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16 Comments

Landing page redesign?

Last week I launched velox.chat on IndieHackers. The data was pretty demotivating: 200 views in the post, 100 views in the link, and only one person registered.

I realized maybe I didn't transmit my idea well enough. So I decided to redesign the whole landing page, adding also some features that are not implemented yet (we are still on the MVP moment).

What do you think? Can you understand the product? And the difference with Slack, Teams, and others?

  1. 2

    I am unsure what "teams" would be your potential customers

    I know you are trying to help teams stay productive, but I am wondering what's the point to compare with giants like Slack, Teams?

    1. 1

      Thanks for your reply, Felix. Slack, Discord and Teams are good, but not enough, IMHO. You ask something about an issue in a group. Someone asks something different right after. ~300 messages later, of a mix of memes, answers to your question, and answers to the other's, you manage to solve your issue. But when 3 weeks later you want to find that, it's impossible.

      Velox is also easier to set up than slack or teams. My target right now are small teams that still don't use any other solution like Slack. That will come later!

  2. 2

    Hey Matias, here's my thoughts:

    "Bring your team together in one place"

    • First question is how is this different than Slack or RocketChat or Teams? I'm immediately skeptical

    "Velox is an instant messaging platform to help remote teams communicating faster and clearer using classifiable messages with fast answers and embedded widgets."

    • Typo: "...to help remote teams communicate faster and"
    • "classifiable messages" - I don't know what this means
    • "with fast answers and embedded widgets" - Who is providing the answers? Does Velox provide answers? Is this more like a stack overflow product?

    At this point, I'm not really sure what your product is or how it fits in with the other products in the space.

    The two CTA (Sign up for free, Register your company) are a bit confusing. What does signing up do if my company isn't using it? I'm not sure which one I'm supposed to click

    "We love the email, but it's slow. We love Slack, but we get lost in tons of messages. That's why we have created the perfect mix. Keep your conversations organized by topics, but without delays. Communicate both with people inside or outside your team instantly. Keep your team connected even when they are miles away."

    The first sentence is great, pitches two problems, but I'm not clear on the solution.

    • Keep your conversations organized by topics, but without delays: How is this different from, say, channels in slack?
    • Communicate both with people inside or outside your team instantly: How does this work? Does it just use email under the hood? Or does everyone have to be on Velox?
    • Keep your team connected even when they are miles away: This doesn't improve upon either Slack or email, which both provide this same benefit

    Create topic-based conversations: It's not clear how this is different from threads in Slack or, say, discussions in RocketChat.

    Add widgets: Again, Slack has tons of integrations and widgets...how is this different?

    Create your own domain - again, Slack has this same feature. With RocketChat you can self-host it. How does Velox improve?

    Overall I don't think you do enough to distinguish yourself from Slack. Slack is HUGE. Everyone has used Slack, if you're going to compete with them, I think you need some compelling differentiators, and I don't think those are being shown off effectively on your landing page. That said, I definitely think there's room for innovation here, because everyone who uses Slack also has complaints about Slack :)

    As far as design, It's pretty solid---I'd encourage you to use a bit more whitespace, particularly in the navbar and hero. I also find it a bit jarring that it's a fixed width rather than bleeding full screen, but that might be personal preference.

    Best of luck!

    1. 1

      Thanks so much, William, I really appreciate your time. Everything you said is very reasonable. I guess I started pretty much from the top. I should really analyze the competence and remark the differences. I guess in my head everything sounded so different from what it already exists, that I didn't realize it's not obvious.

      Again, thanks a lot and wish you the best!

  3. 2

    Let's see if I can be of use.

    Main problem with the landing page is that it doesn't answer any of my problems that I have with other remote apps. Ok, it seems like another chat system. I use slack for that and I am kinda happy.

    Focus on areas where slack or other remote applications are failing and say that we can do it better.
    ---
    Edit: upon looking again. I can see that it does answer these questions, but I was put off by wireframe style images.
    --
    REALLY, REALLY, REALLY Invest in higher quality product presentations. Right now it looks too basic and a bit scamy. Immediate reaction I got is, well, this website will steal my data. I use https://ui8.net/category/mockups for good presentation templates.

    Animate them. Make them as popping as possible. People don't read. People look at images and and then read. Make a a beautiful show. Try www.land-book.com for good examples. Once your landing page will look good in the context of these examples. You have a much bigger shot.

    I wont focus on minute details like padding and stuff. There's enough advice on that. I want to advise to look at the big picture and attack from that.

    1. 1

      Hey Arturas, thanks a lot for your comments, really appreciate them! I really liked the links, super useful!

  4. 2

    Hi Matias,

    What's done well:

    1. The headline is benefit oriented.
    2. Real product screens are used to complement the features wherever possible.

    What needs to be improved:

    1. The privacy policy banner at the top is not centered. It does not have any vertical padding. Plus there is no option to opt out. I recommend it move it at the bottom instead of top.
    2. The container (boxed-width class) has a maximum width of 1440px. It looks like an email at screens bigger than that. The backgrounds are contained with in the container. Only limit the content to 1440px. Let the backgrounds span the whole width. It will uplift the site visually.
    3. Use a bright solid colored logo. Slack also uses bright and vibrant colors. It just appeals more to the target audience.
    4. The sub-headline is not simple enough. Classifiable messages is a powerful feature. It really is a great answer to the raised argument against Slack. It is not being leveraged correctly. It took me 5 minutes to understand this. Only explain this feature in the sub-headline. Drop embedded widgets. Use simple words to let the visitor understand what classifiable messages really mean.
    5. Use bulleted copy for The Difference section. Put 3 problems in bullet points on the left. Use the features in bullet points on the right to counter them.
    6. Reduce the number of features on the page. Show features that are most important for the target audience. My fav picks are "conversations, widgets and 3GB limit". Use benefit oriented copy. For example: "Stay organized topic-based conversations". Introduce the feature as a benefit to the visitor.
    7. Clearly highlight in the hero that the product is in beta instead of writing some text in the footer.
    8. I would recommend to focus the landing page on getting beta testers instead of sign ups. Use one CTA throughout the landing page because the primary goal is to get people to test the product. You can then upsell the happy testers.

    Hope these help.

    Open ended question:

    What tool did you use to build the landing page?

    1. 1

      This is amazing, Arslan. Thank you so much, everything is extremely useful.
      One question: about number 8, it's very reasonable what you said. I had set a goal to have 5% of people who visited registered, to validate the idea. If I change that to testers, should I change my validation hypothesis?

      1. 2

        I think it's a practical and achievable goal to get even 2.5% of the visitors get registered for a beta product. It's very promising.

        I would not base the validation only on the conversion rate of the signups. I would rather take feedback from the beta testers on how likely they are to recommend Velox to their teammates.

        1. 1

          That's a really good idea. Thanks a lot!! 🤩

  5. 1

    Hi Matias... I would like to help. I will use your contact link and drop you an email in about twelve hours... Bye.

    1. 1

      Thanks a lot! Waiting for your email 😊 (or your Velox haha!)

  6. 1

    Hey Matias, I just checked the link, but it is not loading for me :(

    Is it working on your end?

    1. 1

      Thanks for your comment! It's working for me. In case, try it again in https://www.velox.chat, or maybe without HTTPS http://www.velox.chat

      1. 2

        I guess that was the issue. It loads now.

        I think the design is pretty nice. Cruip does have some great templates. 👍

        I would just make sure the app screenshots also look great. Right now the UI design looks a bit outdated and unprofessional. No worries, since this is your MVP.

        Just keep that in mind.

        Best of wishes!

        1. 1

          Thanks a lot! Yeah, the UI screenshots are actually Figma mockups, since many of the features are not implemented yet (and I'm not a UI designer haha). But thanks a lot for your feedback, would love to hear any other comment!

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