4 ms·

Why We Sent 25,000 Messages to Users Before We Launched

67 points by WadeF 14y ago

mikeknoop 14y ago
One way we (Zapier) got early users in the door was by trolling forums. We would manually search the internet for people complaining about integrations that didn't exist (eg. http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/13007/how-can-i-auto-import-contacts-from-paypal-into-highrise http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/13007/how-can-i-a...). We would follow up directly, build the integration, and instantly have a new customer. Clearly this doesn't scale [or does it?] but it put us on the right track early when we weren't sure what people would respond to.
- Maxious 14y ago
  I think you meant trawling ("Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats.") Trolling would be quite a different thing ;)
  - mindcrime 14y ago
    Trolling would be quite a different thing Not really. "Trolling" is also a type of fishing: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trolling http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trolling
rmason 14y ago
This is one of the first genuinely original ideas that I have seen in a long time. You can create a site, use AdSense to drive traffic to it to see if your idea has merit. This one little additional step lets you actually get into conversation with people visiting your site before you launch is very much lean startup. Now as a developer building the product I can hear the objection you won't be able to get the product built if you keep getting interrupted. But you may be building the wrong thing. So this makes a lot of sense to me.
- mikeknoop 14y ago
  We tried to build functionality as fast as users were requesting it. It seems like the AdSense approach will turn a lot of folks off once they realize it's only a landing page. Clearly valuable in determining if an idea backed by marketing can get traction. But, how do you convince those AdSense users to share their true problems (or do you just target a really specific keyword niche) before they bounce?
  - patio11 14y ago
    It seems like the AdSense approach will turn a lot of folks off once they realize it's only a landing page. I'm not a big fan of AdSense smoke testing, but if you're going to do it, you can fairly trivially raise perceived value above "landing page." Offer an immediate incentive for giving their email address. For example, if you're going to offer software to automate X but haven't built it yet, offer to give people their own personal copy of your guide to X-ing (written by an X-ing expert). Just put in the email address we should send it to. P.S. Want to hear about our thoughts on X every week or two? Make with the clicky-clicky.
- dangrossman 14y ago
  > You can create a site, use AdSense to drive traffic to it to see if your idea has merit I started a number of sites like that years ago in college, with nothing but a static site built with a cheap template in a day, and some AdWords credits. If people actually signed up to learn more, or ordered a product, or whatever, then I'd spend the time building a real business around it. The first time I saw that written down was in Four Hour Workweek several years ago. Now millions of people have been told to do the same. http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded/dp/0307465357 http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded/...
- erichocean 14y ago
  This is one of the first genuinely original ideas that I have seen in a long time. It's discussed at length in the 4 Hour Work Week, which, if you don't know, is a bestseller.
- 14y ago
prodigal_erik 14y ago
Where did they find twenty-five thousand people who consented to participate in their market research? I'm having trouble convincing myself they aren't spammers.
- WadeF 14y ago
  It wasn't 25,000 people. Just 25,000 conversations. Multiple conversations with the same people. But the number of people was in the thousands.
  - bigiain 14y ago
    Not even that - the article only claims "25,000 messages". Multiple messages in the same conversation, as well as multiple conversations with the same person. The number of _people_ may have only been in the high hundreds…
    - WadeF 14y ago
      OP here. It was in the thousands. :)
      - andys627 14y ago
        what % of people visiting the site? was gonna try olark on my site...
        WadeF 14y ago
        The percentage isn't that great, but we usually aren't the ones initiating conversation. The quality is definitely what drives us to continue using it. Olark has a free trial. When we first put it on our site we were pretty hesitant too, but after the trial we were sold.
  - MaxGabriel 14y ago
    It sounded to me like 25,000 messages meant 25,000 times enter was pressed in chat, e.g. "Hi, I'm Max" "What SaaS do you use?" counts as 2
unreal37 14y ago
Looks like a cool service. Would be worth a sign up to try it.

67 points by WadeF 14y ago

One way we (Zapier) got early users in the door was by trolling forums. We would manually search the internet for people complaining about integrations that didn't exist (eg. http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/13007/how-can-i-auto-import-contacts-from-paypal-into-highrise http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/13007/how-can-i-a...). We would follow up directly, build the integration, and instantly have a new customer. Clearly this doesn't scale [or does it?] but it put us on the right track early when we weren't sure what people would respond to.

Maxious 14y ago
I think you meant trawling ("Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats.") Trolling would be quite a different thing ;)
- mindcrime 14y ago
  Trolling would be quite a different thing Not really. "Trolling" is also a type of fishing: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trolling http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trolling

rmason 14y ago

This is one of the first genuinely original ideas that I have seen in a long time. You can create a site, use AdSense to drive traffic to it to see if your idea has merit. This one little additional step lets you actually get into conversation with people visiting your site before you launch is very much lean startup. Now as a developer building the product I can hear the objection you won't be able to get the product built if you keep getting interrupted. But you may be building the wrong thing. So this makes a lot of sense to me.

mikeknoop 14y ago
We tried to build functionality as fast as users were requesting it. It seems like the AdSense approach will turn a lot of folks off once they realize it's only a landing page. Clearly valuable in determining if an idea backed by marketing can get traction. But, how do you convince those AdSense users to share their true problems (or do you just target a really specific keyword niche) before they bounce?
- patio11 14y ago
  It seems like the AdSense approach will turn a lot of folks off once they realize it's only a landing page. I'm not a big fan of AdSense smoke testing, but if you're going to do it, you can fairly trivially raise perceived value above "landing page." Offer an immediate incentive for giving their email address. For example, if you're going to offer software to automate X but haven't built it yet, offer to give people their own personal copy of your guide to X-ing (written by an X-ing expert). Just put in the email address we should send it to. P.S. Want to hear about our thoughts on X every week or two? Make with the clicky-clicky.
dangrossman 14y ago
> You can create a site, use AdSense to drive traffic to it to see if your idea has merit I started a number of sites like that years ago in college, with nothing but a static site built with a cheap template in a day, and some AdWords credits. If people actually signed up to learn more, or ordered a product, or whatever, then I'd spend the time building a real business around it. The first time I saw that written down was in Four Hour Workweek several years ago. Now millions of people have been told to do the same. http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded/dp/0307465357 http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded/...
erichocean 14y ago
This is one of the first genuinely original ideas that I have seen in a long time. It's discussed at length in the 4 Hour Work Week, which, if you don't know, is a bestseller.
14y ago

prodigal_erik 14y ago

Where did they find twenty-five thousand people who consented to participate in their market research? I'm having trouble convincing myself they aren't spammers.

WadeF 14y ago
It wasn't 25,000 people. Just 25,000 conversations. Multiple conversations with the same people. But the number of people was in the thousands.
- bigiain 14y ago
  Not even that - the article only claims "25,000 messages". Multiple messages in the same conversation, as well as multiple conversations with the same person. The number of _people_ may have only been in the high hundreds…
  - WadeF 14y ago
    OP here. It was in the thousands. :)
    - andys627 14y ago
      what % of people visiting the site? was gonna try olark on my site...
      - WadeF 14y ago
        The percentage isn't that great, but we usually aren't the ones initiating conversation. The quality is definitely what drives us to continue using it. Olark has a free trial. When we first put it on our site we were pretty hesitant too, but after the trial we were sold.
- MaxGabriel 14y ago
  It sounded to me like 25,000 messages meant 25,000 times enter was pressed in chat, e.g. "Hi, I'm Max" "What SaaS do you use?" counts as 2

unreal37 14y ago

Looks like a cool service. Would be worth a sign up to try it.