Ask HN: Please help review my startup's messaging • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Please help review my startup's messaging

#11

Post by fjabre » Thu, Apr 22, 2010, 6:53 PM UTC

rmorrison wrote: post #8

fjabre wrote: post #5

The video is cool but I really want to see some screenshots or a video of the app in action. Right now your landing page is kind of a black box and I can't see what's inside without signing up.. I'm also not sure who your target market is. Are you going after Jill the restaurant owner or John the web startup junkie?

Are you going after Jill the restaurant owner or John the web startup junkie? Our target market are small businesses, like Jill the restaurant owner. We have found that these people want to take advantage of the internet, know that they should, but don't know how to go about it. That's where we come in, as a one stop shop to help them. Thanks for the feedback. Maybe we'll try putting up a few example customer images/…

Your closest match might be Hubspot.com. I'm not sure how different your approach is but it seems like you're going after similar target markets.

They seem a little more traditional of course - webinars and white papers abound on their site. Personally when I see webinars/white papers on a site I immediately think of old people in suits.

Your site seems younger and more 'hip' so I'd play that theme up more. It's always good to play to your strengths IMHO.

Re: Ask HN: Please help review my startup's messaging

#12

Post by rmorrison » Thu, Apr 22, 2010, 6:59 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #3

1) Yes, but I'm a plugged-in savvy Internet user, not a plumber or baker. 2) I think your customers -- less-than-net-savvy local businesses -- might not make the leap that you and I made automatically: "... and success at online marketing will bring you more customers and make you money." 3) I think you will find you spend a lot more time evangelizing Internet marketing to your customers than you spend evangelizing E…

You're right, that it is difficult to visualize from the POV of a less-than-net-savvy local business owner.

However, we are finding that a lot of small business owners know that they need to take advantage of the internet, but they don't know how. They have a website, usually a static website that they paid some student X thousand dollars to build, that they can't update because the kid disappeared. They hear about Twitter and Facebook in the news or Inc magazine, but they don't know how to get started. They have a lot of information that others are interest in, but they're not getting it out there. We help with that, for example we also send their content to local journalists who are always looking for more local happenings.

Re: Ask HN: Please help review my startup's messaging

#13

Post by rksprst » Thu, Apr 22, 2010, 7:54 PM UTC

I understand what you offer, but have no idea how you actually implement it. Screenshots of your app and maybe a chart of the steps you take to get my info to all those places would be useful.

I just don't see how you can automatically get my info to reporters, etc... or at least in a way that doesn't spam them and get the right info to the right reporter (they each focus on an area).

Re: Ask HN: Please help review my startup's messaging

#14

Post by chegra84 » Thu, Apr 22, 2010, 8:16 PM UTC

Love it. I would sign up if I had the money.

1. Clear yes 2. Very - the metric thing is very important.

Re: Ask HN: Please help review my startup's messaging

#15

Post by herdrick » Fri, Apr 23, 2010, 7:02 AM UTC

No, in the first five seconds it's not at all clear what this is. Visual design says ignore me.

Re: Ask HN: Please help review my startup's messaging

#16

Post by calvarez » Sun, Apr 25, 2010, 4:05 PM UTC

You have paying customers - great! Ask them why they're paying for your service. Ask them to describe the value they're getting. Then (minimally) clean up those words and use them on your website. No one can market your product better than the people who are using/loving it.