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Need Advice: Why does our Web App sell well directly but poorly to general public?

by Bryce Christiansen
2 replies
Hi everyone,

I'm the marketing head for a new web app called The People Profiler. We just launched it a month ago.

I can't post a link but if you Google "The People Profiler" it is on the first page.
It's a web app that helps you connect and build relationships both professionally and personally.

So far we've had 31 trial users complete the trial and none have bought.

However, when we directly sell the app to a team at corporations we have been 100% successful in selling close to 50 accounts in the first month.

We have an additional 100+ currently in the trial that we would like to survey to learn what the gap is between trying the app and buying the app.

I obviously have my suspicions. Price sensitive, wanting to buy on a per use vs subscription, just curious to try the app, etc.

I wanted to get this community's opinion where the gap could be. Or what questions we should ask on our survey to the people who finish a trial without buying.



If you have experience marketing web apps, I would especially love to connect with you.

You guys are some of the smartest marketers of the web I know so I really respect any criticism you have.

Bryce

P.S. I'm not so much interested in conversion optimization, the page currently is getting around 70% to trial registrations. I want to know what to do about the next conversion: trial to purchase.
#advice #app #directly #general #poorly #public #sell #web
  • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
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    • Profile picture of the author Takk
      I don't mean to be critical, as I'm likely not your target demographic, but I don't see how any of the information that app provides I couldn't just google. Failing that, its taught in basic management classes, yes?

      Boils down to, I might pay 3 bucks for it if I was really interested, but a monthly fee - no way at all. Corporations, I can see, might want it for their employees since their managers see benefits. Anyone else? Eh.

      Frankly, I think your pricing model is off. Why not give it away with ads? Free with ads could work pretty good - its an informational product after all. Then offer a paid version for ad-free. Perhaps offer an upgrade for a monthly fee, if you can offer some sort of service beyond that initial information. Perhaps the subscription for the parts of your product that allow saving/input of particular data to make the action plans.

      Not sure if that is helpful or what you wanted to hear, but that's my take. If it helps, I'm mid 20s, work in a corporation in a combination individual contributor/leadership role.

      Questions, perhaps:
      Would you buy this application for a single use fee?
      Would you use this application if it were free, with advertisements visible?
      Do you feel the information available on this application is unique?
      Do you feel the information available on this application is presented in a unique manner?

      If you want a better conversion rate to subscription, ask for a credit card to sign up for a trial. It will tank your free trial rate, but you will definitely get more full-subscribers.

      As an aside, if you are getting people to sign up for trials, making them answer a couple first demographic questions first might help - make them required questions on the free trial sign up page? Nothing crazy, but I wouldn't think 1-3 more fields would have a significant impact on your sign ups.
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      • Profile picture of the author Bryce Christiansen
        Hey Mike,

        I don't know if you are looking at the right page. It is thepeopleprofiler.com

        We don't have paid links so that must be something else.

        Takk,

        I'm not sure how you could find this information by Googling, since it is specific to the person you are profiling.

        This isn't just general communication tips that you can use with anyone. Some tips will be close to the opposite depending on the person. For example if the person you want to communicate with is more introverted, you can't approach them the same way you would an extrovert. The profiles will show you where those differences are. Please tell me if I'm wrong, I'd love to know what feels like it can be Googled so we can differentiate our stuff better.

        The free with ads model is one we've considered as well. Just wondered how profitable that could be.

        We also do have an update in the works that will allow you to save your profiles. We could make this available to paid versions only. So we're thinking on the same page here.

        Really liked these questions, it helped me think of a few better ones myself.

        We considered asking for credit card information, but decided against it when we first started so we could get a few more eyes on it when we first got started.

        I also think your demographic questions could be useful. Basically knowing whether they manage people or communication is crucial in their work would tell us whether they were our target market or not.

        Appreciate your thoughts Takk.

        Bryce
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