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27 Comments

Help! Difficulty converting from landing page – care to have a look and critique?

Hello,
I made http://peepherd.com/?locale=en , a tool to organize events, share shopping lists and split expenses later. At this point it's a crude MVP, but I put effort on making the landing page as efficient as I could (loading time, clarity of message, etc) to see if I can make it resonate with my target user base.

I've been using Reddit ads, Adwords, and Facebook ads, but I get no conversions :( - I'm afraid there's something flawed with the landing page and I can't put the finger on it.

I think I'm too close to the tree to see the forest; I could use some help.

thanks in advance!

edit 20171016:
I sense a general aversion to stock photos - I thought people liked them... 🤔 any reason for that?

again thanks for taking the time - I'm getting a wealth of common sense from you guys.

  1. 4

    Well, the copy is not presenting enough value. The idea seems too vague. Why should I use your product (and convince my friends to do the same)? How it's better than Google sheets or WhatsUp group?

    Remember, in case of such app I will have to convince all my friends to use the app. I will have to 'sell' it to friends. This means risking my reputation if the app is a piece of crap. I have to be convinced enough to be ready to risk my reputation and I shall have good enough tools to do that (like a great explanatory video I could share with them).

    1. 1

      you make excellent points - thanks!

  2. 3

    It hard to understand what is the value proposition. Is it a software? In that case, I think you need to put some UI screenshot, so I can take a look what I'm signing for. What if UI is not good? People are not hurrying up to learn a new UI, there are too many of them.

    What if it's not exactly how I'm looking to solve my problem? Show me this before I give you my email address. In our day it's risky, you know: I give you my email, then I realize that your app is just a waste of time, and you keep spamming me via the email.

    The headline has to be more specific. - simple value proposition: "Split event expenses", "Event shopping list", I'm not a specialist in copywriting.

    In my opinion, the last "Make it yours" created out of thin air. It's not clear, and not valuable. My suggestion - throw it away. Focus the whole copy around one single problem: Tracking event spendings sucks - This is how you make it suck less.

    1. Make a shopping list
    2. assign tasks to members
    3. Split expenses

    Hope it helps.

  3. 3

    I don’t quite get it but I probably would if you didnt make me sign up straight away. The copy and pics don’t really matter as all I’m going to do is click that giant green button. Let me create an event / list or something - then ask me to create an account. Just like this clever site - I wrote this comment and then realised I have to create an account to post it :)

    1. 1

      thanks Mikey!
      the original reason to require registration is that when you vote for items in the shopping list, you also commit to pay your share of the expense.
      this of course I'll fix to allow people to kick the tires, so to speak.

    2. 1

      This comment was deleted 9 years ago

  4. 3

    The copy seems a little too vague. I'd try listing bullet points for the features rather than paragraphs; which also were quite vague in understanding what I am actually getting.

    Also, I would put another button down the bottom of the page to get started so people if interested can get started rather than see your facebook and email buttons.

    And just a thought, you may want to allow the user to test the product out without having to sign up; just acts as another barrier to entry.

    Love the idea, nice stuff!

    1. 1

      roguetravel, your comments make complete sense. Thanks!
      quality suggestions; much appreciated.

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      This comment was deleted 9 years ago

  5. 3

    I don't really get what the use case is. When do I need this? About what kind of events are we talking? When I organize an evening in the bar with my friends I don't need help.

    And I don't get the shopping list thing. I have no idea if I am in your target group or not. It would help me massively if you could present 1-3 typical use cases on the site, in brevity.

    edit: The hero image is friends eating out somewhere, is this the typical use case? Did they use your tool to get together? I would have assumed they just wrote each other texts to make the appointment...?

    1. 2

      It's clear to me now that I need to sharpen my message.

      the idea is to help groups gathering for a potluck - each brings either something they made or something they bought. so if somebody wants to bring kale salad, the group can vote whether they want that or not. if enough people vote, then the person bringing the kale knows how many people to feed.

      now I have to compact that sentence and deliver the message clearly on the landing page.

      thanks for taking the time!

      1. 2

        Is this the kind of thing that people need to decide on with an app? No one is going to be rude enough to say they don't want someone else's salad, the whole process is neccessary effort and the point is that it's a fun social event that everyone just contributes to casually, not something that is strictly budgeted.

        1. 1

          Thanks for the perspective!
          I guess it depends on the crowd: I've been told in many customer interviews that groups that meet frequently are tired of always having the same thing - but at the same time are afraid of suggesting new things to avoid the unpleasantness of refusal.
          By voting you can gauge interest and avoid wasting time/money.

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      This comment was deleted 9 years ago

  6. 3

    I'm not sure if this is the right forum to ask for advice for a web in Spanish :) My suggestions (as a native Spanish speaker and marketer)

    • The name of the website is hard for us to remember and communicate to others, look for something easier or closer to Spanish.
    • The copywriting of the site can be improved, it lacks a lot of accents and some parts (and some written are wrong) are difficult to understand. It would make me think that it is not very good if I would have landed on your site.
    • Let people try the product before signing in.
    • The use of stock pictures doesn't help either.
    • Make an explanatory video or gif.
    • Try to niche your events (birthday parties, bbq...), it looks like too wide to me and there are many event tools out there.

    The idea sounds good but the site needs some improvements to make more trustful.

    Good luck with your project ;)

    PS: just let me know if you want me to clarify any point above.

    1. 1

      Hey Zano!
      Thanks a lot for taking the time.

      I think you stumbled upon a bug: the default locale is supposed to be English (I edited the link above to force it). So thanks for the find!

      Since I speak Spanish I thought approaching that demographic first. Do you think it will help having different domains for different user bases?

      Your ideas are very good ones - thanks!

      Could you please clarify what you mean by "trustful" ?

      thanks again!

      1. 2

        Find a name that could work in both languages, I think it would be the best solution :)

        For "trustful", I meant the following, I would be very skeptical of a site with spelling mistakes, with stock pictures and asking me to sign in without being able to see what I'll find inside.

        All the best

  7. 2

    Visually there isn't enough craftsmanship displayed to keep me engaged long enough to read your body copy. I would think you could even look to copy other great designs you see for similar consumer software and that would function better than trying to put together something entirely new.

    1. 1

      fair comment - thanks!

      the second shot is ready at http://www.peepherd.com/pages/landing?locale=en

  8. 2

    Stock photos are in general fake depictions of moments or situations, and they have been used and abused over the years. So now days when you use them on a site, they give the site a feeling of it being fake and having a lack of original design. The large hero image at the top does not look too bad, but I would suggest you remove the small stock images and the other large one at the bottom. If you want to use images along the marketing copy, maybe try using medium size icons instead. Hope this helps. Good luck! :D

    1. 1

      thanks! - looks like there's a general dislike of stock photos. I think makers naturally reject things that lack substance.
      Took them all out - also were killing my page's performance on mobile.

  9. 2

    For me personally, the landing lacks the zing! It does not entice me enough to click on the big green button.

    The subsections aren't properly formatted, not of the same size and lack a uniform theme.

    Remember, human eye craves for continuity and uniformity. Anything that does not please the eye won't rest.

    Like the thumbprint​ is way too big. This is also true for your footer. Capitalisation of some words and not others gives an impression this is an amateur work (nothing personal). The text is not aligned. These are small things but make a huge difference.

    1. 1

      thank you so much for the attention to detail.
      I think the current iteration looks better : http://www.peepherd.com/pages/landing?locale=en

  10. 1

    what is the traffic like? maybe its a traffic problem and not a conversion problem.

  11. 1

    I get a site can't be reached DNS server issue. :|

  12. 1

    The link is broken for me. Did you take the site down?

  13. 1

    I can’t see the value. It seems to general, try to focus down on a specific problem.
    Typography needs work, I have this same problem with my site. I plan on hiring my friend, a graphic designer, to help.

    I would consider making a cartoon based animation that can communicate the value of using the app once you have niched down to a more specific audience.

  14. 1

    I just posted an article that goes in depth about how to write, design and structure a landing page. Hope this helps

    https://www.getbaited.com/post/optimize-your-landing-page-to-convince-people-to-convert?ref=indiehackers

  15. 1

    you clearly just tossed a bunch of stock images on there. it looks low quality.

    1 - cut out the footers
    2 - get rid of the 3 sections with oversized stock images
    3 - condense text to 3-5 sentences in one section.
    4 - add an email signup box.