Ask HN: How do I market my product?
The challenge I am facing is that "website owners" mean pretty much every one who has a website which means any company really. I need advice on how I can go about from this as the starting point.
The challenge I am facing is that "website owners" mean pretty much every one who has a website which means any company really. I need advice on how I can go about from this as the starting point.
I face a comparable problem (I'm a business coach, which means my clients are pretty well any business). Especially for professional services, talking the talk and appearing more specialised than you actually are (as long as you can actually back it up) helps open more doors.
So instead of buying google adwords for "website plugin" I could spin it for each industry maybe with relevant anecdotes. looking at it this way, it looks like not being niche is suddenly a great advantage because I can run through each industry.
Thanks :-)
1)Try to find out what type of website owners would see the most benefit (large, small, ecommerce, blogs, Wordpress?) and target them heavily. Get it to as concise a group as you possible can, then make it yours. Then find your next niche, repeat. each niche will take a while to work through though, so do your homework?
2) Try to find the individuals most likely to adopt and try the product quickly. Often this is not the same group as #1, though it may be. Follow similar rules as in #1 and try to take hold of a smaller group of user rather than just going after the huge number "website owners" out there. Web savvy folks are, by nature, early adopters, but with your product, some will always adopt faster than others. Find them.
EDIT- Also, if you can include a more detailed description, or a link, that would help the HN community wrap its head around your tool
here is the link http://www.updatesitenow.com/
Its a way for website owners to talk to customers directly. most of them have to talk to a web designer/webmaster, probably outsourced, so the idea is to allow the website owners to share day-to-day news about their company in a casual manner (via SMS, Email), not just by issuing press releases.
The link really helps with "seeing" what the product can do. The video is a good start as well. I'd change it a bit, though. For a great example and a good laugh watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkuReA-AGa8
Within 30 seconds you know:
-Company/product name
-Elevator pitch (The easy way to fix, fill, and seal virtually anything fast, and make it last). Yours needs to be as short and succinct as this.
-What's not/what makes it awesome.
-Why competitors are bad, and why this product is good.
-How to use it.
The rest is all ways to use this cool new thing that you were just introduced. 90 seconds of continuously reinforcing the initial 30 seconds. Then the price: "only $x for all of this great value that you just watched for 2 minutes."
The video you have right now is ambiguous until the end. If you're trying to quickly explain your product to a site visitor, you have to get to the point ASAP.
industries where speed and CR matters is what I am looking at as well.. export businesses, the hospitality and travel industry for example. Thanks :-)
I am also writing to a couple of popular blogs in industries I have chosen to start in, to give it away free as an experiment. It is in the hope that the "powered by" link could get me other users in that industry interested.
Disclaimer, that's my site.