MVP Mantra: Solve Your Headaches
Many Indie Hackers struggle to figure out what to build. What to work on.
The best piece of advice I heard on this was to solve a headache you're having.
Luckily, I was spending hours each day doing the same things over and over.
Instead of looking for a solution. I decided to build my own.
It's now a full product.
Here's the story of how I got started.
Solving a Problem That I Was Having
Elementary Analytics was the remedy I wanted for a headache I was having.
Instead of finding a cure, I decided to invent one.
A few years ago a few friends and I launched our own mobile app-based startup.
Alongside the iPhone and Android apps, we had a website which we used to promote our apps. This site was also part of our product offering and monetization strategy. We also used Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to market our apps and website.
I also had a personal blog and freelancing portfolio site. And used social media to put myself out there.
After we launched the startup and started gaining users and followers. I would spend time each week looking into app and website traffic stats. As well as reviewing my own website traffic.
What I ended up doing was looking at the analytics for
- 4 websites (Google Analytics)
- 2 Twitter accounts
- A Facebook Page (Facebook Insights)
- And Instagram Account (Using the Business account insights dashboard)
It was so frustrating logging in and out of different Google Analytics accounts. Trying to review the previous week’s stats.
Also having to switch between Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts was a pain.
Once you have logged into the relevant accounts. Trying to find correlations between the data was a nightmare.
I was spending hours exporting traffic and social media engagement stats into Excel sheets. Seeing if I could use a formula to display all the information together. It could take ages. If I had made a mistake, well forget about spending time with my partner that evening.
When I finally had all the data together in a format that made reasonable sense.
I would begin to try and see what sort of posts and engagements improved our website views.
Talk about analysis paralysis. Finding correlations wasn’t as easy as I had thought it would be.
Something Had To Give
One evening staring at a spreadsheet on my monitor, I muttered to myself.
“There has to be an easier way?”
I’d been doing this process again and again for months.
“I’m sure I can create something that would show us all this data in one place”.
This was the eureka moment when Elementary Analytics was born.
From that moment on, I started working on Elementary Analytics. Hoping to solve this headache that I was having.
Not even thinking if other people were having the same issue.
How Can Elementary Analytics Help You?
Google Analytics
First things first.
I needed to solve the problem of trying to review the data for 4 different websites. Linked to two different Google accounts.
So I set myself a goal of being able to see all my Google Analytics traffic stats on one screen. Regardless of which Google account the website is linked to.
With Elementary Analytics. Once you have added your Google Analytics properties to our service. Our Dashboard will show an overview of each website’s traffic stats.
You can also see a more detailed view of all of your Google Analytics information if you wish.
Breaking down the high-level stats for the previous thirty days.
AMAZING.
I was so happy that we got this working.
I’d hit my first goal of being able to log in to one thing. And still, be able to view ALL my website’s traffic stats.
To give a bit of context. The screenshots are from my Elementary Analytics account. Where I’m currently monitoring data for 5 different websites.
Marketing Using Facebook and Instagram
We wanted to take advantage of Social Media Marketing to grow our business.
We had our “core” place which was a Facebook Page.
Then, we linked an Instagram business account to the Facebook page.
We then used these channels to promote our apps and website. With a secondary goal of trying to build up a following on both platforms.
This became the next goal for Elementary Analytics
“Can I link Facebook and Instagram insights, to a certain Google Analytics profile stats?”
This test was straightforward. We had a blog on our marketing website for the apps. It had a “sister” Facebook Page and Instagram account. Can I view all the data, on a single screen?
After a bit of research, I began tinkering to improve the initial dashboard.
I managed to link the Facebook page and Instagram account to the website’s traffic stats. And display an overview of the insights that Facebook provide. WAHOO, result.
Now, on the main Elementary Analytics dashboard. You can see Facebook Page Likes. And Instagram Followers Visits alongside your traffic stats.
Like the Google Analytics integrations.
You can see a breakdown of the Facebook and Instagram insights that you have linked to a website.
For example, here is the data for an Instagram account for the thirty days. You can see Reach, Followers, Profile Visits and website views, with a breakdown of each stat per day.
My experiment using had worked.
I’d managed to improve my basic idea for Elementary Analytics.
Linking relevant information together, to start seeing if I could spot any trends.
What’s Next Elementary Analytics?
Since we launched back in early 2018, we’ve added a raft of new features.
We started by supporting the following Social Media platforms
- Facebook Pages
- LinkedIn Company Page
- Twitter/X
- Instagram Business Accounts
- TikTok
- YouTube Channels
Then, moved on to integrating Google Search ranking information into our service. As well as Google Ads and Meta Ads.
We’ve even progressed by adding the following advanced features
- One-click reporting service
- Customer dashboards
- Daily insights emails
- Weekly emails
We also have a way that users can set KPIs against certain insights, to make sure their business is on track.
Our mantra at Elementary Analytics. Is to display the data in a simple way to try and help our customers spot trends. Hopefully, this will allow a customer to see what type of social media activity is working for them.
We are always looking for people to use our service so we can gain feedback about how we can improve. If you would like to work closely with us to make our service the best it can be.
Please drop me a message. I would love to work with you. We can offer extended free trials to people who can offer excellent insights to help us continually improve.
If you want to see what we are currently working on, and what we have in the pipeline, check out our Product Roadmap.
P.S. If you want to get started using our service. Sign up here for our 14-day free trial.
P.S.S If you want to learn more about analytics and data-driven marketing, check out this post I’ve put together What Is Marketing Analytics And Data-Driven Marketing
