We are trying to grow and it's not working. Any advice?

Daily news and top stories

90% of content on your landing page seems to not deliver this.

Ideas:

• Get some real daily news and top stories.
• Publish everything everywhere but give users a reason to download.
• Change focus from daily news to something you do/can deliver.
• Add verification from 'happy customers'.
• Put one compelling 'episode' on your landing page - users download to access others.

Best of luck.

1. Do you have users who return to use your product daily or at worst, weekly?

If yes, what do they say caused them to return? My suggestion is to first validate that what you're talking about in your marketing copy is actually what people love about your product.

I especially say this because of the other comments saying your product doesn't do (or doesn't do well) what you described it doing. So I wonder if there is a disconnect between your marketing copy and actual product use.

We have all heard stories like how Instagram spun off from Burbn when the founders realized what their users really loved wasn't what Burbn was about, but rather a specific feature inside Burbn was about. This happens really often. So validate this first.

If you don't have any returning users, you gotta start from scratch and do customer interviews first to validate your idea.

2. Your market positioning - NPR and other popular names in podcasting have captured the "listen to today's top news" audience attention through podcasts like The Indicator, Planet Money, Throughline, Morning Brew, Emerging Brew, etc. - all of which put a unique twist to reporting daily news. Do you know who is the audience that doesn't want any of that and instead wants your spin? If yes, are you explicitly calling them out in your marketing copy? And are you finding them online where they hang?

Hey @AlexE12

First, your landing page looks great and sleek. And I really like your idea, easy to understand and useful. Sounds like a Blinkist for news.

Have you ever tried to repurpose your content in order format and make sure the original publisher knows your work?

I'm also in the process of growing and validating my little side project. Would be awesome to exchange ideas on Twitter.

Hey @AlexE12,

Listle.io is a cool product. Congratulations on your product today.

You will get more traction by describing how customers lives are better with your product. For example, on your home page, you could write:
"Sarah learned about global warming from New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. She didn't have time to read his op-eds, but she was able to listen to them on her commute to work."

For some specific language suggestions that can help, check out my website SplashPad (https://getsplashpad.com). SplashPad helps you promote your product more effectively by suggesting marketing language that attracts attention and sells. Good luck!

Tie up with other podcasts

1. Have you tried to collaborate with other podcasts? Or you may invite some good podcasters who would be willing to be part of your podcasts for an episode. This will bring in some audience.
   2 To all the existing customers, take a survey on how you could provide them a better service and what better features are they looking forward to so that they might want to promote their podcast
2. Create an interactive podcast channel. The customers should be able to receive some kind of incentive and also have an opportunity to be part of your podcast. Have you done anything like this during your shows?

We at Berlocks have been helping founders with ideas on how they can grow.

Firstly, I appreciate the work you are doing. It really is good to see news with top stories converted into podcasts. To find ways to grow I would suggest:

1. Have some podcasts in the form of an interview. Call-in some personality and discuss the situations
2. Create podcasts concentrating on the area. It might get a little difficult covering all the states in the USA or different geographical locations, I believe you will have some attraction.
3. Have a button so people can share once over the social media right from your website instead of copying it to the clipboard. FB and Twitter provide API that allows you to share the news.
   Have you tried any of the above options?
   Are there any paid promotions that you are trying to do?
   I hope this helps.

@AlexE12 - I'm going to download Listle, test it out, and get back to you with some feedback.

I currently use YouTube (YT) premium for the same purpose, and regularly add stuff that looks interesting to my "Watch Later" queue, so I can go back and download them and listen when I'm out walking, at the gym, driving to the office, traveling, etc.

I mostly download to minimize battery drain that occurs with live streaming, and to eliminate any playback issues.

The one thing I like is that YT gets a sense of what stuff I like to "watch" (listen mostly), so it populates my feed with suggestions. Frankly, most of their suggestions are pretty good.

I haven't used Listle yet, so I don't know if this feature exists, but being able to "like" or "not like" an item in a playlist would be helpful, and have the app learn my preferences.

As for growing awareness for Listle, that's definitely the million dollar question for nearly every app/product.

Social sharing is one component. But I almost never share what I'm listening to with anyone, so I'm not sure how much that will contribute to your growth.

The question is where do people normally spend their time and where do they normally consume this type of content?

For example, I personally spend most of my time finding this type of content on YT, then I subscribe to channels with content I like.

Maybe you need to include YT in your business strategy, by creating a channel, and get your content initially available there so people can discover it while on YT, and use that medium as a lead gen to get people to download the app.

I'd say the same principle stands for FB, Twitter, and IG.

Your audience already has those apps on their phone, and are spending time in those ecosystems. So you either have to find a way to get found organically within those environments, or experiment with some low-cost paid lean-gen advertising.

People won't install a new app on their phone just because -- they need a compelling reason to make that type of commitment.

Also, the website is very bare-bones as it pertains finding & listening to content. I'm sure that's by design.

But as an end-user, I'm left with the impression that is how the app would be. So, I wouldn't be compelled to download the app because of the website, nor would I be interested in signing-up to "listen on the web".

There's a disconnect there.

Three other things:

1. You may want to allow a browser-session listening queue (of some length -- like 5 or 10 items), so I can try out listle from a browser without having to sign-up.

2. Your footer on your website still says 2019, which leaves me with the impression the company isn't keeping the product/offering current.

3. The brand name is not specifically an issue, but "Listle" sounds like "Lissle" (I think that's how it's pronounced). So when people say, oh you gotta try out Listle, I'm going to spell it wrong (via a Google search), and not know the domain is .io. So discoverability via word-of-month is going to be very hard.

Lastly:

I don't know what type of copyright issues you may have down the road. Especially if your company plans to monetize at some point.

Not sure how making money off of other people's content would work honestly.

Seems like there could be some issues there, but your team is probably figuring out how to manage that part.

Will give the app a go and come back if I have any other insights after using it.

Do you automatically convert the posts into audio? It sounds really good. Hopefully, you guys can find success.

Hey Alex,

I'm one of those users who return weekly basis. Maybe one of the few early ones. I like your product, I listen mostly not the news but the blog posts and essays.

Feedback :

1. I hated the navigation at first, I couldn't find what I was looking for. But after this update you guys nailed it. I could discover what I'm looking for.

2. I think there should topic to playlist sorting instead of just discovering playlist, or it can be playlist to topic too.
   ( eg. 1. Ycombinator;
   a. Product
   b. Growth)

I think your growth is related the shares of your content, if you can create some virality from there, you can see meaningful growth. (In long term)

At first version I never thought about sharing any content from your platform but other day I did share a content with my friend.

Another point is, I was using when I'm go or on in GYM. I start jogging since, it's a bit normal out there and I'm using your product again.

In short, I felt like you're in write path. I'm start using you guys again. I already told those to your co-founder. It felt like you got this update pretty right.

Good luck

I second some of what @getflookup said about the categories. I think if users could find content based on topics of their interest that would be great. Or you could allow users to select topics of interest when signing up (similar to medium) and then you could serve up suggested content to them based on their interests.

EDIT: I think you allows users do this already actually sorry!

I am not sure if you have considered making it more of a marketplace ? eg: Allow me as a content creator to publish my articles in audio format on your platform in order to reach users on your app? Is that possible already?

Hope this helps!

My 2 cents: you have no niche.

I became aware of your service awhile back because I was searching a very specific thing: Paul Grahams essays in podcast form.

As far as I know, you guys don't offer that but you had some sort of preview somewhere. I click a link and then abandoned it because I had to pay or you didn't have them completed. I can't remember!

If it were me, I'd pick a niche and devote my energy to generating a ton of content for that niche. For example, for SaaS, PG's essays (hint, I really want these in podcast form, haha!). Then I'd advertise the content in forums dedicated to that niche.

When you focus on daily news stories, you compete with CNN, NPR, MSNBC, WSJ etc. Each of these large corporations already takes their stories and turns them into podcasts. But, when you dive into "The Greatest Hits Articles Collections" in software or other genres (maybe in HBR's best articles?), you're not competing with anyone.

You will also become the only source for things like "All Y Combinator Blog Posts Related to Funding in Podcast form" or "Every Bigger Pockets blog post on dealing with contractors in Podcast form."

Or, heck, you know what would be even awesomer? Let me decide which articles I want to turn into podcasts and let me download them in my podcast player. I'd love the ability to clear out my bookmark's folder of "Stuff I'll read one day." Everything I bookmarked there isn't in podcast form and it would be awesome to listen to them on my commutes!