Hunting for media images

In order to save money, I leveraged deals from the Startup America Partnership to keep my pre-seed funds in check.  Once such deal I leverage is getting really affordable images from Bigstock Photo.  When you can’t afford a awesome graphic artist, being able to buy images is the next best thing. I have learned enough about user experience to know that just putting words on a page will make a big group of the audience tune out.

Let me tell you though, sometimes I can’t wait until we can get a artist.  It would be nice to rely on someone who has good taste and an eye for what will work. Further, I use the Preview application from my map to edit and resize my pictures. Someone who knows photoshop and other advanced editing tools could be a great help.

So much time is spent looking for just the right kind of image.  It is almost wondrous how you can just turn page after page looking for an image for a keyword you find anything that resonates.

2 Ways to improve the experience of showing for images online:

• Provide filters based on cheesiness or styles by decade
• Offer services for someone to built the 5th type icon because your customer has just found 4 that they like (that actually may already be there but not advertised as such)

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.