Moving fast is critical in technology startups. It’s no surprise, then, to find homepages of technology startups that were built too fast. Almost like a MVP (Minimum Viable Product). The problem is – this typically results in a lack of differentiation and high bounce rate.
Here are some of the more common mistakes.
1- Positioning is not focused enough
Every technology company ‘knows’ their value proposition. Ask the CEO, VP Sales/Marketing, or VP Products and you’ll typically get a long list of features/benefits – enough to fill a 2-page data sheet. Now try and get a single-sentence answer as to the positioning vs. the competition. Why prospects should select your solution/product/service over the competition? Much more difficult. Read Gartner’s Hank Bank great article, “Where to Start – Positioning and a Story.”
Without breaking down your offering into clearly written message that prioritizes your benefits and differentiation, your homepage will never be focused enough. Crystallizing and narrowing down a value proposition into a headline and a short paragraph requires some work.
2- Too little (or too much) information
There’s an ongoing debate on the ‘right’ length of the homepage. Should it be very short or provide lots of info, like a landing page? The answer is – it depends. You’ll find cases where a very short page works well and vice versa. See some excellent examples here or here too.
This is the CrazyEgg case study example, where a MUCH longer home page increased conversion by 363%.
It’s true that visitors skim and don’t have the patience to read much. Still, they’ll read as much as needed to answer their problem/pain/questions. If your prospect is looking for, say, a performance testing solution, he/she will want to know how your tool can help them, how it differs from other tools available, and possibly view some visuals of the tool itself – before moving to the next stage of downloading or signing up for a SaaS trial.
An important consideration often ignored, is the level of awareness of your prospects when they arrive at your homepage.
Are they already familiar with your product/brand but just want to know the deal? (This is not very common with a technology startup).
Are they aware of your product/brand but not sure it’s right for them?
Are they aware of their problem, but have never heard of your product and don’t trust you?
Or perhaps you’re establishing a completely new category and prospects are not fully aware of the problem the way you want them to?
Most technology startups I’ve worked with fall into the last two categories. This obviously impacts the volume and type of the content that must be included on the homepage. Another parameter to consider is the complexity and cost of your product. The more complex/expensive – the more info you’ll probably need to provide.
What’s the call to action on your home page? Is it a simple online service with a free basic package that requires minimal risk and commitment from prospects? Is it downloading a full on-premise product, which requires installation and an evaluation process? Or maybe you’re not asking for anything and simply expecting prospects to give your their details based on your promise?
The level of commitment, risk and effort required from prospects to perform the target action will affect the information and ‘convincing’ you’ll need to do in order take prospects to the next step.
4- Hyperboles and lack of authenticity
Think about yourself scanning a website of a technology company. Are you convinced by phrases like ‘breakthrough technology’ , ‘next-generation paradigm’, or ‘best-in-class’? (For more juicy examples, refer to some of the online bullshit generators.)
Startup founders, who are often techys, tend to be in love with their product. This typically results in too many adjectives that detract from the credibility of the offer.
5 – No back up your claims
A SysAdmin once told me – “I believe nothing I’m told and only half of what I actually see.” Most website visitors, I believe, definitely in the technology space, have a similar line of thought. Why should prospects reading your website believe that your software provides better performance, is more user friendly, more flexible, of just MUCH better than the rest. Do you have anything to prove your claim?
6- The ‘Contact us’ form is the only CTA
Just like some shoppers enter a department store only to browse around and look at what’s available, but have no intention to purchase, so do your site visitors. If your only ‘hook’ is a ‘Contact us’ form, you’ll only be targeting bottom-of-funnel prospects – and most probably, not very successfully. You need many more type of ‘hooks’ for top- and middle-of-funnel visitors.
7 – “We’ll take care of visuals later”
Finding the right visuals for high technology websites is always a challenge. What type of visual can you use for a new ‘Big Data’ repository? How many times can the ‘software architect’ drawing a flow-chart on a transparent window can be used?
Does this image really make you think the company is unique after seeing it 1000 times?
Finding visuals to match and support your unique message and value proposition (see mistake #1) is not less difficult than coming up with the right copy. Since no one has time/patience to invest in visuals, this task is typically left to the graphic designer, who lacks the context and small nuances of your industry and target audience. With no time left, disconnected or generic graphics end up on your homepage.
Can you generate qualified leads without purchasing expensive (and usually obsolete) mailing lists? With the the right content, you can. In this case, the content was packaged as a series of eBooks containing educational, non-promotional content focused on the target audience. The result – over 500 qualified leads.
Customer: Ayehu Software is a startup company operating in the IT Software Management space, providing solutions for automating IT tasks and responding to critical incidents. Ayehu’s objective (probably the most common marketing challenge on earth) – generate leads with minimal costs.
Solution: Together with Ayehu’s customer-facing team, we identified several topics and problems with high relevancy to prospects – mid-level IT managers running the day-to-day operation of data centers. We put together industry-specific content that helps IT personnel do their jobs better, and tried to aim high making the content not only usable but enjoyable. See some of the eBooks.
Next, eBooks were promoted via various LinkedIn groups related to the IT industry, as well as other channels.
Results: Over 1500 downloads, with a high percentage of qualified, top-of-the-funnel leads. With quality lead nurturing activities, some of these will eventually turn into sales prospects.
Compared to other lead generation alternatives, such as contact lists and cold calling, our eBooks are considerably more cost effective, producing surprisingly high-quality leads.” – Gabby Nizri, Ayehu, CEO
If you’re a new SaaS company, or a web2.o type of company, then content marketing and social media tools all seem quite natural. But for some (maybe most?) B2B companies who have been around for a while, the transition from outbound marketing practices (you know – ppts, brochures, white papers, PR) to inbound marketing, or content marketing is not that natural. Why is that? Because it’s counterintuitive.
In case you’re not fully clear on definitions, then content marketing focuses on pulling prospects when they research online for products and services your business also has to offer. It includes lead generation, blogging, SEO, social media, and more. Take a look at this infographic to learn about inbound vs. outbound marketing. (Yes. I’m using ‘inbound marketing’ and ‘content marketing’ interchangeably, though they are not exactly the same. But for this context, they’re pretty close).
Back to our revelation – why is content marketing couterintuitive?
Well, if you’ve been talking about your product/service all your life, how can you suddenly market it without talking about it? With content marketing, you’re essentially ‘not selling’. Your product/service is no longer in the spotlight, but rather your prospects’ problems, pains, questions and concerns.
So when it comes to planning the content of your next lead generation item, such as a paper, webinar, or blog post, it’s not features, benefits and ‘competitive advantages’ you’ll be talking about. Instead, you need to identify a topic (within your domain of course) that would educate and interest your prospects. For some, it’s not that natural to grasp. As one customer asked me the other week – “but how will the reader get interested in our product if we’re not talking about it?
Your current direct sales force is expensive and un-scalable. What you really need are some online leads. So how do you grow your 250 visitors per month (and < 1% conversion) to… well much more? Can you do it on your own? Here’s a short checklist to get you started. Even if you’ll need some help with some of the steps, this may help you ask your vendors the right questions.
Step 0 – Set your expectations
You’ll find many online resources about how inbound marketing is much more cost effective, measurable and so on. But keep in mind that it’s still a process. Just like your top sales person did not get the PO on the first phone call, your inbound marketing efforts will take some time to mature.
Step 1 – Evaluate your existing online content
Before you invest in bringing in more prospects to your site, how about making sure you have the right content, so your visitors don’t bounce off before converting?
Content quality. Even though you already have some content – consider that it was supplemented, expanded, and explained by your sales force, at events, and during meetings. Not anymore. Your online content is all your prospect has before reaching a decision. It needs to be focused, clear, and deliver the right message.
Keep it simple. Speak the language of your audience, minimize the technical jargon, and eliminate the buzzwords that don’t mean much. (Does ‘revolutionary’ or ‘next generation’ ring a bell?)
Be different. Just like your sales person has a ‘competition’ slide in the deck, your web copy should communicate your differentiation. Here’s a small test – if you place your copy on your competitor’s site – would it still work?
Less is more. No one has time to read lots of copy. “You need better content not more,” is the way Wendy Clark, VP of Integrated Marketing and Communications at Coca-Cola, phrases this.
Step 2 – Analyze keywords for search engine optimization (SEO).
Before revising or generating new content, make sure you’re using the right keywords to bring in traffic. Not the phrases you think customers are using, but rather those terms that actually have search volume.
Use the Google keyword tool to search for different variations and combinations of keywords, and examine the search volumes for each and the competitiveness. This step is obviously a bit more complex, but you can still perform a quick analysis to optimize your content. More about this in a future post.
Step 3 – Fine-tune your content
Based on the previous two steps, revise your web site’s content (using the optimized keywords). This may mean web copy, product demos, written/video case studies, etc. Where should you begin, and how should you prioritize, with only one (or no) writer? That depends. But start with items you believe are most important and interesting to your prospects, that would make theme leave their contact details. See next step.
Step 4 – Implement content to convert visitors to leads
Bringing in traffic to your site is only the start. What you really want is to turn qualified visitors into sales leads. You should generate premium content that provides useful data (rather than sales content) to your visitors, and for which they’ll be willing to give you their contact details. For example, offer a white paper that provides tips and advice for overcoming problems, or reaching decisions (as opposed to a white paper explaining your technology…). Or offer a webinar that provides insight into an industry survey, showing how other companies are handling your customer’s problem.
Non-marketing content. Your blog must be interesting and useful to your target audience. If it simply contains more marketing & sales pitches in a more friendly voice, then you’re missing the point.
It’s a joint effort. Blog content should arrive from multiple roles in your company. Marketing, sales, R&D, and the CEO. Get suggestions for blog topics from all members and have one person coordinate the effort and edit the content.
Keywords. Like on your web site, make sure to use the keywords from your analysis, and place them in the headings of your posts, as well as within the copy.
Step 6 – Promote content and interact with prospects and customers
Next is to promote your content via mutlliple channels – LinkedIn, Twitter, PPC & landing pages, and relevant online forums and sites. More about this in a separate post.
Step 7 – Test, measure and revise
Only by measuring your results you’ll know whether you’re in the right direction. Like with many a-bit-more-complex projects, it’s best to start small. Track your visitors, sources, and conversion on an ongoing basis and see what works and what doesn’t.
The unpleasant layoffs are behind you and the marketing writer (whom you never liked anyhow) is finally out the door. The bad news? You’re the only one left to write that one pager for next week’s event. Shouldn’t take too long, should it? Here are a few tips to get you started, increasing the chances that your prospects read beyond the first paragraph…
1-What’s the problem?
Your reader/prospect couldn’t care less about your sophisticated technology, ‘end-to-end’ solution, ‘groundbreaking paradigm’, or ‘revolutionary’ feature. The reader only cares about one thing, and one thing only – his/her problem, and how can you solve it. Always begin the first paragraph stating the clear benefits your product/service offers. e.g., what’s the problem you are solving, and how/why will it make the life of the reader better/easier? The focus of the first paragraph, then, is not your product, but your customer.
BAD – “XYZ is a web-based, multidisciplinary, sophisticated, and adaptive software platform that integrates state of the art sensors and services in order to cover both patients and healthcare professional’s needs.”
Good – “Take control of your retail sales channel with real-time brand and product publishing capabilities from XYZ.”
2 – You talkin’ to me?
With the less formal online marketing, try first person (“you/we”) rather than third person (“product xyz”). Except for a few opening paragraphs in which you introduce the offering/product/company, try to addresses the customer in a personal voice, which is more effective.
3 – What’s your point?
If I’m in the telco business, I already know that churn and customer retention are major challenges; If I’m in IT, I’m aware that TCO is important; and if I’m in the ASIC business, I’ve already learned that managing an ASIC supply chain is complex. So what’s the point? Tell me (quickly) something new. Engage your reader and get quickly to the point. If you start your pitch at 30,000 feet, describing the state of the union, your reader will not stay till the 5th paragraph where you reach the point.
So here’s a ‘BAD’ example for you. I’m sure you’ll write the good one.
BAD – “The telecommunications industry is in a constant state of transition – always moving forward with greater technological discoveries. As network operators bundle multiple services into easy-to-activate commercial packages, the individual customer begins to represent an increasingly complex and important revenue stream that needs to be protected by the operator.”
4 – Why You?
Regardless of your industry, your prospect always has alternatives to your offering. I mean, if there are none, then there’s probably no market… So, make sure your copy highlights the key differentiator(s) and advantages that will cause a potential customer to choose you over competitors. Particularly if you’re a small player competing against large, well-known companies. Here’s how to test it. Can you place your copy also on your 3 competitor sites and it would still work? If so, something’s wrong. Now, hopefully, all the segmentation, competitive analysis, positioning, messaging and that good stuff has been clearly defined long time ago. I’ve heard, though, that this is not always the case…
5 – Less is more
Long, unending sentences with multiple adjectives violate human rights, and mean nothing to the reader. Use simple sentence structure, and make sure you can still identify the subject of your sentence when you reach the period. What this basically means is that you’ll have to get rid of some of the adjectives (does ‘next-generation’, or ‘groundbreaking’ ring a bell?). For a nice list of buzzwords you can get rid of, see this great post by Mashable editor, Ben Parr – “The List of Buzzwords You Should Never Use In a Pitch”
