tools such as Picnik and Aviary to tell your story with compelling visuals (or choose another creative tool).
• Organize your presentation: You can use Google Presentations or SlideRocket to succinctly tell your story.
• Use video: Shoot or animate a video of your customer telling their Apps Marketplace story.
• Be creative: Combine the above ideas, write a story, or come up with something totally different.

To get a feel for different tones and stories, read some customer stories from various vendors on the Marketplace Success Stories blog. Also check out this example of a strong customer story that uses many of the above elements.

It’s easy to be a part of this new Marketing Test Kitchen. Just find a compelling customer, use a clever way to tell their story, publish it to your blog and share it by email. If you need more time, email us with your ideas as well! Make sure to track the performance of your blog post (and all other marketing efforts) through Google Analytics, learn how to code links and track traffic on the developer site.

Come up with the next Marketing Test Kitchen: Submit your idea via Buzz or email. We’ll evaluate the ideas and use the best ones for future initiatives. If we choose your initiative, we’ll give you a special prize.

Posted by Harrison Shih, Associate Product Marketing Manager, Google Apps Marketplace