Ask IH: How to market a new Slack Bot?
Hi IH!
This is Amadeo from CBill (https://computebill.com), a Slack bot that helps you save money on your cloud bill.
I have a couple of questions (second-time founder but new to the Bot/Cloud space):
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What are some great bot building or cloud ops communities that you would recommend? Any suggestions on how to approach them?
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What do you think of the revenue model? I.e. If CBill helps you save 5% on your bill, can we charge 0.5%?
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Any AWS, GCP or Azure power users in the house? Would love to get your take on MUST haves.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to provide feedback!
-A
PS: Anyone that signs up now to the beta will get a free lifetime account (https://computebill.com)
If you google for bot list you will see there're quite a few indexes (think product hunt for bots) that you can use to boost your SEO juice.
If I am not mistaken one of these companies was featured here @sethlouey runs it.
In terms of bot-communities there are 2 that I am part of on Facebook (they run pretty dry tho), I don't know if there's one specifically on Slack but if you use Discord there are A LOT of servers dedicated to building bots.
Revenue is an interesting one: I would start with a flat-fee once you have a guaranteed number of successes and testimonials. Do you offer a trial of like 1 month to see if your thing works for me?
I know a friend who spends 100K a month on AWS but once he started moving to GCP an amazon rep offered him like 50% off his monthly bill to stay...sketchy AF right? I'll ask him if he's interested but I can't guarantee his sign-up :)
Thanks for the shoutout!
Definitely get it on BotList. It would bring in tons of traffic under the Slack sub page and development categories.
We’ve been in the bot space since 2016 and BotList is one of the easiest ways to market bots.
Hey - I really wonder, how many views can you bring with your paid plans and whats the install rate and usage? basically, do you have some case-studies or numbers handy?
Depends on the bot and the platform that it is on. You can look at the views here on Slack subpage https://botlist.co/platforms/slack
TBH, $9 to test this out is not an extreme cost. It's two cups of coffee at Starbucks... ;)
Oh trust me, I am not bothered about the cost, if I had a bot I'd give you even $50 if you drove traffic to my bot :)
I am merely curious about the success of listings. I.e. compared to a ProductHunt launch
The difference between Product Hunt is us is that one is great towards short-term traffic and the other is long-term traffic. If that makes any sense :)
-- google for bot list
Amazing tip! These lists look great. Thanks @orliesaurus
-- I would start with a flat-fee once you have a guaranteed number of successes and testimonials. Do you offer a trial of like 1 month to see if your thing works for me?
Good question. I.e. you wouldn't want to be charged a percentage figure until you know that CBill can deliver a saving that is (significantly) greater than the cost. I think the way to address that as you suggest is a trial. We're offering a 7-day trial which should give team members enough value to assess whether this is something that they can utilise as a good resource. I take that you'd suggest extending that?
-- I know a friend who spends 100K a month on AWS
This is the exact type of audience (power users) that we'd love to get 'raw' feedback from. Would love to have him join the beta (and get a free lifetime account if he likes it)
--sketchy AF right?
Deff :-)
@jeffdh5
I’ve been in the bot space for about 3 years now and I’ve seen it all. I would totally use this service if it saves me on AWS. Actually, I’ll sign up to it for ChatMod.io
I like the revenue model. One feature that I would implement is that “ah ha” moment before even signing up. Maybe an AWS calculator that can show the savings? (Will take a deep dive on your site later. On mobile and haven’t looked yet) You could also implement an automation that shows savings notifications with the ability to Tweet it out. Most people like to brag about new tech that saves them.
Thanks, @sethlouey! Love the 'aha' moment idea. Will be implementing it soon :-D
Would you say that the automation on saving will be directly from the Slack bot itself? e.g. 'Hooray, [success event]! Click here to tweet about your $[amount] saving'!
I want to focus on making CBill 'team friendly' from the getgo. I.e. have no option to only add it to your profile, only share with everyone or post to a channel. Have you seen this backfire in the past?
look really interesting. ill def take a look next time i deploy on aws
Thanks @imrank1! Do sign up for the beta if you'd a free lifetime account. :-)
Hi Amadeo for big players I am sure this will be of help. Playing devil's advocate here. How would this be different from cloudwatch alarms for billing?
Also curious to know how you handle the payments and what framework did you use to build the site?
Forgot to say on payments: Stripe :-)
Thanks, Shrikar!
AWS, GCP and Azure give you the tools to keep on top of your spend, but I find that unless you're pretty good at using their tags consistently, budget reporting tool and at times also keep an offline pivot table excel, it's hard to project costs proactively.
For example: after a particular infrastructure change on day 7, I'd like to know if my monthly bill (day 30) is going to be coming up or down. Cloudwatch only gives you alerts after you've been billed. The idea as well is to provide recommendations on stopping wasted resources and optimising your spent (instances sizing, onDemand vs reserved, bandwidth, etc). Also as Teams collaborate on Slack, I find that it's a good medium to start a thread on a particular report or change, there and then while interacting with CBill as opposed to an email.
On the site: It's all bootstrap and Jekyll (an HTML processor). I bought a SaaS theme off themeforest and spiced up the fold with a little bit of Javascript.
So the bot it mostly proactive. Thanks for the clarification.