How do you grow a web app after it's been validated and has over 100 sales?

September 15th, 2015

We recently launched a startup web app product in the email marketing industry to our limited internal audience and generated over 100 sales. Now, we're turning it into an automated web application.

Unfortunately, my technical partner and I are at a loss of what to do next! We have a great sales page that converts well (to the internal traffic we sent, and having been featured on ProductHunt.com), but we're not sure how to get traffic to it now. We've also written a couple of nice blog posts, each with lead magnets to grow our email list...and an autoresponder sequence to convert those folks into buyers.

Our big question, though, is how to drive traffic to the blog posts, sales page, etc.

In order to understand more so that you can give more focused advice, it may help to know our elevator pitch: The easiest way to improve your email click-through rates! Our product is an email marketing toolkit full of engaging graphic elements proven to create higher converting email campaigns.

We'd love to hear from you about a direction or strategy you feel we might take?

Lucas E Wall

September 15th, 2015

Phil

Can you replicate the way you acquired your first 100 customers? What steps did you follow to get those?

Who are they from the point of view of a "marketing persona"? What are their other habits? What other apps do they use?

I would try to carefully read those pieces of information from descriptions, metrics, qualitative analysis you can obtain by thinking about this with your partner.

I am willing to talk over the phone if you'd like to discuss more. I don't sell services like this, just interested in learning more and helping. PM me if you are interested, I am on LinkedIn.

Best of luck!

Phil Benham

September 15th, 2015

These all sound like 'concepts' to me...anyone have some real guidance? @Andrew, the first two of your suggestions sound like running ads and we want to find a way to generate traffic without a real ad budget. @Bhupinder, not sure what you are asking (project?) (also, FD says you cannot be contacted). @Linda, when you say social media marketing...just wow! That's a huge undertaking, isn't it?

Phil Benham

September 15th, 2015

Right, Anton...that could be said about every question on here, don't you think? I thought I could get some guidance on the direction others have taken here on this platform. As a founder (and hopefully with a web-based app-type product), what strategies have worked for you?

Craig Conlee

September 21st, 2015

Bottomline.

It takes money.

Without money, no execution and ultimately no MVP.

No MVP, no investors.

Everyone chatting about this and that requires money.

Lucas Hanson Looking for a partner to build awesome products

September 22nd, 2015

Phil,

I'm going to agree with the other Lucas on the thread. I think the first thing you need to do is understand who you're selling the product to. Some marketing techniques work better than others. Google Analytics, customer interviews, and other analytics tools/research techniques can help you determine who is buying your product. Once you figure out the archetypes/personas/segments, you'll have specific pieces of the market that you can tailor you marketing toward.

For example, if you find that your product is being adopted by B2B SMBs, then social media probably isn't the way to go. On the other hand, if it's being adopted by individuals creating niche websites, then you may want to target forums and twitter.

I love this stuff and more than happy to speak with you if you want to brainstorm. PM me on LinkedIn.

Andrew Lockley Investments & consulting for tech startups

September 15th, 2015

Try in-app banner ads, adwords to the blog posts, and other content marketing production. A

L. Marshall-Smith

September 15th, 2015

Don't forget your social media marketing, as well.

Bhupinder Sood CPA at State of Tennessee

September 15th, 2015

Try landing page on unbounce and strikingly Also contact pinder 321@gmail.com I like to use you for a project

Anton Yakovlev Founder of four successful businesses on two continents who can help you do the same

September 15th, 2015

I believe you need a strong marketing oriented person in your team. The question looks a bit too complicatated to be answered right off the bat. At least you should consider hiring a consultant to help you choose from a great number of possible ways to do it.

Phil Benham

September 15th, 2015

Lucas...exactly! I'd love to build my 'avatar', but I have no idea who they are, really...to a point where I could envision a marketing persona. Most purchasers came from our list and from traffic from ProductHunt.com. Our list consists of customers of some of our other apps. Sent a message on LinkedIn...

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