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24 Comments

Super Low Engagement

I've been buying traffic from Google, Reddit and Facebook for about a month. I'm finding that the engagement on the home page and (consequently?) the "sign up" conversion rate (which doesn't even ask for a CC at the moment) is super low. I've had only about 5 sign ups in March so far with ~300 uniques from paid advertising.

I know that LOTS of things on the homepage could use improvement... the copy, the images, the overall flow of the pitch. However, I'm concerned that I'm so far from having viable conversion numbers that it may be stupid to try to "optimize" any one of these aspects. I'd love a second set of eyes to see if there is a major red flag I'm overlooking.

Does the homepage suck? Is the pitch totally lame? Am I too much focused on showing the "what" without justifying it with they "why"?

https://spendlight.com

  1. 7

    No offense, but the app sounds like a lot of work.

    I have to text my spending each time I do it in order for the app to track it for me?

    That sounds like too much work with too little pay-off.

    Hope you don't take this in the wrong spirit.

    Either have a stronger value proposition or, the low-hanging fruit, make it easier to use!

    1. 1

      I'm happy for candid feedback. The app is a lot of work. OK, it's not actually too much work. This tool is not going to be appealing to most folks, to be sure. There are other apps for planning a budget. This is aimed at helping people who have a good written budget, but still tend to overspend. The journal is meant to be a way to reflect and self-evaluate your spending decisions. The pay-off is better spending habits for an individual.

      For those who share accounts with a loved one, SpendLight also offers a way to communicate not just when, where and how much was spent (which you can get automatically through alerts from your bank), but it also captures sentiment. In other words, when I see that my wife spent $250 at Target when I was expecting only about $40, SpendLight is a nice way to allow her to characterize her spending without conflict. In other words, if she was careless or perhaps saw a great deal or whatever the case may be... she can very easily make note of the justification. Then at the end of the month when we review our budget, if we stay within our limits that's fine. If, however, we overspent in certain categories, we can connect that to some of the specific spending decisions that were made and sort of troubleshoot our habits. From there we can adjust our budget or simply aim toward better spending decisions.

      So I totally agree 100% that it's work. It's not for everyone.

  2. 2

    What's the difference from this app vs. Mint? Mint automatically tracks spending because it links to a bank account. It gets tedious to text your spending on every single transaction.

    You might want to rethink your approach here (sorry to be harsh). You're on the right track with texting, but maybe pivot to "notes" about transactions. Maybe a user would want to write a note or reminder about a certain transaction. Just spit balling here.

    1. 1

      Great question. Mint can be used to plan and track spending. But as you say, it tracks spending automatically. For people wanting to take action to improve their spending habits, a spending journal can be super helpful. It would serve a purpose similar to a food journal or an exercise journal for someone working to increase their physical fitness. The act of recording your decisions helps shape your thought process.

      One thing I've thought about is simply connecting with the bank and then prompting for a reaction or self-evaluation? "I see you spent $250 at Target today... how would you rate your spending?" On the other hand, I really like the simplicity and assurance of not connecting to bank accounts in that way. At it's simplest, texting "250@Target #good" to an existing contact is not hard. Perhaps my counter to some of the argument that it's too hard would be that poor spending habits is costly. Blowing your budget and running out of money is much worse than building good spending habits.

      Another angle I've thought about pursuing would be to double down on the "buddy" aspect. Make it the perfect tools to coordinate everyday spending with a loved one. For folks who watch their budget carefully, capturing more than just the time, amount and location of the transaction is super helpful. Speaking from personal experience, it can be totally eye opening to start to break down your spending into #planned and #unplanned, for example.

  3. 1

    Thanks for putting up and congrats the launch @Larsenal

    Feedback:

    • The 3 call-to-action buttons are competing each other. It's hard for a site visitor which button should go for. Consider reduce buttons and use an accent color to define different buttons
    • The info in header section seems not enough to proceed a sign up

    I'm also working on my site, would be awesome to hear your advice :)

  4. 1

    Paid ads are great for scale, but finding a user who is really in love with your product comes first, so you can deeply target them in your ad campaigns.

    Do you understand who is buying this and why they chose it over other budget tools?

    I just wrote something up that you may be interested in: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-to-stand-out-in-a-competitive-market-and-why-you-should-be-in-one-2523c0d3e7?utm_campaign=forum-notification&utm_medium=email&utm_source=indie-hackers-emails

  5. 1

    Honestly speaking, as compared to Facebook and social media marketing you should focus on search engine optimization. To get target signups, you will have to do target marketing as well.

  6. 1

    I’m going to give you my perspective as someone who purchased ynab classic and was looking to find something else and finally settled on the free and open source ledger cli.

    There is an incredible amount of competition, and they are selling at a low price point. They have a product already and excellent ui etc. it’s going to be tough to stand out.

    In addition people who budget naturally don’t want to spend much.

    When I see a landing page where the product is not ready I’m not that interested. If I searched on google I want to look, make a snap decision to buy or not buy. Signing up to a list is not on my agenda.

    I’m not sure what you should do, I think budgeting apps is a tough gig.

  7. 1

    If you are looking for a more radical idea I would maybe take the SMS tracking feature (which I haven't seen anywhere else before) and make this your USP, i.e. rebrand your product as being a SMS-first tracking tool.

    However, this would also require a change of your desired target group, since most millennials associate SMS with annoying notifications from their cell phone provider etc.

  8. 1

    This recent post from Trello actually captures a lot of the sentiment behind Spendlight:
    https://blog.trello.com/decision-journal

  9. 1

    my two cents. food for thought

    1. you need a better offer, what's in it for me if I give you my money?: learn to stick to a budget? perhaps is not enough. think about better way to entice your customer
    2. create content of value, perhaps your offer is not entirely understood and valuable enough but you have to teach me how. you have to be willing to share related content to your field for free to build up interest.
      tip: you have a blog section but no content. people notice that. engage by sharing.

    hope it helps, seems you are on the right path. dont loose those 5 paying customers. have patience

    1. 1

      I think the "learn to stick to your budget" is only appealing to those who know the pain of having a tight budget that works on paper... one that allows you to make ends meet... but then experience the trouble that comes from overspending and therefore blowing the budget.

  10. 1

    You mentioned the FIRE community. Since I consider myself a subscriber to the FIRE methodology, I'd say I don't like the idea of "spending money" - I don't think of myself as having a bad habit of spending money. I have good spending behaviors already and maybe I need an app to further "optimize" my spending. I'm allergic to spending money and "discretionary" spending. Your product screams that it's not for me, a person with already good spending habits.

    That's not good because I might be in your target audience. I probably could use this app, but your page seems like it's for people who can't control themselves. Consider reaching out to your users who signed up and ask them what they like/dislike in your landing page.

    1. 1

      I really appreciate your feedback. It could be that I need to niche down. In other words, perhaps I am looking for people earlier in the FIRE journey who have not yet developed good habits. Or perhaps (as I ponder in another comment) there's an opportunity for couples who may not be at the same phase of financial maturity and self-discipline.

  11. 1

    Who, exactly, are you targeting with this?

    1. 2

      Folks in the so called "F.I.R.E." community (Financial Independence, Retire Early)... folks who want to take control of their finances and be very careful with their budget planning as well as execution. This is most certainly not a product for people who aren't earnestly trying to improve their spending habits.

  12. 1

    Hi David,
    I think you would need to include a stronger value proposition.

    I don't want take time to track my spending and then learning to spend less.
    I want save bucks. tell me how much ;-)

    1. 1

      Do you use a written budget for your spending? And if so, do you find that you are able to stick to it pretty well?

      1. 1

        Actually I don't.
        I use automatic finance collection, and sometimes will look at how my spending are shared.
        Probably there could be something in between, like texting me because I've spent 200$ dollars in a bar in a few hours,.

        I don't know much about the FIRE community you described, but I know that I would be happy to learn more about how I spend. But the manual data entry is a no go for me.

  13. 1

    I'd be happy to take a look if you include a link.

      1. 3

        OK, I took a look. As you mentioned, you haven't had enough traffic to get statistically valid results, however, here are a few things you might want to consider based on best practices.

        1. You could state your value proposition more clearly. Take the headline for example. I'm not sure what "Become a Better Spender" means. Better in what way? And better than what? Plus, I'm not sure anyone would use that phrase in conversation. People strive to be smart consumers, manage their budget effectively or increase savings.

        The copy underneath the headline is a bit long for that spot. I would tighten that up to a single thought. And in general, avoid statements like things are hard or frustrating. Instead make the reader feel those things.

        1. I think it's good that you're trying to proactively address possible concerns or objections, but I think the points about selling data and holding data captive could actually have the opposite effect. Those never even crossed my mind until I read it, and now that's planted the seed in my head.

        2. The offer is a bit unclear. You have pricing options with get started buttons, which makes sense, but you also have sign up elsewhere. If I sign up, what am I signing up for? Will I be charged one of these options? Is there a free trial or money back guarantee or will I be stuck with it if I don't like it?

        3. Design-wise, the page looks nice. I would make the CTA buttons stand out more with a more contrasting color, though.

        Hopefully that helps. Best of luck.

        1. 1

          Appreciate your thoughtful consideration, Sean. Good ideas.

  14. 1

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