illustrator-welcome-screenI used to work web-based products. Now I’m with software. Biggest difference? Access to the user base.

Working on a website has some real luxuries in terms of marketing to users (for upsell, cross sell or just engagement): you always know how to find your users. They’re on your site (unless they’re pure RSS geeks).

Software is a different story–especially if you’re implemented at the institution level. See, you just don’t want to person who signed the contract to be happy with your software, you want every user to be an internal evangelist–so when it comes time to renew you have the foundation for a revolt.

So, if you’re trying to run some engagement webinars and your lists are incomplete, what do you do?

Well, short answer is deal with it. Long answer is: prepare for next time–and do what Adobe does: use the welcome screen (not the splash screen) to publicize events.

I’m looking into what the maximum functionality is for this little bit of real estate–and how to track its effectiveness. You should too.