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29 Comments

Something about my landing page just isn't doing it for people, what is the issue?

  1. 7

    Just some random thoughts:

    I am a manager that have used Jira, Trello, github issues, pivotal and probably some others. So I expect I might be included in the target.

    Did you consider switching the focus from E2EE, to what can I do with portabella that I can't with other software.

    If you think that a E2EE focus is needed, I will make people scare. When was the last data leak from any of the popular?

    My feeling with E2EE is problematic, as I lost some conversations in whatsapp or telegram (don't remember what exactly but got that feeling). So I got scare. A possible rephrase might be.

    "Portabella, the only issue tracker that have encrypted boards." ... And a link to how it works.

    Did you research how people feel about E2EE? I am curios if people really want that, or if they have that associated as poor UX.

    1. 1

      I agree. End-to-end encryption is essentially a bullet point. It doesn't really differentiate your product from everything else.

      The only app that I can think of that focuses on E2EE in their landing page is WhatsApp but if you find real people talking about WhatsApp or read about the origins of WhatsApp the fact that it is secure E2EE doesn't even get mentioned.

    2. 1

      Agree with @guillermooo's points. It just wasn't clear to me why E2EE is important for my project management tool. There are a lot of competitors and I just wasn't convinced of how your solution was any better.

  2. 7

    Hey Alex,

    for starter, you have an incredible amount of text, and small.

    The hero is too populated, you should definitely have less information there, is overwhelming. You do not need the trusted right there,...

    I would definitely summarize that, make it bigger and use a darker grey.

    just curious, what have you used to make the website?

    Something like this.

    portabella

    1. 1

      Thanks for the feedback! I'm remove those logos, I'm always jumping between having social proof or not.

      The landing page was a template, but it has been heavily modified since then. I've got Bootstrap 4 in there, but to be honest it's not so used, just for layout and responsive stuff.

      Will take another look at my use of greys, my design skills are definitely lacking. I've also been thinking a different font for the headers may help.

  3. 4

    Unclear value prop, too much text, windows 95 aesthetic.

  4. 4

    I think your copy is too feature focused instead of being benefit focused. If your differentiator is E2E encruption, I would focus on that and simply list the "table stake" features such as a kanban board.

    I would also use copy that speaks to specific audience and use cases. Who would need E2E encryption the most? Legal/medical/financial segments?

    I would find the arguments in the "Why end-to-end encryption?" section kinda tangential. How does it solve an immediate pain in my job? How do you address walled gardens?

    1. 1

      Great idea! Medical/legal/financial case studies... I will look into doing that.

      Thanks for taking a look, will revisit the copy and think how I can improve it. The walled gardens thing is like, data mobility (import/export), but you're right I should expand on that.

      1. 1

        How do you help with data mobility?

  5. 3

    I think overall the landing page looks good, but there is a lot of text which most likely the vast majority of people aren't to read, they're just going to scan over it.

    Secondly the hero image is rather small so you can't make out what its showing and when you click the video, you get quite a small preview window with doesn't look like an option to make it full screen so that's hard to see what it is you are demoing.

    1. 1

      Thanks! That's the second time I've been told about the small video, will definitely get on that.

  6. 3

    It would be nice if you describe what you mean by "isn't doing it". How many visitors did you get? Where did you get them from?

    The reason why something isn't converting isn't just the landing page; but the targeting, acquisition source, etc.

  7. 2

    Your landing page is awesome!

    Surely there is some room to improve but maybe you can improve your marketing strategies instead of spending much time on the landing page

  8. 2

    The issue: people don't read, they scan.

    You need to reduce the text on your landing page by 90% and make the information more "scannable".

    Add links to docs or other pages for the minority that wants to know more about a particular point.

  9. 2

    Congratulations on the launch.

    Seeing Matrix, Jitsi, Telegram, Signal logo I thought you were integrating them, then saw the subtext that you are using those as an example for End-to-End encryption and I found that off-putting. I presume anyone who comes to your product already knows what E2E is.

    I think the issue you're facing is reaching your product to those, whose problem it solves.

    Unfortunately proactive approach for security in business, is still not a thing and so I would suggest highlighting the project management part of your product first rather than making security as USP as the security is expected to be guaranteed by a business customer anyways.

  10. 2

    You re not talking to you audience, you're too generic, or at least this is what I believe is the cause. Happy to show you an example of what I mean from another competitor 👍

    1. 1

      Hey! Thanks, yeah I can see what you're talking about. I've scoped a bunch of my competitors but if you have a specific one in mind I'd love to see it!

  11. 2

    Hey Alex, I really liked the site. Overall I think it could use less text and more illustrations. e.g. “why end-to-end encryption” The title before each text block is usually enough for the reader to get the point.

    1. 1

      Got it, thanks! Yeah illustrations... those are pretty hard but I will spend some more time thinking about that.

  12. 1

    Nice work with the launch.

    Having worked on a bunch of project management tools over the years (on-premise and in the cloud), my immediate concern is if you've validated this idea fully? Do you have anyone paying for it at the moment?

    The big companies that care about data privacy will just run their own Jira data centre. The smaller ones will want to choose a project management tool on the feature set of the tool rather than the security aspect imho, so I'm just thinking you have a solution for a problem that doesn't exist.

    Sorry to sound negative, but I know how competitive project management tools are and I don't think E2EE is really something people are clamouring for.

  13. 1

    Hi Alex, to me it seems like just another Trello clone, please try to explain why I should pick you over other solutions/tools?

    The "Check out a live public demo!" is small and easy to miss, consider making this into a button so people see it.

    The screenshot to text size ratio seems off and makes it harder to read, consider making the screenshots smaller or text bigger or narrower.

  14. 1

    Not a bad idea of end-to-end but my thought was after reading everything, it's YABK (yet another kanban board). I'm not seeing anything that really sticks out for me in terms of value, but that's just me.

    One thing I'd suggest is that you improve your Trello comparison chart by moving the feature list to the left, then have yours and Trellos on the right. It's really hard to scan when you have to compare products the way it is layed out right now.

    Best regards and good luck in the future!

  15. 1

    Your message is “use this project manager approach because it is secure, but basically if you ask any other vendor - they are all doing certain level of security measures by default. And users expect this to be done) don't feel like this is a strong message. Or maybe I didnt get the idea who is your target customer.

  16. 1

    Just had a quick glance. All I've seen is a wall of text.

  17. 1

    First thought: too much text.

    Maybe try switching the "what does portabella offer?" and "why end2end" part

  18. 1

    Hey, Alex, I don't actually think your page is too bad. When you say your website "isn't doing it for people," based on which metric have you come to that conclusion?

    If it's signups, I have a pretty good idea why—you put 4 hyperlinks to better-known products right next to your signup box. Why?! I get that you're going for social proof but this is a questionable way of doing it. The whole "here are some other people using E2EE" angle presumes that the objection to overcome is that people don't believe E2EE is being used out there—but they do. The point is, what is so good about your E2EE? And even that presumes people care about E2EE in issue tracking. Worst of all, you put logos with hyperlinks to Telegram, Jitsi, Signal and Matrix... essentially saying, "Here are some apps that are probably more familiar to you than mine, which use the same technology that I'm touting." Why wouldn't your visitors click off? They're probably thinking, "Oh, Telegram does issue tracking? I better check it out!" I know you don't say these competitors provide issue tracking but in this context, it is reasonable for a web visitor to wonder. Are you tracking how many people click those logos (using Tag Manager or some other event tracker)? I bet you're losing some signups to people clicking those links and never returning to your site. Don't introduce distractions to your site visitors, at the point you're asking them to take the most important action possible. Simplify and clarify—reduce the cognitive load.

    That being said, everyone is suggesting there's too much text on the homepage and "no one reads anymore" but that is absolutely not true—it's just one of those aphorisms everyone parrots but no one can back up.

    I can tell you, after working in user research and content marketing for years (and producing some very long pieces of content and content-heavy websites that were very commercially successful)... people do read. People just don't like being bored or wasting their time.

    It's true, people scan before they read... but they do read. My advice is, if you're gonna use "x" amount of words, make sure every word focusses on something people care about (it matters less the numerical value of "x").

  19. 1

    Hey Alex! Took a look at the page, while it could use some work it is not terrible.

    At this point, I would be questioning my assumption that people care about end to end encrypted tracking -- unless you've already done the research and onboarded some customers.

    Are you 100% certain you are solving a problem that others in the space care about?

    Speaking as someone who has used project management platforms -- and lead teams, encryption has never entered my priority list. It was always the collaborative features and the streamlined workflow that mattered.

    Just my 2c. I don't know what you know, but it helps to take a step back sometimes and question the underlying concepts.

  20. 1

    Hi @alex_b_h , The layout is to complex for a landing page. There is a lot of text and screenshots that disrupts the flow of reading the page. The content itself is good when I want to drill into what the product does.

    The hero at the top of the page could be laid out better, all I need to see here is maybe the "Simple and secure project management" title , the email entry box, get started button and the video

    The "End-to-end encrypted issue tracking, file sharing, calendars and more" is probably not needed as a can I drill down into the page to see more details.

    Same with the "End-to-end encryption already trusted in products such as:" and the images beneath it. I can drill down into the page to see this information if needed

    You could also lose the case study links to Microsoft , Capital one etc. They are interesting, but not necessary

    I am unfamiliar with the project management software market so I did a quick web search for project management software and there are a number of vendors in this area. This one has a nice clean landing page

    https://www.wimi-teamwork.com/project-management/

    Hope this helps

  21. 1

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    1. 1

      Cheers!

      Will definitely fix that mobile issue. Does seem weird now that I'm looking at it I agree.

      Logo I just generated off some site... I should revisit that though as well. Seems a bit flat and plain.

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