How to get the early adopters' attention?

[Hendro]

Hi, i recently just launched a "register interest" page for my site @ http://blindoptimists.com. Now, having done that, I have no idea on how to start asking people to register their email (without being seen as spammer) provided they have interest with our product idea.

Therefore, i would like to know on what steps/approaches that most of you took when you launched your first product where practically no one knows that you are exist at all?

Thank you.

[Sohail Somani]

I am learning (still in beta) but here goes:
- A site to register interest is crap - have something that works and they can use. If you don't believe in it, why should they?
- Find them where they live online

Can't really tell you enough that you need to have something that is usable rather than in your head. A video demo may be sufficient though.

As for finding them where they live online, there are some ways to do this without it being considered spam (atleast in my opinion).

Watch topical forums for questions like: "Hey, $PROBLEM is really hard to solve." If $PROBLEM is something that your software helps with, you can reply saying so.

Still on forums, help people out! Everything doesn't have to be about a sale. People these days are stretched to the max and bombarded with advertising crap every single day. "Hey $PROBLEM is really hard to solve." Now, if $PROBLEM is not solved by your software but you know a way to solve it, reply saying so. Even if you end up linking to a direct or indirect competitor.

On the forums, have an easy way for someone to find your website. You can do this via a signature.

Once you have something usable, you can list yourself in software directories. In my case, I was able to add an entry to Atlassian's wiki linking to my site. This is a large chunk of the traffic that converts, at least to downloads which is important.

Alternative to all of this, you can become a thought leader in your domain while you develop your software. I don't know much about that.

Anyway, hope that helps.

[Ken Hughes]

I'd agree with Sohail, get something usable out there - even if it's a ropey beta. What you are looking for at this stage is early adopters and they can be pretty forgiving...
They are also the most likely to blog / evangilise about your product (if it does something they need/like) - even if that commentary is "it can't do x, y or z so is pretty limited right now", then you have some real world feedback...


.. KJ

[Hendro]

Hi Sohail and Ken,

Thanks for the opinions. We are working hard at the moment to get something usable out there. :)
Anyone who has any different opinions / strategy(?) to share here are deeply appreciated.

Cheers,
Hendro

[David Locke]

Give technical enthusiasts something to play with. Then, play with them. Make it a game. Make that play viral. Make it social by designing in social objects.

Start with a blog. Read likeminded blogs. Comment and trackback. Build traffic. Write about the product. Write about using the product. Write about the business case, use, concepts.

Put up landing pages that are keyword driven. If someone browses to one of those landing pages, consider that an expression of interest. Try to convert them from the landing page to deeper pages. You can use these deeper pages to sort out their interest. Get them to sign up for an email newsletter. Publish that email newsletter at least once a week. Use the newsletter to drive them to tutorials. Those tutorials could be used to do prototyping. You can A/B test your prototyping. Make all of this stuff viral. Things like "email this page to a friend." Someone should have been doing this all along. Capture comments all along. Try to figure out how your target market thinks.

If you are selling to technical enthusiasts as your end market, oh, ouch, good luck.

That said, you might mean early adopters in the consumer space. Use the same tactics, but there is money there. Good Luck.

[Delia Ene]

Make a list of all of the above and try to set some priorities.

The workload is huge, the most important thing is not to panic and start somewhere (if you can't send a newsletter once a week, don't give up and send it once every two weeks or even once a month if you don't have something new to say or you simply can't get around to doing it).

Also, my advice is to re-do your website immediately. Because whatever you build will point to that.
I had a look at your page and in two seconds I couldn't see what you do/ sell.
All I could see was "Follow me on Twitter" and "Solve REAL problems!" which doesn't say anything specific about your product/ company. "Simple personal budgeting software" was lost in the copy.

So try to organize the info there in a different way and make your benefits stand out (if I'm a prospective buyer I need to see in one second what's in it for me). Look at other websites and get inspiration.

Good luck.

[Chelle Obligacion-Gray]

Hi!Try sending info to various user groups and another bby reaching out the mommy network. You can send info too in Plurk (www.plurk.com) words spread fast in plurk.

[Sohail Somani]

So someone in meat space recently made me aware of my post here... Curious, have you created a demo or any screen shots yet?

[Hendro]

Hi Sohail,

Thanks a lot for your reply. It made me aware of my post here too! All of a sudden, I received email from Business of Software.

Yes, we have got demo. But, we are still working on polishing many aspects every week (we release once a week at least). It's fully usable though, and the data is being backed up everyday. Some early adopters are using it while we keep iterating with various concept to make things simpler and simpler.

You can have a peek on: http://sandtable.me

Thanks a lot. I like this forum! Everyone is so supportive. ;-)

Cheers,
Hendro

Sohail Somani said:

So someone in meat space recently made me aware of my post here... Curious, have you created a demo or any screen shots yet?

[Hendro]

Thanks Chelle. I'll try out Plurk when we're much more ready to get wider userbase. =) At the moment, we try to do incremental improvements and fixing many things along the way.

Cheers,
Hendro


Chelle Obligacion-Gray said:

Hi!Try sending info to various user groups and another bby reaching out the mommy network. You can send info too in Plurk (www.plurk.com) words spread fast in plurk.

[Hendro]

Hi Delia,

You're so right. Thanks a lot!
Apparently, being software developer for many many years, i didn't realize that good english != clear usability.

But, we're learning a lot. We have the private demo at: http://sandtable.me
I know it's far from perfect (although usable), and we're working in fixing many things every week.

Cheers,
Hendro


Delia Ene said:

Make a list of all of the above and try to set some priorities.

The workload is huge, the most important thing is not to panic and start somewhere (if you can't send a newsletter once a week, don't give up and send it once every two weeks or even once a month if you don't have something new to say or you simply can't get around to doing it).

Also, my advice is to re-do your website immediately. Because whatever you build will point to that.
I had a look at your page and in two seconds I couldn't see what you do/ sell.
All I could see was "Follow me on Twitter" and "Solve REAL problems!" which doesn't say anything specific about your product/ company. "Simple personal budgeting software" was lost in the copy.

So try to organize the info there in a different way and make your benefits stand out (if I'm a prospective buyer I need to see in one second what's in it for me). Look at other websites and get inspiration.

Good luck.

[Sohail Somani]

Looks interesting, good luck!

Hendro said:

Hi Sohail,

Thanks a lot for your reply. It made me aware of my post here too! All of a sudden, I received email from Business of Software.

Yes, we have got demo. But, we are still working on polishing many aspects every week (we release once a week at least). It's fully usable though, and the data is being backed up everyday. Some early adopters are using it while we keep iterating with various concept to make things simpler and simpler.

You can have a peek on: http://sandtable.me

Thanks a lot. I like this forum! Everyone is so supportive. ;-)

Cheers,
Hendro

Sohail Somani said:

So someone in meat space recently made me aware of my post here... Curious, have you created a demo or any screen shots yet?

[Ian Tebbutt]

I've just registered my interest, and I have to say if I hadn't seen the link on BOS, I wouldn't have taken the time. You have two problems to solve, getting people to your site and engaging them once they're there.

1) Getting people to your site is a matter of driving people there, post on Yahoo Groups, engage high profile bloggers, get some press - traditional and online, basically you have to advertise, but I'm assuming with zero budget. There are plenty of resources around about guerilla and low cost marketing - www.marketingsherpa.com is a good place to start.

2) I think your pitch needs to be more sales oriented and punchy. Something like this :-

"...Do you need simple personal budgeting software, have you tried Quicken or MS Money and realised that they deliver more than you need, yet are still less than you want. Creating a budget doesn't need to be boring, after all it's your money, you get to choose how to spend it, if you budget correctly it will go further - this is a no-brainer, but for most apathy sets in. If you want to do it differently sign up now ....."

Hope that helps

Ian