So I love tools like Figma and Canva. I just have an itch to build a design tool. I am a fan of Instagram stories and am building a tool to help people make nice stories.
I believe it's the new television. https://storycreatorapp.com/ is a tool to help content creators and brands make nice content they can use for their stories as episodes and series.
Peoples attention span is shorter than ever. I want to give brands the ability to make mini-series for their audience through their stories.
My struggle is finding the true pain point though. I am biased and am running off a hypothesis. As the product becomes closer to actually doing something I am running into roadblocks on the direction.
So I just wanted to get a discussion going around what people here think is the main problem story creator can solve. If its a problem you have, or if you know someone with this problem.
You can follow my stories on IG and see how my life has been since I got some new puppies. https://www.instagram.com/michaelaubry/
I don't use stories myself, so I can't speak to the pain points for story creators. The "mini-series" idea, is that distinct from how stories are normally made or published? If so, you could play that up.
(The advice that follows assumes you're pitching to an individual -- like a personal trainer who sells supplements or a lifestyle vlogger who does sponsored posts, etc. It may not be as helpful if you're aiming for the marketing assistant at a small corporate who's told "make us relevant on social media".)
Nice-looking demo page. I assume the idea is to use a laptop/desktop to edit content intended for phones? In that case, you might consider replacing the current tagline with something more like "The quick and easy way to create video stories for social" (since "quick and easy" is your differentiator versus the Adobe products). You could include a screenshot of the editing window with a brief animation of some action involving the mouse pointer, since most visitors probably won't make it to the Demo page.
Speaking of the demo, you might want to sell it harder, maybe with a louder, larger button that says, in effect, "See how easy it is right now!" or something, as "Demo" and even "Free Demo" may come off a little dry for your intended users. I'd re-word "SIGN UP TO GAIN EARLY ACCESS." as "GET EARLY ACCESS" or something friendlier (and no period at the end). For the placeholder, I'd replace "Enter Email" with something slightly whimsical like "instafluencer@example.com". And instead of "Request Invite" something like "Notify Me When It's Ready".
The second animation card could be confusing -- it took me a few seconds to realize you were describing a feature (speech to text) of your product rather than just showing a snippet of content built with the app.
The landing page itself should probably be organized so that your demo animations are at least partially visible on mobile right away, i.e. nearer the top of the page. You could do that with less copy, less padding around that div, or by putting the signup stuff in a separate div after the demo animations. Speaking of those, it would be good to have a stronger hint that they're meant to be swiped...maybe small dots or short horizontal bar indicators underneath. Or maybe a subtle drop shadow above or a faint translucent background behind the div containing the videos.
Amazing feedback. I really appreciate you taking the time to write that.
Yeah today I’ll think of a better product story to tell. I like the tag line. I think the animation should focus on how easy it is to create and show them that with a library of beautiful templates it’s never been easier to create beautiful stories.
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It’s definitely the most important thing to figure out if you want a good product that sells. I know the general direction I want to head in. I know there is value in all the code that has been written.
To sell you need to solve a problem. However, it’s underestimated the amount of time it takes to buy a domain, build a logo, get some of the foundation created.
I don’t believe you should sit around just trying to have clarity before you build. I believe you should knock out the fundamentals and just get started then figure out your audience and exactly what you’re solving as you go.
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Yeah, I'm probably not the best person to answer this since I don't really use stories. I always thought part of the appeal of stories was how unpolished they are? Makes you feel like you are right there with the poster.
This is a good point and actually a valid concern. I would say that more polished brands are somewhat raw but do need elements that enhance the story. Take a look at https://www.instagram.com/stories/garyvee/ he has some raw content in there mixed with some more polish.
The problem I believe being solved here is this. Gary vee has staff that he pays quite a bit of money to create and manage his content. Those duties entail translating the video into text and syncing up the audio. Another duty is managing how often they post.
The target audience would be people that want exposure and to get their brand heard through stories and content but don't have the budget or need for an employee to create and manage the content for them.
This is a reason as to why I posted this question. It has me thinking deeply about the product and creating more clarity. Great question. Keep them coming!
Thanks for the response. Gary Vee's content is a great example, you're right. He does some creative stuff that is not necessarily "polished" but engaging and sometimes templated.
Perhaps the storycreatorapp headline doesn't hit the value prop right on the head then... I'm not sure people are after stunning IG stories. It sounds like they might be after creatively branded content.
But either way, I see what you're doing and I definitely think there's a market for this. It's a great idea! I'd just be focused on what ultimately makes brands' stories like Gary Vee's personal one stand out which is raw, engaging content that's not necessarily stunning. That being said, personal brands have an easier time doing this since there's a face behind the brand. I just know I get turned off by brand's creating super polished content for IG.
Looking forward to what's to come for you!
Yeah I would agree. Just sent a bunch of messages to what I think to be the ideal people on Instagram.
I still think there is value in posting here. It’s kind of nice getting the perspective of someone who is a creator also.