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11 Comments

No pre-sales after 24 hours, any tips?

Hello everyone,

I’ve recently released a demo for my web application and I was expecting to at least have one purchase but I received none. As of right now, it’s been over 24 hours since sending out the newsletter to over 700 people who signed up.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what I did wrong or what I could do better? Judging by the amount of people who signed up, I was under the impression that there could be a possibility for pre-selling.

Website: https://www.designacademe.com

Also what steps should I take to advertise. The final product is not yet ready and I am trying to collect pre-sales before I launch next month on the 20th.

Any pointers? Thanks.

Update 01-05:
Updated website using feedback. Thanks guys.

  1. 1

    Now I know the difference between Serif and Sans-Serif :)

    Like your website, some ideas that may help:

    1. From you landing page your target audience / core product is not clear: beginner, intermediate, advanced, design theory, typography? Make it clear from the first moment you lay eyes on the landing page so that your target audience will stick. (Things like "Take your design to the next level" don't really have meaning. Make it specific like "Create your own font")

    2. What kind of platform are you creating:
      -Brilliant-like - interactive learning - emphasis on learning method
      -Skillshare-like - practical in-depth learning - emphasis on unique skills
      -Teacher-like - sharing your own knowledge and skills - emphasis on you

    First narrowly focus/match 1 and 2 on areas you can excel and differentiate. Focus on one target audience, one core product and be crystal clear what kind of platform you are, otherwise step 3 will not be effective.

    1. Now on the marketing side, because you have a visual/design product I would go the Youtube route. If you have a marketing budget make an ad that highlights a unique feature and roll it on design channels. It's important that you catch your audience in the first 2 seconds of the ad.

    You can also do affiliate/sponsor deals with design channels.

    You can also create your own video where you provide a lot of value on a certain related topic ("How I created my own font and sold it for 20k") and do an upsell for those who are interested in more (your course).

    Good luck.

    1. 1

      Thank you for the very detailed help :)

      This is really useful stuff. I will be revamping and re-doing the homepage completely. Based on all of the responses, it's clear that I missed a vital part which is actually converting the user using the correct steps via a viable homepage.

      I will take everything you said into consideration with the redesign. Thank you.

  2. 1

    Here's some of my feedback, fwiw:

    1. Put the video on auto-play. I didn't realize I needed to start it.

    2. I can't tell who your target market is from your landing page. Are you targeting kids that would normally go to college to learn these principles, product managers, project managers, founders? I think your second tag line should focus on appealing to your audience.

    3. The problem you're solving isn't clear to me. Is it that it's hard to learn design on your own or you provide structure so that people don't have to figure it out themselves?

    4. Why is what you're offering better than the alternatives, like Google or Reddit or your competitors? I feel that it's implied because you say "courses from designers" but it isn't clear why what you offer is better.

    5. Personally, I think you should include your pre-sales pricing on your main page likely after features (in short form) in addition to directing people to your main pricing page (in long form).

    6. I'd recommend you consider renaming your demo from home.html to demo.html.

    7. You might consider instead of directing people to your pricing page when they click "Learn Colors", "Start Learning", or "Take Quiz", or "tools" they get directed to pages that have more details to help them learn about that aspect of your solution.

    8. I understand that landing pages are very popular but it seems to me like a regular website with a menu, features page(s), content, competitive analysis, etc would be better.

    It just doesn't seem like your landing page is designed to convert. You're trying to get people to go from being a lead to being a sale in one go which means your landing page has to get them from visitor -> lead -> prospect -> sale; which means you have to overcome any objections or pique their interest enough to get them to buy.

    That being said, do you have any metrics from your campaign like how many people clicked on "pre-launch sale" vs actually clicked on a button for one of the modules? Ie, where in your funnel did any of your prospects bail?

    1. 1

      I was actually new to mailchimp and I didn't realize I could see the direct metrics of clicks and opens. Apparently I had only 50 opens out of the 700. Which is rather low.

      Anyhow, I read everything else you wrote. There is a lot of great information which I am still going to follow. The homepage clearly needs a revamp which I was avoding but I need to make sure I do what will help. Thank you!

      1. 2

        I agree - 50/700 (7%) open rate is very low which means that your email subject line itself wasn't compelling enough to entice people to open it. Then naturally the content in the email is the second most compelling piece of your email.

        This is an article I've referenced when we were doing email campaigns:

        https://optinmonster.com/101-email-subject-lines-your-subscribers-cant-resist/

        1. 1

          Thank you, I will check that out and learn something new.

  3. 1

    I recommend talking to your users to find out. Perhaps the value prop is not clear. Perhaps they just don't care about the problem you think you're solving. Try to promote it in different places and talk to people, esp. those who left. It may help you figure out what's going on.

    Perhaps Janel has good advice for you.

    cc: @Janel

  4. 1

    Hey Jordan,

    Congrats on shipping.

    Thoughts:

    1. How many of those 700 opened your email, how many clicked through? You may need more emails, or better emails, to compel to act.
    2. The best way to understand why, is to ask. You can consider sending a survey through to see why people aren't buying. Did you build this app from user feedback?
    3. You flow is to try the demo first. Your demo, once clicked on, doesn't allow for clicks on courses or other items. Moreover it's actually difficult for me to discover how to buy
    4. Landing page focusses a lot on the 'what' and less on what I'm going to get out of it. Why as a design beginner should I go through this? What will it eventually enable me to do? How can I leverage these skills in my job/freelancing/business etc...

    Advertisement:

    1. Don't do it now
    2. Figure out the product and the positioning
    3. Talk to your users
    4. Make the lander far more convertible and far more focussed on the $10 purchase WITH THE OPTION of checking out the demo (Better yet, just gif the lessons and put it on the lander etc...)
    1. 2

      Hey!

      I was actually new to mailchimp and I didn't realize I could see the direct metrics of clicks and opens. Apparently I had only 50 opens.

      Thank you for the great advice. I am going to take a step back and revamp the homepage and apply some of the tips that you suggested.

      Thanks a lot!

  5. 1

    If you didnt convert 700 prospects, either it is not clear enought what they get for or it is not worth it?

    1. 1

      I was actually new to mailchimp and I didn't realize I could see the direct metrics of clicks and opens. Apparently I had only 50 opens

      I will be revamping the homepage to make the product more clear. I will also be re-doing the email to make sure it's more appealing both visually and content wise.

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