How to avoid the 3 most common mistakes made by all software companies

Making even 1 of these errors could cost you thousands of dollars and send your business to the dark ages.

Sadly, when it comes to turning your traffic into paid users or avoiding high churn rates, too many software companies make simple mistakes that cost them dearly.

If you’re not careful, you could follow in their footsteps and end up falling well short of your goal.

But don’t worry – master Chris is here to save your a** one more time.

I’ve put together a list of the 3 most common mistakes made by software companies – as well as easy-to-follow tips on how to avoid them.

All right, let's move into the first one:

Mistake #1: Having the wrong pages
Far and away the most common mistake software companies make is their web pages. I see it all too often, and honestly lost count of how many people I’ve come across who have made this error.

See, your entire website journey looks like a funnel. People start with the most intrique question - “how much it costs?” And from there, they dive into the next levels of your funnel, like searching for an alternative to the software they already use, or checking out your product’s benefits.

To avoid this mistake, make sure you create only the web pages people are searching for when landing on your site, like alternative to X software, demo, how it works, and benefits.
Here’s a full overview on how your site hierarchy should look like.

1. 'Why Us' pages: Features, Industries, Alternative to, Integrations
2. 'Pricing' pages: Plans, Comparison, Demo
3. 'About Us' pages: Our team, Reviews, Our guarantee
4. 'Resources' pages: Blog, Tutorials, How-to guides
5. 'Misc' pages: Legal, Security, FAQ
   6.'Contact' pages: Support, Sales

Mistake #2: No market research
The lack of proper market research is another common mistake and is right up there with having the wrong pages in terms of the amount of money it costs you.

It’s such an easy mistake to avoid, but it happens WAY more often than it should. Especially when you might think you hit that PMF (Product Market Fit).

To avoid this mistake, make sure you do a 4D market research.

Find what your market wants.
What are their hopes & dreams.
Their pains.
Their frustrations.

No website designer or agency will do this dirty job. Everybody hates research.

But it’s the #1 reason why your marketing fails. You’re trying to push a product (or content) that the market doesn’t want.

Running proper research isn’t expensive. You don’t have to hire big companies or focus groups.

Online platforms like forums, Quora, asnwerthepublic.com, Youtube, and Facebook Groups already have the right content. People share opinions on these platforms.

They ask questions...

Just take a week and find what is their most common dream. Most common pain. And believe...by the end of your research you will have tons of ideas for your website hierarchy, the copy, and the features you have to scale.

But most importantly – the content to keep people engaged.

By providing what the market wants you will also beat the hell of your competition. They will wonder crazy how you drive all the traffic. All the users.

Your sales team will perform better and close more prospects.

Don’t waste your money on another marketing campaign or website redesign thinking this will save you.

That’s the biggest lie.

How an agency or a designer can guarantee you results if they don’t even know what your market wants?

Think about this...

Mistake #3: Offering trials
This mistake might not be as common as the first two we’ve outlined – but that doesn’t make it any less harmful.

In fact, it could be the most costly out of the three – an error that could see you throw thousands of dollars and leave you further away from achieving your metrics.

“But Chris, I need to offer trials!” I know.

Getting a constant flow of new users is great but this is the very first pipebomb you set within your product.

See, when you offer free trials – you will always get low to no commitment from users. To them, it shows you’re not 100% sure your software will be the best solution.

Trial and free users will never, ever give valuable feedback and truly engage with your app. Never!

To avoid this mistake just ask them for a small fee when they signup with you. It can be a $5 bill you will fully refund if they are not happy.

Don’t allow cheap users to enter your app. Don’t allow inactive billing methods.

Trial and free users are more committed to leaving you a bad review and keeping your sales/support line always on fire.

I hope you found good value in today's post. More to come.

Happy hunting!