Got a 30% Click Through Rate: 14 Products in 14 Days Status Update Day #5
|| TLDR: ||
Super awesome open rates on the first product test. Pushing myself to stick to the plan and not get too focused on one product. Found a cool framework for understanding customer needs.
|| Welcome Back: ||
Hey, all! I have been posting updates on my product discovery project "14 Products in 14 Days" in the Daily Stand Up group, but realized that it is probably a better fit to post updates on this project to the Product Development channel. So, here I am! If you want a recap of what has happened so far, skip to the bottom of this post.
It's day #5 of the Sprint! I have some cool updates.
|| UPDATE 1. A Small Win: Super-High Open Rate on Cold Emails ||
I got my first email campaign out associated with my first test product, PeopleHat Virtual Assistant Subscription (PeopleHat.com). I got a 31% open rate on the email, sent to 25 cold contacts in real estate, law, and finance. The real estate agents opened the email far more than either other industry.
From this first set of emails, I also got a 19% rate of click for "buy now" on the landing page via a mail merge to 25 cold contacts. No orders yet - this is indicative of something wrong with my "order to payment" flow. I have a few theories... None the less, that's a hella high open rate - industry standards for "what good looks like" as far as cole email open rates go is around 14% to 23%.
For your perspective, I acquired the list through about an hour of digging around for contact info on the interwebs. If I can keep this open rate and get people to finish the payment, marketing this product will be really really really smooth. This is the highest open rate I've ever gotten for anything I've tried to sell ever, and I've tried to sell a lot of things.
Here is the copy I used:
Reaching Out: Accomplish More With a Virtual Assistant
Hey, {{FirstName}}.
Great to be in contact. I'm Kirsten with People Hat Virtual Assistants.
We've found that Virtual Assistants can have a huge impact on the success of teams in the {{Industry}} industry.
Professionals and leaders in the {{Industry}} industry spend a ton of time on simple tasks that can be easily delegated; tasks like picking up phone calls, dealing with bookkeeping, expense reporting, and generating leads. Virtual Assistants can help you accomplish more in your week by picking up those annoying tasks. PeopleHat's team includes Virtual Assistants with backgrounds in the {{Industry}} industry who are ready to start right where you left off.
Over the next month, we're offering free trials of our Virtual Assistant Subscription.
To give us a try, visit our website at [website here, plz don't visit, lol, I'm trying to track visits]. It takes less than 5 minutes to request your first task, no commitment required.
Looking forward to helping you accomplish more!
Best,
Kirsten
|| UPDATE 2. Forcing Myself to Stick to The Plan to Avoid False-Hope ||
I'm feeling SUPER bullish on this first project, PeopleHat. That being said, I don't want to "give in" to this feeling and miss out on truly testing the other top five products I've vetted during this sprint: Landing Pages as a Service, Graphics & Technical Visualizations As A Service, Sales Copy As A Service, SEO As A Service, AdWords as a Service. I must follow the plan, and seek more data if I want to be sure this product discovery process leads me to something profitable.
That being said, I'm super behind schedule. If I continue to build MVPs for and test all of these, I'll have to really speed up and also possibly extend the period of time I'm testing during. I'll probably do a combination of both. As of today. I think this will take more like 20 days as opposed to 14 days. I'm down. Let's go!
|| UPDATE 3. A Cool Framework ||
@BotVader shared with me the Jobs to Be Done Framework: a way to categorize, define, capture, & organize the inputs required to accurately understand client/user needs & act to meet them. It's really awesome, and you should check it out: https://bit.ly/3dJN500
|| New to The Project? Read Me! ||
14 Products in 14 Days is my way of testing out a Product Development Sprint that I developed to help me ID a product/service that I'll be able to ship and use as a side revenue stream. I'm testing it out now - if it works, y'all should give it a try! The core intent of this systematized approach to product development is to force the founder to focus on placing a product in a proven market with a powerful need to create a sustainable company. Too many times we get drawn into working on a product that DOES NOT fit a market need, just because we think the product is a really good idea. I have a problem with this as well, so I created this sprint to help me overcome it and build something real. Check out the full project manifesto here: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/14-products-in-14-days-daily-update-3-a6d2f56529?commentId=-M968fkeMKSZjflamVFl
Om the VA service, no trial and no money back guarantee is a bit of a stretch if you are relying on cold outreach for clients. $150-$350 is a lot of money for “no trust + no safety net”.
Also, you should split test 3-4 subject lines, that can have a bit impact on which people from your list open the emails and with what intent.
For adwords, i’d recommend a “free consultation” - give people some basic tips on optimizing on writing ads. Putting a face/voice will add trust and give you a chance to show expertise.
Good luck!
Great critique, @indiehacker433.
I'm adding a money back guarantee.
I offered a "trial" of the service in the email, but it's just for "your first task, on us" as opposed to a real trial of say a full week of service. I feel if I offer a week-long trial, that will be pretty labor-intensive, but then again, that would do a really great job of demoing the service and very well should result in people staying on.
The "face/voice" to generate trust concept is really valuable. I can work that into multiple of the ideas. I avoided it for this email to see if people would just get a trial without the need for another touch. Was definitely an experiment.
I'm doing some split testing today - we'll see what works!
Glad I could be of service. Doesn't have to be 7 day trial, even a 2 day trial would work I think. Keep this in mind, if someone spends 3-4 hours explaining to a VA their internal processes, they are invested in making it work.
With 2 day trial, you need 1 in 10 people to pay for a full month to be at break even (assuming 20 business days/month).
That's very high click through rate. The suggestion to book a free consulting call vs pay now should be considered to re-run this one and for other MVPs too.
Yes, @witsuma. I think not offering that probably had an effect on the conversions. I'm doing some split testing for this first product again today, and I'll be doing some sets with an offer of a free consultation as opposed to "just buy now."
Thank you!
The rates went up also! The rate I gave before was in the first hour. Three days later, the overall rate is 47.6%, the multiple-open rate is 39%, and the click rate for specifically Real Estate agents was friggin 75%.
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