

Ask HN: Why does my startups conversion sux? - laurencei

I launched my startup 12 weeks ago (www.mypropertytracker.com.au) - and I'm struggling to get traction or conversion.<p>The problem I face is all the feedback from users in my startup is 'positive' - yet it is not converting into many paid subscriptions.<p>So far my google adwords have a low conversion rate to free trial accounts. Meanwhile my free trial accounts have a low conversion rate into paid subscriptions.<p>I've currently tried:
- Landing page with call-to-action
- Free trial accounts with no credit card
- Startup wizard (per Patio11 suggestions in his blog)<p>Things I'm about to try:
- A/B testing
- Patio11 lifecycle email course<p>But I was hoping members of HN might have a quick look and see if there are any areas that could be improved?
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patio11
Talk to the people who should be using this, find their #1 pain point with
property management, put THAT front and center on the website. "This thing you
already do... online!" is not a compelling sales point to non-geeks.

"View Features... we think you'll love them" is 180 degrees from user
psychology which will work. a) Show them benefits b) absolutely _anything_ is
more credible than you saying it. Your customers, especially prominent
customers or ones they aspirationally want to be like, are 100x more credible.
Media is credible. The user is the most credible, so if you can figure a way
for them to make the connection themselves (highly non-trivial) you win.

This product may require non-trivial sales off the website, btw.

Lose the auto-rotate of platforms. Auto-rotate is distracting and screenshots
generally don't sell software. I'd use the space to highlight the benefits,
which you mention lower on the page in gray-on-black text that begs me not to
read it.

Link big screenshots to your signup page. Many users will click them to see
what is up.

~~~
laurencei
Thanks patio11 - I'll do all of that.

What do you mean by "non-trivial sales off the website"? I tried to google it
- but didnt find anything?

~~~
tptacek
He means you might need to sell to this market directly, with sales account
managers and inside salespeople dialing for dollars, instead of hoping that
your market will seek out your website. What indication do you have that
anyone is searching for this kind of product?

~~~
laurencei
Theres a good volume of google keyword searches that target what we do. The
topic also comes up in property magazines and property forums.

My 'traffic' to the website is ok (kind of what I hoped for) - but the
conversion is way way below expectations.

~~~
rmc
_My 'traffic' to the website is ok (kind of what I hoped for) - but the
conversion is way way below expectations._

maybe it's the wrong sort of traffic

------
eranation
First - UI and UX are great, well done. perhaps you just need time, and move
out of the .au domain and do it globally?

to the other things:

I guess just that the title "TRACK YOUR PROPERTY PORTFOLIO ONLINE." is a bit
lackluster

try something like

"Handling your leased property is a headache? Not anymore!"

"Try now for free and in 5 minutes you'll get started"

See how we helped X property owners stop worrying and start saving money.

something like this...

oh, and get rid of the long domain, and get a .io or .ly short URL, and make
it global, not just for Australia

AND, add a video

Explain to people how they save money and time

Use analytics to see how your product is being used (mixpanel)

Another point is, are you really solving a problem? perhaps people with lot's
of properties just pay someone to take care of it, and people with just one
don't have enough headache?

sometimes it is what it is...

p.s. if you add ability for people to pay rent directly via you using their
credit card, you'll make millions (send me a check when it happens)

update:

a few more

\- try our features, we think you'll love them? show some confidence, of
course you'll love them!

\- font's too small, too much information, contrast is bad (dark text on dark
background)

\- all in all a bit "gray" I miss to understand what exactly are you saving me

~~~
laurencei
thanks erantion - I'll work on all of that. I appreciate the detailed reply

------
px1999
I started writing a long-winded response with ideas after looking at your
sales site, but realised that it was mostly dancing around to not sound
confrontational - these are just some thoughts in no particular order and
aren't intended to be negative.

I've done similar things in a more enterprisey property management space, and
the amount of data that you're managing on a single property (or 2 or 3
properties) with a single user doesn't look like enough to really justify
$234/yr, and all of the things that you've listed involve trying to sort out a
product issue with a marketing/business solution (which works, but only to an
extent), so you can A/B test all you like, but if people don't think your
product is worth it, they're never going to get started _or_ pay for it.

From a pricing perspective, I'd rethink the bottom level plan, the pricing
timeframe, and if possible the price-point (maybe shift to something that
scales more with use, eg resources or features, rather than something
inelastic like # of properties). Be more upfront about pricing - the "try it
free" should have the pricing list - you're selling a financial product to
people who are presumably good with money, but hiding what it'll cost in the
features page. Having a "forever free" plan that's severely limited (/ad-
supported) will help with your initial conversion.

For conversion to paid subscriptions, you need to convince them that you're
better than a folder on their HDD, excel for financials and their contact
list/calendar on their phone. At the very least you need to look at interop
between MYOB/Quicken/CSV/whatever's the rage these days. You can focus on how
computers crash so a doc library is better, or you can add a feature
(versioning, archival of email, I don't know) and use that to sell the
document library. If you're targeting the guy who's got 1 property, maybe get
some boilerplate forms or checklists and put them up there somewhere. If
you're targeting the guys who have 10+ properties, focus on exposing what
reports can do. Definitely do allow users to, at the very least, download
excel / other spreadsheet versions of their transactions (and if you do this,
specify that you do it on the features page).

------
dchuk
Stop giving equal emphasis to your call to action for signup and your "view
features" button. View features should just be a link in the menu at the top
of the page, or maybe just include it directly on the homepage.

Your landing page should have one single call to action, one single activity
you want your visitor to do.

~~~
dchuk
Also, your landing page is perfectly setup to drop in a large, beautiful image
of a house or condo or something. As it stands right now, your product
feels...Mathematical? Technical? Engineer-y? It's the graph paper/checkers and
the lack of anything tangible beyond the tablet devices.

Throw a picture with some grass in it on there. Make it real.

~~~
laurencei
I see what you are saying - thanks very much. I'll a/b test the text, and then
I'll a/b test the graphics.

