We've released our app a few months ago, but the sales don't arrive.
We've released the public version of https://www.vualala.com a couple of months ago for iOS and Android but the sales don't arrive.
The goal of Vualala is to find a good combination of flights and hotel within the budget of the user, from the selected airport and for the given dates. If the case that the user doesn't like the combination, it's possible to change the flight or the hotel for the desired one.
We have tried Instagram ads to get downloads but the conversion is too low... Also, we posted our product on PH and follow the most important PH's users on Twitter, but looks like that methods are not working, maybe we're doing it incorrectly or just our product doesn't worth it.
Any suggestions, ideas, thoughts?
Thanks
Who are you targeting with this? When you think of your users, can you describe the typical person who comes to mind?
What's the angle for this app? With your current copy on the app store and on your website, it looks like a generic "show me flights and hotels less than X on this date".
"Best travel destinations based on your budget." Lose the word best. In this context it is meaningless. Best for you is not best for me. You don't know anything about me. You could change that by finding out more about me in the app and provide personalised suggestions based on what I like, places I've been, if I like revisiting places or going new each time, etc. "Personalised travel bookings within your budget."
"Travels made easy" - ditch this, it means nothing in the eyes of your customers. If you do some keyword research, nobody is searching for "easy travel". What are people looking for when they come across your app store page or website? Are you providing budget aware, personalised travel recommendations? Or simply "here are some hotels and flights we earn a commission on"?
When I look for flights and hotels for leisure, I often don't know where I want to go. How do you take care of this scenario?
Your page talks about features. Customers don't care about features. Only software engineers care about features. Talk about benefits instead. What pain do you solve for me, or what desire do you satisfy?
Wow Craig, sharp advice..remind me to ask you your opinion when I launch my app!
First of all, thanks @chays for your opinion! 🙌
Young people who love to travel without worrying about the destination, people who just want to discover new places but with a specific budget.
Yep, that's the summary. The idea is to simplify the process of search a travel. Let's say, I'm in Milan, Italy, in two weeks there is a long weekend because Monday is a public holiday, so I want to go somewhere but I don't know where and my budget is just 350 euros. With the current top travel sites (kayak, expedia, edreams...) the process will be something like
Find some inspiration for choosing the destination.
Find the flights from those top travel sites.
Find the accommodation.
Check if the flights + accommodation is still possible with your budget, if not, return to 2 with another destination.
Vualala tries to simplify those steps described above in one step, just select the origin, the dates, the number of travellers and the budget per person and it'll show the available trips with your budget. Simply as that.
Vualala gives the destinations you can afford for the given dates.
Again, thanks for you comment. Your feedback about our site helps a lot.
Cheers
I see.
Your copy doesn't convey that message very well at all. How about:
"You pick the city, we do the rest."
"Vualala is your personal travel agent. Tell us where, when, how much, and we will find you an experience you will love."
Instead of talking about features, talk about the benefits.
"Why let Vualala book your next trip"
You can still describe your features, but do it in a way that conveys the benefit of that feature for your user.
Also, I have no idea how to pronounce "Vualala". That makes it really hard for me to tell my friends about your awesome app.
Vous-alala?
Vwah-lala?
Vwahla-lah!?
Unless I'm being stupid (very plausible) you might want to reconsider the name.
Thanks for the suggestion Craig!
The name is a mix of the French interjection "et voilà" and the verb to fly in Spanish "volar". And the pronunciation for the English speakers would be something like you first option. I guess "voilala" will be the best transcription.
I don't see much value compared to other services who offer the same (momondo, booking, Kayak, Google Flights/Hotels even). Why would I download your app / pay for it? Answer this on your website.
Additionally, tap into your user markets. PH is okay, but you need to get your users continuously from somewhere: Google (through your blog/paid), travel forums, reddit)
Thanks @dqmonn 👏
The main difference with the services that you've mentioned is that Vualala searches the destination using your budget, but just not the flight, it's the combination of flight and hotel. Also, the algorithm cleans travels that don't make sense (long stops, too many hours on a plane for short trips...).
Does it make sense to you?
What do you mean by sales? From what I can see your app is free so are you talking about downloads or is there an up-sell when you start using the app?
Also are you driving people to your website / app pages and they're not converting or are they not even hitting those pages in the first place?
From what you've said it sounds more that your not getting in front of the right people. Figure out who your core user-base (profile those people who have already engaged with your app and figure out what they have in common) and from there it should be a lot easier to figure out where you can engage them.
Yep, the APP it's free to download. What I want to say with sales is that we are not getting revenue.
Thanks for your suggestions @Grend 👌
looks interesting, as a potential user, I don't believe when you say "the best" what's that even mean, cheapest? safest, fastest? Especially that the brand isn't established, for cheap flights, there are established brands, some for hotels, booking.com, etc.
Well, "the best" from our point of view. But theoretically, it's the combination of the cheapest-fastest flight and the highest quality hotel. Also the algorithm discard flights with too many stops in relation to the trip duration etc.. So, "the best" means a trip that makes sense.
Regarding the brands, we just put together those established brands which ones we have agreement (kiwi.com and booking.com) with under the algorithm for finding that "best" travel.
So, you, as a potential user, what do you miss in an app like Vualala?
Thanks @zzcdz
well, I don't trust your "best" is my best or that is a "best" at all, because you're a new company, and didn't saw nothing on the landing page to give me confidence about it, a trip is not something lightly, so I need some degree of confidence.
Thanks again @pasfasf ! You're right. "best" is not the correct term for our service... We have to think in another word!
I'm like this as well - not very trusting. I'd cross check the prices between expedia and other similar sites, plus the hotel / airline website themselves. If I do this enough times and am convinced I get the best rates from a site, then maybe I won't cross-check as much in the future.
One site I trust is Costco car rentals. I don't cross check because it offers me good prices, but also cancel anytime (so i can book and decide later) and an additional driver.
How about visiting some potential users and talking to them?
What is your unique sale offer? How do you differentiate from other similar services?
Good luck
I'm missing information about terms and conditions, as well as a privacy policy. I personally find it kind of suspiciously if someone is publishing an app with landing page, but you can't figure it out who it is. Just a contact form, nothing else. Just my 2 cents. :-)
Thanks @svzi. It's really a good point. If we want to show us as a proper business/product, it makes a lot of sense.
You read these line for line? :D
Not really :P but I think that's part of a serious appearance.
If I were you, I would try to look at my data. number of downloads, how many times a user uses your app in a week, etc. You'll surely identify patterns and you may find how to improve. Maybe it's just too few people use your app? maybe it's something bothering them when they use it? I think your user data could have this answer.
I booked hundreds of flights but never downloaded an app for that. Why should I download yours especially if I can use Kayak on the web which I know and trust? Sorting by price is just fine.
Did you have a look a Scott's Cheap Flights? They succeeded by doing things a bit differently. But again, I wouldn't go with "my idea first and hope they come". Too risky.
And what happens with the accommodation? Then you will have to do another search in another site and check if the combination is still affordable. Right? Vualala does that in one step.
Yep, I read the other day the interview here in IH.
Thanks @frant4 👏
I love your design and the UI. I think it is nicely done and you would be able to provide lots of value for the travelers. You got some really good feedback here, concentrate on ESPs not USPs, the user does not care about features, they care about the value you provide. The app market is a red ocean, you gotta stand out otherwise you will be just one of the apps the user has on their phone ans does not open. First, the messaging has to be clear, I would recommend finding a target market and a niche where you can find people who will download the app and use it. Instagram might be a good place to start to get attention, but it is a community, you gotta be active and provide value before you can start getting back.
Regarding communication and the message, let me know if you considered putting a video on your home page, I can help with that!
Thanks @Chriss for the feedback, we really appreciate it. It's clear that we have to improve our message on the landing page and in the apps pages... It's the most common suggestion.
Regarding the design, we gave our best to find a good design and schema colour for the app. Vualala has to be easy to use because the goal is to simplify the process of finding your next trip!
A video will be nice, but right now is not in our priorities, we have to choose carefully where to invest the money! But when the times comes, we can talk!
Thanks again.
You're in a very competitive space. To differentiate you have to know what the most common travel search apps are and how to reach the people who use them. Can you answer the question: Where do people searching for travel deals hang out online?
From your screenshots, it looks like you might target EU based last minute bookings or bargain travel hunters.
Your landing page and App store listing doesn't speak to them directly about who they are and what pain they have that your app solves.
Should be more like 80% about who they are and their problem 20% how you fix it.
First, thanks @ness for your comment.
We will improve our message on the landing page and the app pages, it's totally correct that we have to "speak" directly to our potential customers, not just listing the features!
Have you tried the app? Any other suggestions that you can provide?
Thanks a lot!🙌
You should focus on explaining what the app does a little bit better. Maybe the headline could explain it a bit more. Travels made easy could be a lot of things.
Also, the features section could have some more details and focus on your competitive advantage.
Obrigado @fusionPT!
Looks like a lot of people is recommending to improve the texts on our landing page 😅.
Have you done any ASO? Looking at your app page, it doesn't look like it. Something like 70% of users discover apps through app store search. It is incredibly important.
Whenever I make any ASO improvements, my ranking jumps as much as 200 places.
I always recommend people this video to set up their ASO.
@vualala there are two parts to this
1.User acquisition - getting people to come to your website/app
2.Conversion - getting these people to convert into a goal (sign up/puchase etc)
Some ideas for user acquisition
-Join travel forums across websites, facebook post about the service.
-Sign up people organically by talking to them.
-Give simple but authentic flyers (Google "Dojoapp flyers marketing"
Hope this helps.