Some tips on how you think I can surpass $1k MRR
I am a little lost at the moment. Recently came off a one-month engineering motherload. Now I am starting the marketing engines again.
I've gotten great advice in the past, however, it's incredibly overwhelming. I am trying to set some OKRs (objectives, and key results) that are within reach. Something small and achievable.
My product https://storycreatorapp.com is only doing $300 MRR which is truly sad and I have to turn it around so I am seeking help again.
Why do you think my product is not converting well after looking at it and what are some small actionable steps I can take this week to get 5 new customers?
Really looking for someone to talk things through with, I know everything that is possible marketing-wise, but I am trying to create a gameplan to actually have something to execute on that will win. I am about dead, I have $4k in the bank and don't know what to do. I need results fast.
I am thinking about going out with a bang and spending all my money on ADs and coaches. Thoughts?
Cheers
Hey Mike, been following your posts and story for awhile. Love your hustle. Here is what I'm thinking.
What I mean "so easy": A side note as I'm becoming a parent in 4 weeks. Parents love to take videos of their babies and kids. The last thing they want is to edit the videos because we have no "time". If you can make it so easy that they just upload a few clips and a video is slapped together for them to share on IG. That's what I mean by: easy. Of course this idea is not validated, so do your research.
At this point with 4k left. You might have better success validating this "problem" with a new "solution". I know, you've invested a lot already in this product, hence it is a very tough decision you have to make. But this is one option to best use your remaining runway if things haven't been working out.
I see that you're struggling with Marketing a lot and are very lost. I always believe that the best way is to learn from someone with experience. Have you considered partnering or finding a cofounder who knows marketing/growth? If anything, you'll be learning a lot from this person (this is value given you'll be starting new products in the future). Having run 2 companies before, I don't think a founder needs to take on everything himself/herself, you are a problem solver. If the product is not going, what about offering stakes if a marketing person can come in to handle that part? Would that work out to be a sustainable partnership?
Get result fast. Sorry to tell you, but there is no such thing. If you can't convert people organically, you cannot convert via ads. Don't waste your money there. You'll get traffic, but they'll not convert.
Coach. Again I think at your stage it is not worth it. You can probably get some really good feedback from people here already. Have you gotten on calls to talk through it? I'm sure some comments here are good for you to reflect on, while some are useless. I think you just want to get a coach because you want someone "more certified" to tell you the same thing.
I would be happy to jump on a call to just talk if you think that's a good idea.
Btw, saw that you got #1 on PH, how did this cohort of users turn out? Did anyone so excited that became a power user?
For this aspect, since I have been under a rock coding I havent done a great job of following up with users. Which is something I am going to change. More follow ups.
These are great points. It's important at this point to nail the positioning and the target audience.
Since it is web-based I am working on leveraging HTTP and the fact that it's on the cloud to serve teams that need the collaboration aspect. I am constantly thinking about this and am going to run a few experiments to decide the best direction.
The key lesson is finding your "position" in the market is no joke, it is very important.
Yeah it is the hardest man! I also struggled a lot in my last startup. Don't beat yourself up too much, you've created an amazing product and you're pretty good at creating products and building beautiful landing pages.
Have you pushed this product out to different persona and collect some data on which persona has what feedback? I know you created it for entrepreneurs/marketers, but chances are they might not be your target afterall.
Yeah you're right. I am hitting it hard talking to people this week. Im collecting data and sorting that out. I feel a re-position coming really soon.
Good points!
Excellent excellent :)! I'm glad you see some lights!
About repositioning, I had some experiences I wanted to share, because it was painful for me.
So I ran https://toasty.ai/ for 18 months, we were struggling with finding our target persona. In the early days, I would make prompt decision about persona and then change everything in marketing to focus on the new persona, website pages, copywriting etc. without validating the persona first. And as you can guess, that was costly.
Up till the last few months, what we did was put up the 4 personas (you can see under the Solutions tab) we attracted already. Then collect more data, speak to more of them, to further nail it down. The idea was to get down to one to focus on, because we knew if we were to do all 4, we would be dead in no time.
So my lesson here is - don't change everything marketing before the persona is validated, it is too costly. As for the approach, can't tell you what's right or wrong, every biz is diff.
I hope this is helpful, man!
Honestly, as someone who's had to pay for a service like storycreator before, I don't think I'd choose it over Canva for example if I was only browsing the landing pages. I know it's really hard to compete with them but maybe try to convince people who are not happy with other services and try to show the problems you solve that other services aren't solving. Make sure to add those points to your pricing page. I think you should promote your templates more, they are really good. I'd add something like "50 templates to choose from" to the bullet points in the pricing.
Good points, I think it's different than Canva in that is centered around solving video problems.
In terms of illustrating the core problems SCA solves on the homepage, I think that could certainly be revamped.
Templates are great, they're hard to keep up with, I need to hire some folks to make more. Really want to expand on that soon.
@storycreator Are you looking for partner by any chance? I've been following your posts for a while as well, and I think you have a cool product technically. I would guess you're falling into the classic trap of convincing yourself that you need to build features and then market, am I right? (I saw your YT vlog about rewriting the rendering engine haha.)
Maybe you just need someone who will help you create a marketing/growth plan and execute it.
Totally agree, I made some bad bets technically, which I think is normal in most startups. The important thing was that I used it as a learning experience and built a better foundation out of it. The hard part was it took a lot of energy out of me for little monetary and growth reward.
So now that the foundation is set, I am optimistic to focus on marketing and focus on working with folks who have experience.
Are you open to a quick call?
I feel like you're in a crowded space and you ve got a Gucci suit on, but everyone else around you has a suit. No one notices that you have a Gucci one.
In the words of very good marketing people, when everyone Zigs, ya gotta Zag.
Here are some questions:
Happy to talk on Discord if you have the answers and you don't wanna share them -> lf.gg/discord
Would love to have a quick chat.
As much as I "know" it's important to talk to users, I have not been doing a good job at it for two simple reasons.
The first being that I allocate all my personal bandwidth to the product a majority of the time, so it's a bandwidth problem due to poor choice and habit.
The second which influences the first I get nervous to talk to people because I fear bad things like negative talk, rejection, screwing up a transaction, etc. This is solvable by working on myself and reforming my mind/habits. Which in essence is why I am making this post and figure out ways to go beyond myself.
I have the same problem. I have loyal customers, just not enough:-) I should definitely talk to my users much more, either through surveys or interviews.
Let's chat! Easier than typing whole chapters!
Hi Mike, will give you my 2c but take it with grain of salt as I’m only one voice
I tried your product several times. the message and value look very clear, product is very exciting. But I couldn’t finish one workflow, which is very disappointing. There was no “success” moment for me. Hence the product is not addictive. Your product problem is called stickiness.
I don’t understand if it’s for me (IHer) or for professional video editor user.
If I were you, I would change the message to be similar to what Canva say. You’re a marketing tool to boost sales not a video editing tool (operational)
Will be happy to learn more about your product though.
Good points. I feared #1 was a problem. It's hard to figure out how to pinpoint that, the best way I can think of is talking to folks and using analytics.
Id love to learn more about your experience and where the workflow broke.
In terms of positioning, you are absolutely right. After talking to people I am sure I will be able to re-evaluate where it can stand out in the market and crush it.
The workflow breaks when I hit the play button. The video plays forever and then I closed the window and forgot my first trigger to use your product.
My 2c is to play until the video ends, then popup with a success modal to download the video locally. And ask for signup details.
I see, the first part makes sense and I didn't realize such a small thing made a large impact. I'll be sure to pause the video programmatically.
As for the second part, you're referring to the demo. It's really hard for me to justify rendering engine resources to a user who hasn't signed up. Maybe it's something I will evaluate, but the purpose of the demo is to showcase the experience.
Open to thoughts.
So let them decide how to follow up, in the "success" modal ask them:
Another q - can I embed your tool into my solution? I see how my customers will love it but not see enough value as a stand alone
Lets talk. Shoot an email to michael @ storycreatorapp.com
Are you talking to potential customers on a daily basis?
Do you have a leaky bucket-- E.g Do people subscribe and unsubscribe? What's your churn rate?
At what rate are you growing? Are you converting new visitors into paid users?
I plan to set up better tracking this week. The numbers have never gotten to a point where they needed much evaluation, I think because they're still relatively low and possibly hard to make decisions on.
I still need to talk to more users and find a traction channel that works.
No number is too less. Even if you have just 10 users, you need to know why they are doing what they are doing.
Hey Michael! First of all, I think your product is great, well designed and the value proposition is clear!
I wonder have you ever asked yourself: