Feel like I'm stuck in a rut, how do I figure out what to do next?
Hi everyone! Long time lurker here!
https://beetle.email launched in January 2017. It got off to a great start by quickly getting its first paying signup (for multiple users) but since then it's got one more monthly paying customer and that's the way it's stayed.
The site gets between 30-80 signups a month, but no conversions to paying customers.
I'm a developer and a solo founder. Marketing doesn't come particularly easily to me, shipping new features does! So I've forced myself to stop doing that for now.
I feel like I'm not confident enough going down any particular path to feel comfortable that I'm not wasting my time and I end up starting something (like cold email outreach) and then a couple of days later thinking "this isn't going anywhere, there has to be a better use of my time" and starting to look for more worthwhile endeavours.
How do you guys decide what to focus on when there isn't a clear path? And how can I figure out what to do next without constantly what I'm doing?
All feedback appreciated!
Have you tried contacting your user base and ask them why they don't convert to a paying plan? It's the only way to find out what the issue is: perhaps your offering is unclear, the price is too high, or users are simply happy with basic statistics and not looking for anything else.
Personally, the only value I see is design inspiration. Your free tier already takes care of this.
I do have automated follow ups to people who haven't used it in a while, but none asking for feedback from people who are using it, now that you mention it. Thanks for that, I'll start reaching out to them.
Maybe you feel lost because you have no defined strategy you're working with?
Check out the book "Traction". The premise is identifying a number of distribution channels and running experiments for each in a systematic way.
You need to stick with what you're doing for more than a few days and ensure that you have clearly defined goals that you're measuring before you can make an accurate assessment.
If marketing isn't your thing, then there's nothing wrong with that – you can either outsource it to someone else, or if that isn't an option, then surround yourself with some marketers who can help you out.
Definitely. Thanks for the book recommendation, I'll check it out.
This is something I've done in the past but seem to have let fall by the wayside, I'll pick that up again.
Outsourcing isn't an option financially at the moment, I've just taken a look in my local area and will get to some marketing meetups!
Thanks!