[Shopify App] My first product
Hi all!
My first "real" product called Delm (https://apps.shopify.com/delm) is available in the Shopify App Store since end-October. It basically adds an shipping info to your Shopify product pages. A shipping info may be the estimated delivery date or cut-off countdown. You might know this feature from Amazon.
My goal is to create a niche product that is easy to use and only does one thing right. The current version is kinda my MVP - everything works and I got my first customers! But I'm not sure how to proceed further..
Here are the current statistics from October till today
- 10 paying customers and some free users (I gave out some free accounts in facebook groups)
- 4 real five star reviews
- ~ 15 % app install conversion rate on app store listing for current month
- Pretty low traffic on app store listing https://i.imgur.com/r8Gfuei.png
What I'm currently working on
- Providing customer support via live chat in order to onboard new customers
- Improving the UI
- Adding some missing and requested features
I feel like I just should keep grinding and improve the product. I have tried to run ppc ads on facebook, twitter, reddit and even quora (~ 70 € ad spent). But with very little success. I only got one quality lead from twitter. I want to try sending out personalized cold emails (no spam) to Shopify merchants soon.
The product is low priced (5 USD per month with 7 days trial) in order to get my first customers in. I'm unsure about the pricing tho.
Like many of us, I struggle with marketing.
What do you guys think what the next best steps should be?
This is my first post on IH but I was lurking for quite a while but anyway - thank you for reading this and merry christmas!
This is a GREAT examples of a tiny fix product, and it looks like you've implemented it elegantly. Well done.
You're also building for an audience that you KNOW spends money, and your product is perfectly placed in a high-conversion part of the app where shop owners really care.
Pricing-wise, you're somewhat beholden to the expectations set by the Shopify marketplace. That is one downside to being in a marketplace. I randomly picked a few of the apps in the sales and conversion optimization category and saw that most are under $10. That might just be my sampling, you should definitely get a better sense of the price range based on the marketplace.
Two suggestions for marketing, if I were in your shoes:
1 - I would start researching where shopify store owners interact and look for advice online. that can include forums, but also other resources like podcasts, newsletters, etc. Get involved in that ecosystem, offering helpful advice and perspective wherever you can.
Don't limit yourself to the specific problems of your app - use your domain knowledge, or be willing to do research on behalf of busy shop owners.
2 - Is there a related pain that you could help solve with an even SMALLER fix? I'm thinking something along the lines of a cheat sheet to help shop owners understand the differences between their shipping options, or a nicely formatted collection of checkout optimizations that helps them prioritize difficulty/value.
Offer this giveaway for free in exchange for their email address, which you can then nurture towards a product sale with an email sequence.
Even if the numbers seem small, my read is that you're off to a great start and with even a LITTLE bit of more strategic marketing besides throwing ads at the product....you can drive a lot more qualified visitors to the app page!
-Alex
Thanks Alex! If you are interested in numbers about the Shopify App Store then https://asoft.co/shopify-apps/store-analysis is a good read
Have you tried simply cold emailing all other Shopify store owners letting them know about your tool and offering a bunch of value upfront in the email (making it a no-brainer to try)?
Yes, I think cold emails can work great! Sent out like 40 mails and got some responses.
I want to send out more cold emails as soon as possible.
Thats how my mail currently looks like: https://i.imgur.com/oIj3YYs.png
I feel like you could do a lot better with that cold email. If that's already working for you, ignore me :) otherwise...
Write a series of 4 to 5 emails that drip out over 1 month (about 1 per week). I find that with cold emails it takes 2 or 3 (sometimes more) to get a response.
Keep it super short and skip the screenshot, attachment.
Address just the recipient and not a group of recipients ("hi guys").
Provide a stat. "Showing estimated delivery date drives 10% more sales [proof link]"
Give them offers they can't refuse (i.e. add a TON of value).
Something like "I'd like to give you 2 months free to see for yourself." I would add more if you could, something like blasting your audience with their store, or you'll add them to your directory that get's a ton of traffic, feature them on your homepage, blast out their store across all of your social media channels, etc... (telling them that you'll promote them in some beneficial way).
Your P.S. is perfect.
etc...
Also, how are you finding Shopify stores in volume to email?
Hey @Coffee
I'm currently working on a new cold email campaign based on your suggestions and https://blog.close.io/cold-email-follow-up-plan
https://i.imgur.com/WXVigdA.png
What do you think?
Hey Tobias, great next step!
Here are my thoughts:
Definitely slow down the sending (based upon the imgur screenshot you linked).
Personally I like to send no less than 5 days apart. I'll usually create ~5 emails and send them over 30 days (1 month). Some are spaced out 5 days, some 9 days.
Give it time. It usually takes at minimum 3 emails for someone to take action. At 5 days apart, that's 15 days until you get feedback!
For example, I just received this little gem yesterday:
_"Hey Chris --
I can't decide if the string of six emails is impressive or annoying but hey, we added it! Enjoy the extra link and Happy New Year.
:)"_
There's a line you need to find, and NOT cross. Slow down how often you send'em ;)
The use of your product is not "what's in it for them" ;)
Add a TON of value.
What do they get out of this? It needs to be something really, really beneficial for them. Work hard at this. It pays of hugely. Then tell them in almost every email you send, gently reminding of the payoff.
Narrow down your ask. Your goal is to get a response. Your initial ask is way to nebulous:
Email #1 "is this something you'd be interested in?"
Email #2 "is this something you'd be interested in?"
Email #3 "please let me know if you have time"
Email #4: "i wish you all the best"
The last email doesn't even have an ask, the three emails before it have very weak asks.
Email #2: Have you seen what I sent you yesterday?
Email #3: I haven't heard back from you yet
Email #4: I haven't received a response from you :(
Don't do that. Everyone is busy, have some empathy and respect for their time.
Research why estimated delivery dates on product pages increases sales. Dig up something! Go find it and add it to your email.
--
At the end of the day the sequence you've linked from imgur probably won't get you much (if any) responses. Rewrite these with the thought of "how can I genuinely help these people" (and giving them your product is not the correct answer). "How can I add value for them".
Good luck!
Awesome, thank you very much! I totally agree with you.
I'm thinking about giving them an extended trial to add some value.
How are you adding value?
Sorry, but again :) IMO anything to do with the product that you're selling/pushing (whatever) to add value with is the wrong approach. Find another way. Something that does NOT benefit you, but only them. Be selfless when adding value.
Lmao gotcha
Oh thank you, some great suggestions!
I bought some data from https://builtwith.com/
BuiltWith is very expensive (as I'm sure you know). Give my tool a try: https://webdef.com/sales-intelligence I'm attempting to do the same at a much lower price point and my contact info is far more up-to-date than theirs.
Good luck!
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Great stuff!!
Hey, congrats on getting to the App store and also getting your first customers! It was a lot of hassle for us to get featured on the app store so I know you put in a lot of work.
The app is very nice too, I think there are a lot of people who need this, you'll just need to find out how to reach them cause right now it's veeeery hard for new apps to get organic traction cause the new search and ranking algo only favorites the big players. Also, Shopify announced that they would start experimenting with ads in the app store, so that might also be something worth trying.
On more question I have is why didn't you use Shopify's Polaris UI Kit to make the UI look more like their own?
Good luck with the app!
The main reason for not using Polaris is that I have no experience with React😀
I use Vue + Vuetify for the frontend. Is it worth to switch to Polaris?
I already signed up for the beta ads!
What is your app called?
There is also a Vue version of Polaris, but I don't know whether it's any good. We also use Vue for our project, but the Shopify integration is only one side of our business so it wasn't really worth using Polaris in our case.
The app's name is Personizely. https://apps.shopify.com/personizely
Nice work!
Alex and others have already given some great ideas. But here's something that is obviously simple, and can work well...
Content marketing / SEO!
Do some keyword research to find out what people are searching for in your niche. They may not be using the exact words you use to describe the problem.
Then write a detailed article about your solution, including those keywords. Post it on your site, and also try to get it shared on Shopify related FB groups, Twitter influencers.
I think that should give you a good boost for now.
Thanks! I'm not a huge fan of Google SEO but I want to add more content to my landing page at www.delm.io and write more documentation in the near future
2 years aog, I developed my tiny fix product for SEO. You can refer to my blog post here: https://blog.seo-product-optimizer.com/index.php/2018/03/07/shopify-app-marketing-ultimate-cookbook-independent-shopify-partner/
Sorry, the link is a bit long. But it may help you. I am also looking for ways to improve my marketing reach!
This is a pretty great feature with great value. With regards to pricing, I find the $5 to be very affordable if I had a Shopify business, not sure how much higher you can push this but I believe there’s room. As a consumer, it’s a huge add-on, and it pushes me to make purchases with greater urgency, because of the need to want “it” now.
You’ve done a wonderful job finding a problem and creating a solution that isn’t necessarily earth shattering, but one that has demand, is generating revenue, and can be easily implemented.
This comment was deleted 7 years ago