Why Web-Based Accounting Software Will Never Work

We've been developing the web-based accounting backend that now powers FaceCash (https://www.facecash.com) since 2001, and we also found it hard (read "impossible") to sell as a startup that no one had heard of. However, once we built it into the payment system, we started to have all kinds of businesses interested in using it. It's more of a marketing problem than anything else.

As for focus, we've deliberately ignored countless VCs who have insisted that we do one thing and one thing only. Accounting software needs to be robust in a wide range of areas for it to be usable. If you can do Accounts Payable but not Accounts Receivable, what you have is a product that no one wants.

2) 1 year is a hell of a long time to invest in something. You need to be pushing 3 to 4 apps per year in order to get a chance at creating something that gets traction.

So there's our reason. We chose Quickbooks because it solved our remote access problem without diverting IT resources from focusing on our product, and we chose Quickbooks specifically because that's what the accounting staff were familiar with.

One of the best marketers I ever met told me that marketing was: "...being the guy at the bottom of the hill selling shovels after an avalanche." When he first said this, I thought it was silly. I thought he was just a rambling old man, but the more experience I've gained selling SaaS, the more I've realized he's right. It's such a simple concept that it's easy to overlook.

So how do you do this in practice?

First, you need a compelling reason for people to use your product. You have to know your customer and understand their pain points. Address as many as you can with your product. Then, make that fact known in your marketing material. Tell the story of how your product is going to take away that pain. Make sure that message is told up front.

Next up, you need to be ready at the bottom of the hill when the avalanche comes. This is probably the hardest part, and there are many different approaches. Advertising, direct sales, referral programs, affiliate programs, you name it. The key is, the user needs to literally stumble over your product at the moment they're ready to buy. To go back to the avalanche analogy, how hard do you think it is to sell a shovel to a man when he's standing neck deep in snow, and he turns around to see your shovel booth?

Based on this, let's have a look at your home page copy:

===========

[1] Professional Bookkeeping Software For Shopify Stores

[2] * Ready-to-use with no messy installations * Automatic inventory and sales tracking * Easy to use expense tracking

[3] Free plan available for single user. Only $9.95 a month per additional user. No contracts, no obligations, you can cancel anytime.

[4] Install Bodega Sale

[5] More Info

===========

The following critiques aren't empirical. I'm not necessarily saying you should make changes everywhere I point something out, but these are perspectives to consider. Many of the points will be balanced by counter points. You'll need to find the right balance in implementation.

1 - This H1 content appears to be well optimized for search terms. It does a good job of telling me what the software is, but doesn't really compel me to buy or show any connection to my needs.

2 - If I'm being brutally honest here, there is nothing about these items I find compelling. Unfortunately, I'm not a Shopify customer, so maybe inventory or sales tracking is a big pain point for Shopify customers, but that sounds like pretty basic functionality. Rule of thumb: never list features as a selling point. Tell a story that your customers will relate to. Do you use Shopify? Do you know lots of people who do? What challenges do they face? In their every day lives with Shopify, what tasks/problems do they have to slug their way through that you can alleviate. Identify those problems and tell the story in three short bullet points.

3 - There's nothing explicitly wrong with this last paragraph, but it sounds a bit like a last ditch effort to get someone on board. To break the paragraph down, you send three messages: free, cheap, leave any time. These points address a customer's resistance based on a sense of obligation, but they don't sell the product. I call these an "at least you won't" clause: "Hey, you may not really need this product, but at least you won't have to stick with it if you don't like it." This is never the strongest place from which to sell. If you're going to use the word free, use it as a hook to lead a user to the next step.

"Free plans available. See our complete list of plans and pricing."

Where "plans and pricing" is a link to your detailed plans and pricing page.

4 - When I click this link, I'm hit with bold text that says, "Starting at $9.95 a month." What happened to the free plan I was promised? This is a major user trust issue, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's a major source of conversion failure. The byline "This application offers a limited free trial period" is smaller, low-contrast, and in italics, which makes it more difficult to read. This looks like the Shopify app store page, so you probably can't control these elements. Rather, I'd suggest you adjust your messaging on the other end to avoid providing a false expectation.

5 - Wall of features! Customers do want to know what your product contains, but right now, you're leaving it to them to figure out "why" they'd want your product. That's a risky position. You give them plenty of reason to say no. When you provide a user with a list of features, you invite them to review your product with their own internal checklist. Anything on their checklist that your product doesn't have is going to count against you. You have to provide the information, and some customers are going to give you the checklist treatment regardless, but you should provide as many compelling emotional reasons to buy as possible. This will give them a counter-reason to their failed expectation of feature X.

===End of critique.

Like I said, these are all my perspectives. Our company sells a SaaS financial tool (more procurement than accounting) with a heavy professional services component. We do business with some big name retailers and financial services firms, and we sold to them when everyone else was telling us we'd get no where chasing whales. I'm very lucky to work with a sales team that really understands how to relate to customer needs. That single aspect is the greatest lesson I've learned in this iteration of my career.