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23 Comments

Roast my idea

I'm in the early stages of validating a product idea I have. I've created a landing page to send out to business owners and would really appreciate any feedback!

I'm not going to give any details here, because I would like to test whether the copy on the landing page makes sense. I will say though that it's a way for small businesses to increase their online presence.

golynk.co

Thank you in advance

  1. 4

    The idea sounds reasonable.

    However, don't ask your users to send you an email for early access. That's not a good user experience and is rather off-putting. Make an email input field where the users can submit you their email addresses.

    1. 1

      Thanks for taking the time to check it out!

      Adding an email form seems to be something you all agree on. I'll add one right away :)

  2. 3

    Have you talked to any retail/small businesses before launching this? Why would they tell people to go on Lynk (a site people are not familiar with) instead of following them on FB or Instagram? Most of the small businesses already have a social media presence and they engage with their communities there.

    More importantly what exactly are you trying create? A deal site? A review site? A social links site?

    Bottom line - If you come to me with this idea, either as an small business or an investor I will not even give you a meeting.

    Brutal - but I hope it is helpful.

    1. 1

      I have talked to and worked closely with a couple of clients, which is what spawned this idea.

      They needed a way to get their customers to leave them a Google review at the end of their work process (kitchen fitting). We found that putting a small gift incentive on the business card / flyer helped to encourage them to leave a review.

      I agree that you can just tell people to go directly to your social media but this way it gives them that extra little nudge. On top of this it allows you to track the amount of people who actually went through with it.

      Thank you for your honest opinion, it really is appreciated!

  3. 2

    “Grow your social” is a much weaker call to action than, for example, “get more customers”.

    Most business owners know or accept that word of mouth drives a lot of business, so I think that could be a useful way to frame your offer.

    Look into customer problem stack ranking to get a better idea of how to market (and design) your product

    1. 1

      Ok, I'll read into this. Thank you very much :)

  4. 2

    Nice idea! Super clear to me and simple. The landing page looks nice too! Could I ask how you made it? (Webflow, a template, coded?)

    1. 1

      I'm using Webflow. I'm a developer but I've got to say, so far the experience with it has been great. You can no code something rapidly but also get down into finer details if you want to.

      1. 1

        Neat - thanks for sharing!

  5. 2

    Seems like a good idea, instead of the exhausting task of telling people to like / follow / subscribe 100 times a day, put some skin in the game with a discount and get more results without the effort.

    I'm not sure how you are validating that the customer took the action. How does Lynk know that I liked your page? Maybe that's a solved problem already, but I am not familiar enough with the API's to know.

    In a broader sense, I'm not sure how the social media platforms feel about this kind of approach, where some likes are "paid for" with discounts, competing with other likes that are not "paid for". It's not a level playing field and it's seeking to fool their algorithm by boosting one business over another.

    So I feel there's some risk that the platforms eventually block what you're doing, which would end the business overnight.

    1. 1

      Exactly this. It gives them that little extra nudge and you can place messaging + a link to the page on anything from emails to packaging.

      I agree. Social media companies will not like this. My approach is going to be slightly softer, where we track interaction but perhaps not directly through an API. Scraping perhaps.

      On top of that I think there needs to be messaging to negate bad behaviour. For example, there shouldn't be a scenario where a user is encouraged to leave a good review. You can encourage them to leave a review but impartially.

      Thanks you for taking a look :)

      1. 1

        OK, so you get the business owner's login and scrape their page to see what likes and comments from customers appear. Technically feasible without the cooperation of the social media companies, against the terms of service of the platforms but nobody is expected to notice at first.

        (Any laws broken? Not sure. Do your own research)

        You're going to have to think about your investment / longterm / exit strategy, the more successful you are, the sooner the platforms will notice and shut you down. The risk is that nobody wants to invest or make a career out of this due to the risk, so it just stumbles along without being very successful.

        The unlikely but amazing outcome would be if a social media platform saw what you were doing and wanted to legitimize it and profit from it, buying your company to make this a legitimate paid-for feature complementary to advertising.

  6. 2

    I like it! I like the idea ( the social media butterflies will love it) and the website is nice, it's my favorite color ( cobalt blue) and the copy in the white area is pleasing to the eye.
    I think it's well done and it looks great too!

  7. 2

    great idea, but cliched copy - try to pare it down to the benefits to your customers. Also, agree with others that 5 steps is too many - try to combine some!

    1. 1

      Ok, I'll work on the copy and steps. Thanks!

  8. 2

    I agree with the other comments here (especially social proof, ie. testimonials or data) but will re-iterate anyway.

    P.S. I am by no means a copywriter but the general tone/way of writing needs to be cleaned up.

    • "Grow your social without lifting a finger" => It's cliché but can work for now. Experiment with this! Though I don't understand how an image of a retail transaction (clearly for Square) fits into that.

    • Subtitle => I would shorten this up and make it more personal. Something like, "Give exclusive [discounts/rewards/deals] to your customers in return for likes, shares, and reviews on your socials." Maybe "social media" works better here for SEO, not sure.

    • Too many steps => It's really 4 already (step 5 isn't a step) so combine steps 3 and 4 to become a 3-step process. You can still have "step 5" — don't include it as a step but an outcome. I think the copy could be cleaned up here as well (ie. "After purchasing, direct customers to your lynk page to leave a review and unlock rewards!"). Keep it short and sweet.

    • Early access => If the website was built in a way of a personal social media consulting pitch, I think the copy here could work. But it's a company/product website so remove any mention of "I" and replace it with "we" or remove the mention of the noun altogether. Actually, I would remove all the copy here and list the benefits of early access instead ("lynx is currently in early access. Sign up today to receive x, y, z"). Speak as if you were already a 10 person company. Customers want professionalism and want to trust that the people behind the product know what they're doing.

    And speaking of "without lifting a finger," implement a form for the email address.

    1. 1

      Thank you so much for your time and copy suggestions. I took them into account and even used a couple. I've condensed the steps down into 3, and it feels a lot better.

      Here it's published - golynk.co

      I'm going to be adding a contact form ASAP.

  9. 2

    The website aesthetic is very nice IMO. Is there a reason you're doing early access instead of just signing on customers?

    1. 2

      I chose early access because I will be building the product alongside early user feedback, but I agree, why can't I just start signing on customers after a basic prototype - right?

      Thank you for taking the time to look at it.

      1. 2

        Exactly! You can always adjust things as you go. Don’t let imposter syndrome enter your realm, get the inertia rolling and get as much feedback from your clients as possible!

  10. 2

    Matt, thanks for shipping it. gut read: feels a little WUPHF-y. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WUPHF.com

    I'd prefer to see a real life story at the bottom instead of a FOMO-sign up. personal pref, but when you're pitching something that has a little bit of a silver-bullet feel, the lemme build it before i let you see results doesn't land. i'd prefer a crappy prototype to promise of rainbows/unicorns

    5 steps seems like a lot - lots of jumping around the fan/user has to do.

    typo: Your customer opens your lynk page & are encouraged to follow your social pages or leave reviews to unlock any rewards you’ve set. - should be is encouraged, I think.

    tag line without lifting a finger doesn't align with visuals -the peace sign is two fingers being lifted - just a picky note on brand. and it feels like the message is you don't have to lift a finger but your customers do, maybe five times.

    the stock point of sale photo confuses me - how do you get them to get the short link (step 3). i'm a fan of more precise user situation that needs this product.

    props for putting it out there.

    1. 1

      Thanks for your time and feedback!

      I've taken some points across all the comments, including your into account and have updated the website. Here - golynk.co

      There are less steps and revised copy.

      I agree about the image, I'm on the hunt for something more appropriate.

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