How do I know whether I'm not marketing my product well or my idea is just bad?
I spent over a year building https://www.breakout.so, a social media platform for skin care enthusiasts. I did lurk in a skin care discord for a while before conceiving this idea. I posited that there's enough things that are unique to skin care discussions (sharing routines, tagging products, etc.) that it warrants a specially-made social media platform.
The initial MVP was just a profile page with skin care routine, which I got a decent amount of interest on Reddit (~100 signups in the first month).
After that, I was heads down implementing social media features (still a long way to go).
I finally soft launched it on a few subreddits and gained almost no traction.
I expected it to be hard to start a community and bring people in. A bigger problem is that I'm not really good at talking or writing, or making people excited about something that doesn't exist yet. However, I was hoping it would be easy to find people who are interested in this.
Therefore, I am not sure if I'm just not marketing it well, or if the idea has no potential. I'm having self-doubt now, asking myself who needs another social media platform just for skin care, that's also incomplete in features.
I tell some people online about my website, and they don't seem to be interested. I can't tell if it's my communication, my landing page, or my product. I can't tell if I should build a few more features, or a ton of features that require a large team for it to be truly useful.
I'd try to focus on those first 100 signups. Why did they find Breakout an interesting community at first? The landing page and the MVP convinced those people, so you've successfully validated the problem and your starting solution. Maybe they're not that interested in social media stuff and want more of the features you showed in the MVP (e.g. they just want to explore different skin care routines. In this case a newsletter might be a good solution).
Good luck and don't give up 🙂
I came in here to basically say the same. That 1st 100 in a month, showed you were onto something. 🚀 But then then when the rollout came, you couldn't get any interest. So, what exactly were they responding to, and how is that different from what you created? 🤔
Side note - my first reaction was an entire social app just for skin care? That seems a bit too specific. I've noticed some influencers with enormous followings 5MM+ leaving the major social hawks (FB & Insta) to go do something of their own on circle and again on a custom build...only to find, that the new location is just EMPTY. In some cases, people don't want yet another login just for that network. Easier to join and occasionally participate in a FB group, for ex, than have to remember to go over to another location to check in on that community.
That said, a lot of the discord communities seem to be doing well, for those that are hosting smaller, tighter knit (and better spending) followings.
"A bigger problem is that I'm not really good at talking or writing, or making people excited about something that doesn't exist yet."
Hey - I get it. And this is fixable. Learnable. Improvable. Don't beat yourself up over this. I think you want to dive in a bit more, and get to the root of what they wanted when they were compelled. Even if that ends up showing you that what you built is NOT it, you may find a new direction comes of it.
Let us know what happens.
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What helped myself years ago, is expecting a No instead hoping for a Yes every time. There always will be more No's than Yesses. Once you see a No as 1 No closer to a Yes, it starts becoming a game. Then you start measuring: I need 15 No's on average to get 1 Yes. Ok - how can I improve? Suddenly you are optimizing conversions like a real sales/marketing guy.
I agree with the previous commenters on that you should ask your user base what they think.
I’ve found Sean Ellis product/market -fit survey helpful: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CFXJH7M
(Feel free to ignore my comments, I'm not a potential user)
The value of a social network is in the community, not the features. I think the project should focus less about features, and more on community building.
Have you consulted industry experts, or thought about partnering with influencers to bring in their communities?
The landing page looks more like a SaaS landing page than a social network. Why can't I immediate view the conversations and discussions e.g. like Reddit?
Extra: check out https://circle.so/ for building communities?
They key is to start asking questions.
Schedule at least 10 interviews with them, or get them into a live chat.
Do they use the platform?
If so, what is their usage?
Why do they use it?
Why do people leave?
What is their retention?
What features do they like?
What features don't they like?
Why not?
Try to understand your customers as best as possible, and adjust your business around this.
You might want to pivot. You have some feel for the market. There's plenty of money in skincare. You could do live-streaming of skincare product pitches. Like an online QVC. I mean, the MLM people would be all over it.