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What would be the best approach to get more traffic to my one product website?

by Davor Geci
15 replies
Hello guys,
I have a product that extends Microsoft Excel with the features to connect to a database and automatically create forms for data manipulation from Excel to databases like MySQL, MSSQL, access,...
The product is new and people who test it and buy it are loving it.
I'm getting some traffic to the webpage by posting on Facebook, LinkedIn and writing articles on my blog and also on guest posting in a blog that are relevant to the niche I'm in.
But the traffic is low.
What would you suggest that I should do to get more traffic to the site? Should I redesign the site, is the documentation too complicated? I'm in this now for years and I can't see it clearly.
The site is virtual-forms.com
Thanks,
Davor
#approach #product #traffic #website
  • Profile picture of the author Ged3
    Hi,


    I think small businesses would love your website.


    It could save them a lot of time and expense in redesigning Excel spread sheets.


    You could probably target local businesses.


    You can do this on Facebook or by using Google My Business Page.


    Use your referrals as these will help you to get business, they are often better than adverts!


    Hope this helps.


    Ged
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    • Profile picture of the author Davor Geci
      Ged, thanks for the tips and you are right, the ideal persona would be a small business.
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  • Profile picture of the author msulcs
    Make a post on Reddit. On a subreddit like r/Entrepreneur.
    Tell about yourself and your company. Don't try to sell. Tell a story.
    You'll get a shitload of visitors if you do everything right and a powerful backlink.
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    • Profile picture of the author Davor Geci
      Great tip msulcs,
      do you have maybe some example posts on how to not look spammy?
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Originally Posted by Davor Geci View Post

    What would you suggest that I should do to get more traffic to the site? Should I redesign the site, is the documentation too complicated? I'm in this now for years and I can't see it clearly.r
    You have a specific question.. how to increase traffic, and then look at your solutions.. design a site - documentation to complicated.. NEITHER have to do with the amount of traffic - SALES maybe but NOT traffic.

    You need to focus more time AWAY from your site, to get traffic TO YOUR SITE. make sense?

    Start thinking in specifics.. create content that is end use specific.. how would this benefit a home builder, or a doctor, or a small shop owner

    Right now you are saying I have this Excel add on that does this and that.. That is the MACRO view of what it does... Step that down to Hey mr home builder you need this so you can do this and that.. that becomes the MICRO.

    Draw SPECIFIC, or TARGETTED end user traffic to your product.. and you will get traffic, and you should get sales.
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    • Profile picture of the author Davor Geci
      savidge4 yes this makes sense,
      I need to focus more on getting traffic to my site and no so much at this time on perfecting the site.
      Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    So I suggested going out side of the site.. I just REALLY looked at your site, and there are some things to maybe look over first.

    Think end user here... I goto your site and I see download, and I see Editions.. I want to click on downloads right and get the add on.. and I will assume, didn't actually go through the process this gives me the free version? vs if I goto Editions and there are options?

    this has to be clearer.. main page call to action "goto downloads" should be more like "start 10 day free trial and link to a lander like the "Editions page" and even the downloads page should have the same options... I would suggest people get a bit pissy when they download something only to find out after the fact it only works 10 days.

    I might also suggest a simple ( probably not so simple but you know what I mean ) exe file that has the ability to run the scripts without the function of the editor? So say in my office I have 10 computers that would run a single script.. only one of them would need the full editor vs a smaller execution file to run the scripts on the remaining 9 computers.

    To be honest.. I want to play with this.. I can see creating some 3rd party applications that would gain some traction in terms of ender user use in many niches.
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    • Profile picture of the author Davor Geci
      savidge4 you have helped me a lot with this!!!
      I'm in this project for years and couldn't see the picture from a normal first-time visitor or potential customer.
      I have changed the homepage CTA just like you suggested.
      The free version with only the control and without the editor is also a great idea. I was convinced that if I provide only one download for the software (free control & designer) would be better, but now I also see that this is maybe not the best approach and will change this and provide also only the free control download in next version.
      To also incorporate this into the downloads page, I don't have an idea how to design the page to indicate this, but will try to come with the solution.
      THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!! for taking the time and to guide me on how to make it better
      Davor
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  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
    I don't like your sales letter/home page at all. It's obvious you are a programmer.

    What are the benefits for people buying your product? I know it connects Excel to a database, but what does that do for me and my business? How will it make their lives better, make things easier and/or make them money?

    It seems you are selling a product for people to make their own product? Is this correct? If so, you may do better if you create ready-made products targeted to more specific niches.

    Where do your customers hang out? Small business owners can be found on LinkedIn and there's all types of small businesses, many with different wants and needs. Maybe try to "niche" your product a bit and create different landing pages that appeal to specific types of businesses. A vet probably has different needs than a plumber, create a version for each.

    With niche specific products, try PPC advertising like Adwords, Bing and FB ads.

    Hang out on LinkedIn in and help businesses owners as well as find out what they want.

    Once you get your sales page updated I'd focus on creating an affiliate program and finding affiliates and influencers in the various niches to sell your product.

    Add retargeting pixels (FB, Google, Bing, etc) to all your pages using the Google Tag Manager so you can follow up .
    https://tagmanager.google.com/

    Get an email address from people to be able to download the free version so you can follow up with tips, training and selling.
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    • Profile picture of the author Davor Geci
      Kurt thanks a lot for all your suggestions.
      Yes I'm a programmer :-)
      I list some of the features of the product, but as you are saying, I should provide the benefits for the user.
      Can anyone suggest a person that could help me to convert the homepage to a proper sales page, just like you did suggest?
      Davor
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Originally Posted by Davor Geci View Post

        Kurt thanks a lot for all your suggestions.
        Yes I'm a programmer :-)
        I list some of the features of the product, but as you are saying, I should provide the benefits for the user.
        Can anyone suggest a person that could help me to convert the homepage to a proper sales page, just like you did suggest?
        Davor
        I understand you are a programmer... But you are in many ways past that point, and now you need to be a marketer.. and the transition is TOUGH on a good day.. I think we all get that.

        I personally am a programmer as well... but I am also a marketer... so let me help you bridge some gaps here... As a programmer.. features are important... As a Business person ( your target ) I need to understand BENEFITS. How is this going to allow me to do X faster, better, at greater profit? Those are the types of questions you need to answer.

        Yet i understand that you are dealing with an open ended base.. it will do what it is the end user needs. I personally see the potential as being this.. AS A MARKETER i can see developing a back end that solves a niches problems. Lets just throw out someone that sells crafts, online, at shows, on their website.

        So that person can input cost. website expenses, show expenses and online platform expense. they can then also include material costs, labor costs etc. They then can input what each item sells for each outlet.. this would give them the MICRO view of what profit center is creating the best overall profit, and allow this person to apply 80 / 20 towards that aspect of their business.

        So the Benefit for this person specifically is controlling cost.. and optimizing sales channels.

        The issue you have is this... each person that uses your product is going to have separate Benefits.

        So the question becomes this.. should you be targeting business as you have suggested.. OR guys like me that would create niche specific back ends that they could sell? I really dont have the answer to that.. but I am sure you could tell where i am leaning.

        I personally use excel in business A LOT.. without even really thinking to hard a back end that rips apart a website LOG file and puts into usable readable data would be HUGE - just saying - Something specific like this.. you could list benefits of its use til the cows come home LOL Moooooo

        I think right now you just really need to focus on WHO you need to be pitching this to.. and then developing the benefits your product would provide.

        Think of it this way.. you are thinking BUILD and NOW you need to be thinking USE. Who, HOW and for WHAT will the end user be using your product, and HOW best can you communicate to them that your product is a right fit for them and their business.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeffery
    ^ This ^


    Having a background in product development and sales of products I agree with everything Kurt said.

    When I have an idea for a product the first thing I do is research is the product will sale and the source of the traffic to make sales. It is all relative to sales and the sale starts with converting the traffic to the sale.

    The website and sales letter determines if the target market will convert more so than the product itself.

    Business owners that want software products that provide the solution(s) to their problems are your target market. Make that clear to the customers first and foremost.

    As Kurt pointed out, 'products that are niche specific' will receive the coveted targeted traffic and 'niche traffic' is far easier to convert than 'broad traffic' by far in terms of conversions and business model.

    Example, my customers often ask for a specific program that will provide a specific solution to their problem. I simplify it by creating a 'niche application' that integrates into their existing platform. Problem solved - conversions solved.

    Specific example: You own a 'niche blog' about organic vegetable gardening. You manually optimize for paid and organic traffic with low conversions. I provide a software application that automatically optimizes the blog content for organic vegetable gardening. The customer only needs to click a few buttons to optimize the content pulled from the database. Done!

    That is what you convey to your customers both prospective and established for repeat sales in different niches.

    Your application is more of a one solution that fits all. That means low sales. Create niche specific applications means more sales of essentially the same product
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  • Profile picture of the author Davor Geci
    Guys I was thinking that my potential users are:
    Solo entrepreneurs and CEO-s of small, up to 100 employees.
    These are the people who are with Microsoft Excel almost the whole time and want to create the apps for themselves and for their small teams by extending the familiar environment of Microsoft Excel. They don't want to spend time explaining to developers what they need and want.
    Because there are gazillions of rapid application tools out there (desktop & web based) I was thinking to concentrate to Microsoft Excel users.

    The limitation for the bigger companies for their middle management people that also love Virtual Forms is because the Virtual Form Control needs to be installed on every computer and their IT department mostly don't like this.

    Is this too broad or is this the wrong approach?
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeffery
      Originally Posted by Davor Geci View Post

      Guys I was thinking that my potential users are:
      Solo entrepreneurs and CEO-s of small, up to 100 employees.
      These are the people who are with Microsoft Excel almost the whole time and want to create the apps for themselves and for their small teams by extending the familiar environment of Microsoft Excel. They don't want to spend time explaining to developers what they need and want.
      Because there are gazillions of rapid application tools out there (desktop & web based) I was thinking to concentrate to Microsoft Excel users.

      The limitation for the bigger companies for their middle management people that also love Virtual Forms is because the Virtual Form Control needs to be installed on every computer and their IT department mostly don't like this.

      Is this too broad or is this the wrong approach?

      In my experience, yes it is too broad and yes it is the wrong approach. Three of us have politely told you "too broad and wrong approach." Three of us that develop products and market those products. Welcome to marketing!


      Now, since you are essentially asking us to explain everything again to you that means you are not getting it. We have no silver bullets, no skin in the game - just trying to help you understand that we have been where you are at and how to make it work.


      The short of is you only need to have copy on the front-end that is about the benefits to business owners. Not benefits to programmers. Business owners spend the money - not the programmers that work for the business owners. The businesses programmers are handled through support of the product.


      So get out of the programmer mindset when selling and into the selling mindset when selling.


      Look at what savidge4 and I said, almost exactly the same thing.


      There are some of the best copywriters in the industry on this forum. They may visit this thread and offer some of the best suggestions found anywhere on the internet. One thing they will definitely tell you is your copy is more for programmers and less for the business owner that actually "pays" for your product.


      You are 100% right in that IT departments do not like forms. Matter of fact, I work for Fortune 500 companies and disallow forms of any variant as a matter of policy. Too many risks!


      The solution is smaller companies with controlled risk variants and policy.


      In this industry we call it "Niche Programming for a Niche Target Market."


      If you fail to understand that the end result will not be good for your business model.


      BTW, you are programmer? Learn to use the thread "quote" button. It will help us to help you.
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  • Profile picture of the author FatChance11
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    • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
      Originally Posted by FatChance11 View Post

      There is a couple different ways you can market your website. It just depends on how much work you want to put into it.
      Here is a decent post on a couple ways to actually market properly:

      (Link Removed)

      It has a few different ideas. You can also find a bunch others if u google a bit.
      Self-promotion is against the forum rules. Self-promotional links in every post are likely to get you banned.

      Brent
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