Refining the Value Proposition

I’m trying the to create my first landing page using Lander ; and I am learning that the hard part is coming up with the content.  It makes sense that the value propositions are what you want to convey in the landing page, however, there also needs to be an element of what the customer would actually be looking for to get them to click in the first place.  

Going to my previous blog regarding the value propositions:

1. Provide additional visualized insight on-line with data pulled directly from the cloud (no need to load files)
2. Use a drag and drop metrics builder, to analyze your Quickbooks data-  don’t need to know how to run a query
3. Push button web technology that doesn’t require IT resources

Now that I’m thinking why an SMB that want more analytics for Quickbooks, I don’t like these value propositions as much.  These are good points for the poor analyst that has to put together the reports, but the real value from Bimotics comes from being able to gain more insight from the financial data they already have.  The three value propositions together can be summed up as a seamless solution.  

Maybe the real value proposition for SMBs that use Quickbooks and want more analytics, is that Bimotics enables additional insight and analysis capability of their Quickbooks data in a seamless service.

What do you think? Would the small business be searching on what they want or how to build what they need? I suppose I can A/B test that.

Looking for Landing Pages Providers

In order to carry out my early adopter experiment, I’m going to need to create landing pages on the cheap; and something I can set up myself.  I would like to build something that would capture at least e-mail addresses.  But I need something that looks professional and appeals to small business.  Looking around here are some landing page managers I have come across:

Unbounce appears to have fresh and modern looking page templates.  They emphasize conversions which from a marketing perspective is key.   I also think it is great that they have a reasonable subscription especially for new businesses and entrepreneurs.

Lander emphasizes getting set up in minutes.  Given the number of experiments I want to run, this is definitely a plus. The subscription price prices on the low end are amazing and perfect testing.  At the end of the day, I have not figured out which messages will resonate with my customers.  From what I can see, Lander doesn’t necessarily use templates, but claims to have a easy to use editor.  I will need to try their free trial to confirm how easy it is to use.

Hubspot has always been top of mind for a solution for lead generation. They seem to have the end to end solution for marketing automation, which I need when Bimotics is more mature.  But for purposes of my Coneierge MVP, I’m afraid that even $200 a month is too much.

Rocketstart must be a startup like Bimotics because they are about to launch their public beta.  They look promising, but unfortunately the timing is just not there.

Building my first Concierge MVP

Now that I have a healthy list of early adopter hypotheses, it is time to setup the Concierge MVP experiments.  If I understand it correctly for each hypothesized early adopter, I need to ask 3 main questions:

1. What is your initial value proposition for your customers?
2. How do you plan to convey the value proposition to them?
3. What are you looking to measure?

(from “Will it Launch” by  Poormima Vijayashanker)

Trying this for the the hypothesis, “SMBs that use Quickbooks but would like more analytical and reporting capability.”

1. What are your value propositions?
1. Provide additional visualized insight on-line with data pulled directly from the cloud (no need to load files)
2. Use a drag and drop metrics builder, to analyze your Quickbooks data-  don’t need to know how to run a query
3. Push button web technology that doesn’t require IT resources

I wonder if there is a way to figure out which value proposition is most important.  

2. How to convey the message?
1. Do a mini adword campaign to see if people click on add-on reporting for Quickbooks 
2. Create a video that demonstrates how we pull data on the cloud so you don’t have to sit there and load flat files
3. Create a video that shows how you create a simple query through the drag and drop metrics builder
4. Go to the next small business expo and ask people to fill out a small survey
   
   
3. What will you measure?
1. Use interaction in terms of adword results.  Additionally count e-mail addresses collected from the landing pages
2. Count video views in youtube.  I would also count e-mail addresses collected from landing pages with the videos on them
3. Process the survey results from the small business expo

One down six more experiments to think through. The survey is probably the easiest one to tackle. But it is time to learn landing pages too. Hopefully I will be able to reuse some of the content or landing pages for the others.  What are the easiest landing pages out there?

Hypotheses for Early Adopters

Yesterday I attended an event hosted by the new business incubator at Broward College.  Poormima Vijayashanker lectured on many lean startup concepts in her presentation “Will it launch?”. At Bimotics, we often pitched our startup as the “mint.com for small and medium sized-business”.  So I have to admit; I was a bit star struck to meet the founding engineer of the business we’ve strived to be like.  Turns out she is pretty cool and down to earth.  I’m going to ask join her Femigineer mentor group.

So the main takeaway I got  from the workshop was related to coming up with the right hypothesis for customer adoption- particularly for early adopters.  Bimotics is a cloud analytics company targeting small and medium-sized business, so here are the segments I hypothesize will be our early adopters. They are:

1. SMBs that were established in the last 5 years that already use other cloud based applications, like SalesForce and Quickbooks to run their business
2. SMBs that use Quickbooks but would like more analytical and reporting capability
3. Consulting companies with analysts and data scientists that need a software platform to deliver their results to their clients
4. SMBs with more than 3 resources running their operations (non-technical)
5. SMBs comfortable using online marketplaces and app stores to source applications for run their business
6. SMBs whose employees have begun to use mobile technology day-to-day, whether its a smartphone or a tablet
7. SMBs that use social media as a source for business news.

With these hunches, the next step is to confirm or deny that these are my customers in the most cost efficient way.  Since we are only in alfa, I cannot just prove usage of by these groups, I will need to try out the concept of “concierage MVP” also taught at the workshop.