Marketing idea to generate lots of free publicity and sales.

Ruven

Well-known member
The following idea may cost you a little money... or it may make you a ton more by providing an instant jump in brand awareness once the internet picks up on the idea.
Its a simple marketing strategy.

Any customer who can show proof of purchase of the vBulletin 4 software can then purchase XenForo 1.0 for the price of 1 dollar.

Or something that has a similar effect.
The idea being that if you paid money for vB4 and it was not what you thought i was going to be... XenForo will give you their software for free. Because XenForo 1.0 ended up being what a lot of us wanted vBulletin 4 to be.

Sure you lose money on perspective customers dissatisfied with vb4... but in reality a lot of vb4 customers will find it difficult to move away from something they just dropped nearly 300 dollars into. So you might not have gotten those customers anyway.
IMO Right now the biggest target audience for xF1 is vB3 users who wanted a modern version of the software, but not the broken software that vB4 ended up being. Thats xF1, and so you will get a ton of those customers.
This idea allows you to also get a lot of the vB4 users you might not have gotten, plus it creates a ton of goodwill for XenForo LTD, as well as a huge marketing opportunity.

I expect admin/forum centered websites to run with this story and give xF1 a huge amount of good publicity.

Sure its a stunt, sure some may see it as taking a cheap swipe at Internet Brands... but at the end of the day its the consumer who is going to determine if its a cheap stunt or a valuable resource for those who already spent their money.
 
Everybody calm down a bit, let's maintain some dignity and civility.

In answer to the suggestion, it would be nice if we could offer such a massive discount to people coming from another platform, but we simply can't. The people on this forum and our already not inconsiderable existing exposure are our brand awareness, and we shall fly or fall based up that, backed up with the desirability and demonstrable quality of our product.

We will be offering some form of early-adopter discount, but I'm fairly sure that it's not going to be a licenses-for-a-dollar kind of arrangement.
Thanks Kier, thats kind of what im talking about.
Im not a fan of people jumping down each others throat because they dont like what the person has to say. That type of nastiness is not cool.

I just went to vB.org, there is 10 page thread about XF... and thats pretty awesome right there.
It looks like you are right, you guys are getting enough exposure simply by having such a great looking UI.

In fact, the best advertisement for XenForo right now is Kier's vBulletin Blog imo.
 
Didn't mean, or intend, to get philosophical. However, I have never seen any new company ever give away their most sought after item for free. Maybe we could get some refrigerator magnets that say XenForo. (Joke, not being mean)
:lol:

Kier will probably print up some T-Shirts to give away or something.
Maybe something that says...
XenForo = vBulletin 5
 
One of the very best things about xenforo, is it's total lack of resemblance to any product... least of all the ugliest most out of date looking forum software of all. ;)
 
And on that we can agree
beerchug.gif


Whatever brought you here is OK... Think of it as the gentle breeze of fate.... or the Semi wreck of fate... but whatever, you're here now, and before you know it you will be a die hard addict like the rest of us
shifty.gif


You can check out any time you like... but you can never leeeeeeeeeeeeave - god dang showing my age now
roflmao.gif
Honestly i came here by chance.
Dont even remember how it was, but one of those late night googlethons where you are looking for one thing and end up finding a ton of other things.
I do remember reading a twitter from Kier about some kind of goodness coming at some point in the future, but that was way back when he originally left vB.
But im glad i stumbled upon this site, because ive been really bummed out with the whole process of running my forum since after the first few weeks of vB4.

Just seeing how great this forum works, how simply it operates while still retaining the necessary complexities for style and function... its pretty reinvigorating.
 
How about including a thread on our own sites consisting of RSS feeds (Have You Seen...?" etc.) from here?
It might not be appropriate of course for some sites, but it could be a way of crawlers picking up the xenforo name and piquing curiosity.
 
Given the big barefoot thread that is rumbling on, I was actually thinking of getting some silicone rubber XenForo-branded ankle bands made. That would be kinda unique and quirky - very Xen :)
What... no love for the "XenForo = vB5" idea... Should i have said vB6 instead? lol

I dont know about ankle bracelets there Kier... us American men might find that a bit too "quirky".
Not that theres anything wrong with that...
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Are you saying that American men are sexually insecure? :p
Very much so.

Isnt it a rite of passage for educated men in Britain to go through some sexual experimentation during their formative years?
Americans on the other hand call each other gay soo much that you sometimes start to wonder about their fascination with the entire concept.

At the end of the day both groups are a tad bit on the gay side... but one group is way more insecure about it than the other.
 
Very much so.

Isnt it a rite of passage for educated men in Britain to go through some sexual experimentation during their formative years?
Americans on the other hand call each other gay soo much that you sometimes start to wonder about their fascination with the entire concept.

At the end of the day both groups are a tad bit on the gay side... but one group is way more insecure about it than the other.

So we are all in agreement right ... might explain the English rugby team ;)
 
I can't speak for anyone else, but I had literally never heard of either of them until someone showed me this product, despite having spent the last 7 years as a professional skinner for IPB... I didn't hang around vB sites, nor Admin sites - not all of us are fanboys or girls at all!
You can speak for me too :D

Apart from the 7 years as a skinner, I'm in exactly the same position as you having never used any vB products before.

If I didn't know better from reading the posts on here, I would never have guessed XenForo was developed by the guys that worked on vB as the products are a world apart, although I understand that vB already had it's look and feel long before Kier and Mike were involved.
 
although I understand that vB already had it's look and feel long before Kier and Mike were involved.
Actually Kier was entirely responsible for the vB3 skin and user interface which were completely redesigned for version 3 and were quite different to vB2 (although Kier had a major hand in the vB2 style also).

The fact that xenForo is so different to vB3 shows how much the guys have 'gone back to the drawing board' for the new software, making the most of the opportunity to use the best, most modern techniques.
 
Top Bottom