Losing motivation
Who would have though that getting businesses to download a free app would prove to be so difficult. It's frustrating knowing how much value it can add to these businesses if they would give it a chance.
How do you guys do it? How do you push through the struggle?
From everything I've heard about Enterprise sales, if you offer stuff for free, nobody is taking you seriously. If the app adds value, charge for it, and don't charge $20 that you would find valuable, charge them $20,000 they would find valuable.
Also, as far as motivation goes, check out this interview with @Mubs for the tips on staying focused and happy with your project. He's the king of making stuff.
Interesting take. That would be amazing if the solution to my problem is to actually make money :P
Joking aside - It will give me something to think about. Thanks.
This happens a lot.
The only real validation of a product is people give you money for it.
Entrepreneurs tend to fall in love with their own product without being objective on whether or not there is market demand.
We see the value because we put blood, sweat, and tears into building.
If you have to beg a customer to try it, there is either a message mis-match of the products inherent value or no product fit with your target market.
You might want to pivot. Try to find a new market segment or try a new marketing angle with a clearer message.
Good luck!
I agree. However, everyone that we mentioned the product to loves the idea. People who we cold-called love the idea and people we sent cold emails love it too. The issue is once people log on there are only a few businesses on the App. Basically, without the users the app is not as valuable as it will be once we have a ton of users.
I remembered a WBF Rand Fishkin published last year on a product launch checklist (https://moz.com/blog/product-launch-checklist). The last checkbox on the list is "A great set of answers and 100% alignment on the statement."
Before BizSwipe existed, digital marketers and businesses struggled to build relationships with the low response rate of manual outreach, but now, thanks to our simplified approach to building relationships, those problems are solved.
With BizSwipe there will be no reason to get frustrated with outreach. Filter by a category, website traffic volume, social influence and you can geo-fence too and soo much more : ) Oh and it's free... for now at least while we work on hitting critical mass.
Fair enough.
But people are generally polite about giving feedback when they don't have any stake in the game. Especially if it's free.
If money is on the line, the claws come out.
Personally, I can't really see any use-case where I would absolutely need it for business. It's not a problem that I care to solve unless you're giving me some guarantee. I don't really care if it's free, so are thousands of other apps.
How does BizSwipe help your prospects bottom line? How are your prospects solving this problem right now?
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of tools available for spam reduction and outreach.
How does BizSwipe differentiate itself?
Is BizSwipe 10X better than LinkedIn?
If I understand the biz model correctly, it's essentially Tinder for business partnerships.
The model might be good for some niche E-commerce and marketing models, but I think you're going to have problem outside of that scope.
B2B generally isn't Swipe Casual. It can't be. There is a lot of trust and professional relationship building under the hood to make it run.
In my opinion, I don't think mobile is the right starting approach for a business like this. Most B2B folks are likely on a desktop/laptop on as a part of their workflow.
I suspect they wouldn't interrupt their day-to-day workflow to search their mobile for a B2B connect.
You're asking them to change a habit.
How can you best communicate the value of the app? Do you have stats that a business owner would care about to use to convince them? Can you translate the value into money? How can you educate potential users on the value of the product? Where can you find people who are already interested in the problem you're solving?
Take it one task at a time. I push through by focusing on the task I need to get done here and now, and not worrying about the "big picture" so much. Right now, you need to figure out why they don't see the value in your app, or the roadblocks getting in their way of downloading it. Put everything else on autopilot and dive into understanding the motivation behind their behavior, and then you can brainstorm on how to change it.
What do those who use the app say about it?
Those who have taken the time to look at what we are offering love the concept and can see the value. We have gotten great feedback from those who have downloaded it. Social media advertising, cold emailing, and cold calling is just rough and most people don't give a shit or are too busy it seems - no matter how much value we can bring to them.
I feel you. Sometimes taking a week off helps too, if you can spare it. Other than that, reframing goals has also helped me. Set objective tasks for yourself you know you can reach, like "I will cold email 20 businesses every weekday". You can't control what other people do, but you can control what you do. If you reframe your goals or metrics to things you control, you put your motivation and happiness back in your hands.
Perhaps I should do less emails and make them more personal and see how that works. I'm currently blasting 100's of emails a day asking them if they have the problem that my app solves and it almost the same story every time. "Yes I have this problem" -> Then I pitch my app (which as i mentioned is free to download and use) -> Then they either don't respond or say "that sound great ill check it out" and then never do.
I've visited your homepage and watched demo video. Not sure if I would register for app like this, as a business owner.
So think about your positioning and wording in your emails. Probably it doesn't sound convincing enough for people to join.
Hope that helps!
I agree with Povilas... I think you need to convey the benefits of using your app instead of Google. Maybe things like:
1 - We will save you time by giving you relevant and CLEAN business data (we list active businesses, etc.).
2 - Show whats sets apart this from other business directories (ratings, data verification, etc.)
3 - [idea] Maybe do some machine learning that matches the user to "top picks" based on his profile/location/industry type/etc.? (you might be doing smart things like this already... but one can't tell from the video).
And hang in there, I think all of us have felt the same at some point! Best of luck.
Thank you. This is some great feedback.
To answer your 3rd question - This is exactly why we built the app. What you are talking about is cold outreach. Most of the time your not contacting the right person at the company of what you are trying to accomplish, and others times it just gets ignored. In BizSwipe you can only talk to businesses who want to talk to you. When you log on the first thing you see is all the people who have swiped right on you. Then you can choose which people can add value to your business.
Not only that - but it is more much "fun" and efficient just swiping through prospects quickly without having to reach out to them with a high chance of rejection.
THAT'S what you need to hit people with at the top of the landing page. The swiping part is confusing. Focus on the value added as opposed to what the app does or is. Maybe something like "A better way to B2B", subtitle "Avoid the frustration of cold outreach and rejoice at reaching the right person first time around. Only talk to businesses excited to talk to you! Get started for FREE.
Ontop of that , you get a full snapshot of a business. Their social media analytics, their website traffic & ranking keywords (powered by SEMrush), and more.
I wonder how you did your customer research, did businesses specifically say they were looking for "fun" and "just swiping"? I highly doubt that.
Final thought - I wonder how convenient it is to do business networking and communication in the mobile app. No matter how popular smartphone is, for more serious conversation I always use web and computer. Mobile messaging is for shorter casual conversations where you can put smileys, do typos and have fun.
So overall my thought is do you have the right product for the right type of audience. And the fact that they don't install the app may answer this question.
But maybe the problem is in MESSAGING - in your emails, and landing page, as @asebold said, you have to show the value and convince them.
And maybe you're tackling the right problem (you said they agree they have a problem) but from a wrong angle?
Think of some pivoting, maybe. But, of course, it depends on a lot of factors, mainly how much customer research you did.
This business was born from someone (my partner) in the SEO industry that was sick of a problem and wanted to create a solution for it. One of our problems is that we didn't want to just target SEO people since it can be beneficial for everyone so we kind of have a messaging dilema. It will add the most value for SEO, and less but still some good value for other non SEO businesses. We could say "this app is for building backlinlks the correct way and no one can scrape it on an app" but that would limit our reach.
Hmm, wait, that's a twist in the messaging. So you're saying this app would help to establish relationships and then someone would give you SEO-value backlink via the app somehow? Doesn't sound straightforward to me, even within that niche.
Does your partner use the app currently? Does it solve their problem? Maybe you should tell that success story more publicly then?
And by not-limiting your reach and trying to reach a wider audience, I think you completely transformed the messaging which makes this app tackle a completely different problem.
Sorry for sounding negative, I'm just trying to ask "hard questions" for you to get creative how to overcome this.
Don't be sorry. I appreciate real feedback. It's what I need. It connects the two people looking for the same things as opposed to just randomly trying to find someone on the internet. This is big for SEO and can be helpful to others. My partner has already gotten value from it with only 100ish businesses signed up (He still runs a digital marketing company on the side)
I'm currently working on a blog post about the emotional/mental rollercoaster ride of startup life. I don't see a lot from successful founders talking about their own struggles and confirming these experiences are all normal. I'm no expert but I'd like to believe the challenges and rollercoaster ride is normal. I'm slowly building a toolkit and will share in the blog post.
As far as the sales/marketing struggle, maybe something to remind you every morning that it will happen and you are providing value. Also keep in mind people are weary of free stuff. Maybe communicate why it's free and your revenue model.
Side note, I'm no professional blogger and my blog is not monetized in any way. I'm just trying to document my own startup journey.
Hey Cory! What's your app about? I always like to think about what value I'm providing with what I'm creating, such as with thegoodstartup.com. In the end, you'll remember why you started a project to help someone. I think some of the best advice I've gotten about motivation on IH is that you won't always feel motivated 100% of the time, so allow yourself to feel that then get revived for the next burst of energy you get by remembering why everything you're creating and working on matters
How do you know any business needs this? It sounds like a solution looking for a problem. Did you do any customer interviews? Did you personally have this problem? You should do some customer interviews and get a feedback. Free & Paid product take the same effort to push out to the world. You're going to have to do some marketing.
Yes, it solves a SEO problem and helps any other business really. Many companies struggle with outreach and this app makes it easy for "content collaboration" .
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Sure bizswipe.com - its a b2b swiping app mainly for SEO purposes but really any business can benefit from it.
What does "swiping" mean? Is that a commonly known term?
Sorry. Swiping as in like dating apps where you swipe right on things that interest you.
Do you have a separate landing page for business owners? i.e. one that clearly outlines what the benefits of joining bizswipe are? In terms that business owners care about.
Can you create a profile for them automatically from a facebook page and have them claim it?
Are you focusing on a smaller geographic region to start? That might be a good idea.
We are working on use cases for our website as we speak. We realized the current video might not be for everyone.
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