At the SolidWorks World 2008, there was an announcement of a program that would reward users for bringing in new customers. Though this program involved more than one facet, the spearhead effort appeared via their Real Rewards website. Real Rewards gave rewards to individuals who submitted the emails of their colleagues. These colleagues would then be given the opportunity to receive a free trail of SolidWorks. If SolidWorks was purchased as a result of the referral, the user would receive one of various rewards. The first tier was a box full of goodies. The second tier (for two successful referrals) was a sound system. The third tier was an all-in-one HP printer/copier/fax/scanner. I believe the fourth tier was a fancy monitor. For five successful referrals, the reward was a middle of the road computer.
Due to my previous articles, I submitted over 100 referrals (all of which were requested by commenting on my blog). Out of those, there was 2 actual sales. This is actually more than I expected. Though a modest success for me, the program was not so successful overall. According to Bill Taylor of SolidWorks Corp., the volume of participation was very low. Though SolidWorks did conduct market research with promising results before starting this program, they found that participation was no where near expectations.
So the program ended in mid-2009. Unfortunately, the Real Rewards website was not taken down until December 2009. This means that I was merrily submitting a few requests for trial copies that never received a response.
There are new offers available from SolidWorks Corp. There is an education trial version of SolidWorks which is available for students. Also, a recent discount program was selling SolidWorks Premium practically for half price. Check out the SolidWorks website for current offers.