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    Home Unlabelled Thank you Thursday! - February 04, 2021 Entrepreneur

    Thank you Thursday! - February 04, 2021 Entrepreneur

    February 04, 2021

    Thank you Thursday! - February 04, 2021 Entrepreneur

    Thank you Thursday! - February 04, 2021

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 02:00 AM PST

    Your opportunity to thank the /r/Entrepreneur community by offering free stuff, contests, discounts, electronic courses, ebooks and the best deals you know of.

    Please consolidate such offers here!

    Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.

    submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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    Opportunites With Virtual Weddings

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 08:28 AM PST

    Hey everyone! I post regularly about business ideas and opportunities. I made a previous post like this and you all seemed to like it. You can check out more ideas like this here.

    Virtual Weddings are Hard to Pull Off

    "The pandemic has ruined my wedding plans. When looking for alternatives, I found out people were hosting virtual weddings. I think it could be a unique experience, but it seems really challenging to pull off. "

    - Bride-To-Be

    Market Background & Opportunity Size

    Your wedding day is a special one. It's a time for family and friends to celebrate the unification of two people. But, it comes with a pretty hefty price tag. The money poured into weddings has created a huge market for service providers ensuring your special day is perfect.

    Here are some stats:

    • There are roughly 2.5M weddings in the US alone–– which breaks down to 6,500 weddings per day.
    • The total market size is $73.3B
    • The average cost of a wedding is ~$25K
    • On average, 19 different vendors service each wedding

    Because of the pandemic, the wedding industry has turned on its head. A source from Zola, a leading online registry website, says that 80% of weddings are now done virtually and roughly 37% are considering going virtual in the future.

    The driving factors for most couples to go virtual is accessibility and cost. Virtual weddings cost somewhere between $2-5K, which is a fraction of the cost of traditional weddings.

    It's worth mentioning that virtual weddings were gaining popularity before the pandemic hit, although in small numbers - destination weddings being the main driver. I believe that Covid didn't create the market, but it is acting as an accelerant to a trend that was already emerging.

    Pain Points

    Virtual weddings are attractive for many reasons: cost savings, keeping loved ones safe, accessibility to the event, and it creates a unique experience. That said, they don't come without their challenges:

    • Logistics: Weddings have A LOT of moving pieces - this is why being a wedding planner is a full-time job. Adapting all those moving pieces to an online format is seen as impossible without hiring someone to help.
    • Platform Challenges: Finding a platform to host your virtual wedding isn't easy. Currently, there are no platforms optimized for making your virtual wedding a success.
    • Impersonal: Part of the fun of having a wedding is celebrating with friends and family. Taking the virtual route can make your event feel impersonal or less special.

    The Opportunites

    With the shift to virtual, there are tons of opportunities in the wedding space ranging from small to big. Here are a few of my favorites:

    • Zoom Apps: Build Zoom apps that create a better experience for those hosting virtual weddings. I'm thinking about things like interactive DJ apps, Zoom photo booths, apps to facilitate mingling etc...
    • Productized-Service: Create a productized-service that manages all the pieces of organizing a virtual wedding. Wedfuly (I'll talk about them later) would be a direct competitor, but the market is big enough for more than one player
    • Create Zoom for Weddings: Right now, there isn't a good platform for streaming weddings that has all the unique bells and whistles to make it perfect. Things like virtual photo booths, interactive DJ apps, virtual mingling apps, are all ways to make the wedding feel less virtual. This would be similar to what Hopin did for virtual events.

    Current Competitors

    • Wedfuly: Wedfuly is a productized-service offering a turnkey solution for virtual weddings. Their product costs $1,200 and includes a coordinator, tech support, rehearsals, and footage from the event. They don't offer any tech to help facilitate the event. They are essentially just a wedding planner specializing in virtual.
    • LoveStream: LoveStream is a platform built to stream your wedding. It appears to be a one-way stream where the audience can view but they can't be seen. Additionally, the viewers can't communicate, they just watch.
    • Virtual Wedding Planners: If you do a quick Google search, you will see dozens of virtual wedding planners ready to help you plan your event. But, most aren't offering productized-services or any new tech to help ease the event.

    How to Execute

    • Find Your Early Adopters: Finding your early adopters for this idea should be pretty easy. There are a few niche communities like this, filled with people looking for help with their virtual wedding. There are also many people on Reddit seeking advice.
    • Build an MVP: This idea is perfect for someone without a tech background. To start, an easy MVP would be to create a digital guide for planning and executing virtual weddings. From there, you could expand your offerings to a productized-service that helps people run their virtual weddings. All this can be done with little to no tech.
    • Start Small: To start, use your digital guide as a lead magnet and then upsell 5 couples on a digital wedding package. From there, learn the ins and outs of what makes a great virtual wedding.
    • Build Zoom for Weddings: This is the big idea. Once you've got your bearings and understand the dos and don'ts of virtual weddings, build the platform that hosts all the virtual weddings.

    Challenges

    • Will Virtual Weddings be a Thing? I'd only pursue this idea if you believe the trend of virtual weddings will continue to grow. This either means the pandemic forces us to continue leading a virtual life, or the aftermath of the pandemic will shift the way we gather permanently.
    • It's a Big Day: As many wedding planners know, this is the most important day of many people's lives. This means your execution needs to be on point. Any small kink in the system can leave you with unhappy customers, which is really bad for business.
    • Competition: While there aren't many tech solutions, there's a lot of competition in the virtual wedding planner space. If you plan on cash-flowing the business by acting as a virtual wedding planner, you'll need to figure out a strong distribution channel to break through the noise.
    • Educating The Market: Until more people experience a virtual wedding, they won't know what's possible. This creates a barrier between you and the customer. You'll need to work on educating the market about why virtual weddings are as good, or better than in-person weddings.

    Thanks for reading!

    submitted by /u/papapatty11
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    Turned a joke into a business.. and I just made my first sale!

    Posted: 03 Feb 2021 05:26 PM PST

    I won't lie, I'm pretty giddy right now and just need to tell somebody. I just made what I believe is my organic sale, no friends or family this time!

    TL;DR: Shit talked a friend then got super bored and took a joke too far. Now I have a closet full of pencils and a cool (maybe?) website: Pencilify

    As the title suggest, this little "business" of mine started out as a joke at the start of the Covid-19 lockdown. One night while playing a game with a friend, I mentioned to him that I was going to send him a pencil that said "Still a Bitch" as a constant reminder that I still think he's a bitch. You know, typical male banter while gaming and stuff. Well, as it turns out that was really hard to do because who the hell wants to make a singular custom pencil? Armed with equipment I use for another hobby leather crafting and nothing but time due to Covid Lockdown, apparently I'm the guy who wants to make a singular (or low quantity) pencils.

    So I set out to find some really nice pencils, because my friends deserve to be called bitches in the highest regard. I had to buy a ton of them, so I'm really going for the long con here I guess. I used my foil stamping machines to craft the masterpiece and send it to my friend in his very own singular little pencil box which I also made with tools I have on hand. Mission Accomplished! But now I have all these goddamned pencils I need to do something with - Far more pencils then I'll ever have friends, that's for sure. I can't be the only guy who wants just a few custom pencils, right? So I set out to make my project come to life.. on day ~30 of Covid Lockdown. I'm basically watching squirrels at that point anyways. Goddamnit, America - wear your masks!

    Now, I definitely thought this is was dumb idea- hell, I still sort of do so I didn't want to spend a ton of financial resources on this (other then the metric asston of pencils I already bought). Luckily I am in IT and enjoy web design so I designed my own site to avoid fees from Shopify and the like, got all the pieces in place from some of my other hobbies/projects and BOOM, my website was launched.

    Occasionally I'd send a friend or family member some pencils, but mostly I ignore it for the last 6 months. But today I got a ding from my email and I made a sale - a small box of custom pencils! Somebody I definitely don't know so I'm confident it's organic and I'm pretty excited about it! I feel like my dumb idea was sort of validated today. I still have no idea how they even found me.. so maybe I should spend a little more time learning SEO, marketing, and the rest of that other nonsense I didn't particularly want to bother with to try and generate more than one sale every 6 months!

    Anyways, if you've endured this long, thanks for riding the wild ride! If you have any feedback or criticism of my site, I'd love to hear it.

    EDIT: Wow, what an overwhelming experience! Thank you all for your positive feedback and support, I truly appreciate it! I'm working my way through comments and orders but will definitely try to respond to everybody as soon as I can! It also appears my website is encountering some issues due to Reddit's Overwhelming Love. Currently I can only accept PayPal, but I'm working through those as soon as I can.

    submitted by /u/mosermade
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    Looking for a partner? Lets have a chat! (I specialize in Facebook Marketing, can do most other things well)

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 08:57 AM PST

    I never liked working alone, I'm looking for a business partner to grow with. I've worked within E-commerce and have managed marketing campaigns for almost 5 years.

    My peak was a jewelry store that generated $3000 daily revenue which I sadly had to let go (long story).

    **EDIT** I created a discord server for networking, feel free to join it if you would like. We already have 100 members inside https://discord.gg/EUhB8s9X6q

    submitted by /u/CMWDanny
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    ����‍��Increased my website conversion from 9% to 15% (free trial to paid) working with a conversion copywriter. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised! I used to work in advertising and thought I 'knew' this stuff LOL. Was a great experience. Sharing what I learned...

    Posted: 03 Feb 2021 09:34 PM PST

    First of all...every product is different so take what you will from this.

    For context, my product is an early stage consumer-facing SaaS in the productivity space. If your product is more mature, B2B or has multiple audiences you might do it differently.

    Also there is never 100% one way to do things...so if your website is working for you this doesn't mean you should stop everything and change it.

    That said, I was pleasantly surprised with the results. It was my first time working with a conversion copywriter - they had a LOT of great suggestions, which I didn't think of, even though I worked in the advertising industry for 10yrs.

    So far, the result is a 9% to 15% conversion from those on a free trial to paid service. Time will tell, but so far I'm very happy with how it turned out.

    Ok, buckle up, here's what I learned:

    For context and to follow along, here's my website now: https://llamalife.co

    And what it was previously: https://imgur.com/a/L1RvH1t

    (some of you may recognise it as you gave me great feedback in my previous post, which I've also incorporated - thanks!).

    ​

    1. Encourage scrolling in one-direction (natural behavior) vs people clicking around menus and different parts of the site and getting lost. Limit what you put in the nav bar.
    2. The reason for this is to guide the narrative ie what do you want to say to people and in what order.
    3. Anticipate questions someone might have as they are reading, and make sure you answer those questions in the next section of your website
    4. How to anticipate questions - role-play it with a someone who doesn't know your product and see what they ask you and when, look through feedback from your customers and make sure you cover their biggest pain points and what they were confused about. Make sure you mention how your product is different to others in the space
    5. Customer research - people always say talk to customers. 100% agree if you can. But there are also other ways to get insight eg reading app review of your competitors. App review tend to be very positive or very negative, so they're good to understand the problems people are having or features they really want. Another way is to look through relevant subreddits.
    6. The website's hero text and image should sell an emotional benefit. What are you promising the customer? What problem will it solve? This was hard for me at first because I originally included a short factual headline - I'd always been told be clear and concise. But sometimes clear and concise = boring and same. Not saying don't be clear!! Obviously it needs to have clarity but there are creative ways to do this.
    7. Inject emotion into the writing eg "Get through your to-do list" vs "Get through your monstrous to-do list".
    8. Ensure images work with the text and do not over-power or distract from the narrative
    9. Be clear who the product is for, and also who it's not for (this can save everyone - you and your customers - a lot of time).
    10. Make sure you have an About section, and make sure this shines. Stories are interesting, tell them - why did you make the product, any interesting facts?
    11. Give yourself a title that is relevant to your product. I'm a solo founder so could call myself a 'founder' or 'CEO', but to a customer that means nothing. 'Chief Productivity Officer' makes more sense in my case and to say 'your Chief Productivity Officer' means 'I'm here for YOU'.
    12. Being a little verbose is OK, as long as the copy is good, people will read good copy.
    13. But verbose doesn't mean you can have words everywhere - design is still important so include enough white space to make it feel clean and uncluttered (especially important if you're creating an app for productivity! In addition, people won't read every word - think about how you scroll through a website.
    14. Avoid temptation to put the product shot as your hero image. I struggled with this a lot but eventually put my product shots further down the page. This allowed me to tell the narrative about the product before people got to the image. If you put the product shot in the hero, the user tends to analyse it and make up their own mind before you even have a chance to 'talk' to them.
    15. The 'features section' is important, but again put it further down the page. I also designed it using pop ups so the user could 'peek' in and out without having to lose their overall spot scrolling through the page (see new website https://llamalife.co for example)
    16. The CTA button should connect with the benefit you're promising in your hero section
    17. Testimonials and social proof are important - contact the people who sent you feedback on twitter, email, reddit etc and ask if you can use their quote

    If you made it this far, wow! Hopefully it was helpful. Remember, there's never one-size fits all, so do what you think is right for your business. Good luck!

    If anyone else has other tips, I'd love to hear them in the comments below as always looking to improve. Also feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer as quickly as possible.

    submitted by /u/Ngthatsme
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    How do I start a business?

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 07:47 AM PST

    Basically, the title says it all. I have some ideas that I'd like to make money of but don't really know where to start. Between finding customers, creating my own business and finding time when not in class.

    If any of you guys have some advices to share, that would really help!

    submitted by /u/JustMeGeoffrey
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    Looking for creative ways to generate more B2B business.

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 11:38 AM PST

    Hey all. Long time lurker, first time poster.

    I am in an interesting position coming out of 2020.

    We managed to survive last year by shifting from our usual product to distributing a lot of PPE gear instead. This year I forecast that to be a much smaller market as supply has gone up.

    A little bit about me:

    My business is all B2B, we manufacture watches for a fast fashion price point overseas and then distribute from Los Angeles. Our product ranges from anywhere from $3.50 to $12.50 wholesale and we control the entire process of manufacturing from sourcing components to plating cases and assembling finished watches.

    I'm seeing smaller retailers starting to order again as they open up either in-store or are shifting their businesses online. These customers I feel are more valuable to my business at this point in time. Big box retailers have started to place orders, but I have no guarantee that they will pay when the time comes.

    I'm looking to grow my online B2B business and target more smaller retailers and I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience growing this sector and can offer me some good insight. I get about 1,000 emails a day asking me to buy lead lists, etc but I feel that those may not be effective.

    I'm tired of selling to the big guy and I want to see the small guy grow. We even added options for people to start drop shipping our products through a partnership with a 3rd party. Looking for ideas on how to grow this area as well.

    Ultimately I'm just trying to formulate a strong attack plan so I can make 2021 an equally strong year like we had with the 2020 PPE surge while building a solid foundation for our online sales. All help appreciated. Let me know if you have any questions for me as well.

    submitted by /u/skinnyboizain
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    Cannabis delivery service in CA - how to start?

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 11:59 AM PST

    Looking to pivot out of my 9-5 accounting job and start my own thing. I've always had a passion for cannabis and live in CA, where cannabis is legal for recreational and medical purposes. I want to start a cannabis delivery business, but have absolutely no idea where to start or any of the legalities revolving around this type of business venture. Has anyone on here helped to start or started their own cannabis delivery service in CA? If so, how did you do it, where did you start and what are some key takeaways that you learned throughout the process? How much money should I expect to invest in order to get this business up and running? Any advice and tips would be immensely appreciated.

    submitted by /u/Gldn_Phnx
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    How do you successfully market your niche ebook?

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 10:53 AM PST

    I am developing an ebook catered towards a certain niche, I am also simultaneously working on developing an audience and following, Is social media and website traffic going to be enough to sell an ebook? Do you think I should focus more on the product (ebook) or continue building the following? I would love to hear perspectives from people who have successfully sold ebooks.

    submitted by /u/throwawayMisterCPA
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    Make Money on Airbnb | Why Airbnb Shared Housing Vs. Regular Airbnb Rental

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 10:23 AM PST

    Looking for prototype tester liability waiver (lipo battery) and NDA form

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 10:05 AM PST

    Hi guys, we're close to the prototype testing stage of development and I will be handing our devices out locally to several folks to try. The device uses a lipo battery so I want to have them sign a liability waiver for any damage that may occur if they damage the battery while using. I'm also looking for a generic prototype tester NDA agreement if anyone has one. Thanks!

    submitted by /u/originalpjy
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    I guess I need some help

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 04:01 AM PST

    Hi, I am a 15 years old guy almost turning 16, and I need some suggestions what I can do next.

    I have some projects ongoing:

    1- I have a "dropshipping business", well, sort of, where I get 100-200€ month, (I dont have a website, it is on a platform called OLX)

    2- I recently published a game on Steam, it wasn't successful tho.

    3- I am growing some Instagram pages and when I get a reasonable amount of followers I want to try affiliate marketing there.

    4- I recently created a blog (1 week ago), I am trying to post as many content this week (20 posts), and then post 2x week, I am also trying affiliate marketing there. (In 1 week I get 250 pageviews, I dont know if that is good or not xD)

    But yeah, right now I just work on my blog and on the social media account, the drop shipping thing I just need to get there and answer clients questions, so right now I have a ton of free time. If you have some suggestions what I can improve or new ideas I will appreciate :)

    Also, sorry for my english :/

    submitted by /u/G0you
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    Having a hard time finding a business coach...

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 08:16 AM PST

    I'm looking to become a business coach, but I'm having the hardest time finding a coach and it's really frustrating. I'm wanting to launch courses and launch more products and services but I don't even know where to begin.

    Any tips? How did you find your coach? What was your experience? Any red flags that I could look for while searching for one? Lastly, any suggestions for a coach?

    submitted by /u/Proud-Bug2166
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    Recommendations for where can I learn how to do proper market research & write business plans?

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 08:10 AM PST

    I'm looking for real classes on Udemy or things like that, that people recommend for learning how to properly conduct market research and write business plans.

    submitted by /u/troutrucker
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    You Find an Idea - What's Next? [First-Timers Edition]

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 04:17 AM PST

    Hi there everyone,

    I work a lot with startup founders who haven't any product development background.

    From project to project, I always hear the same question "What should I do after I found an idea for a startup?" (or app, or business, whatever you like).

    The first thing to do is to get ready that your startup is full of risks, expensive adventure. (And, of course, it's fun and exciting.)

    I decided to answer all of them in one, in-depth guide. (I hope this would be useful for you as well!)

    You can find the complete guide here.

    Thanks, and wait for your feedback.

    submitted by /u/Spdload
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    How much should I sell a 100K instagram account in the health niche? A meme account for nursing with high engagement rate

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 07:44 AM PST

    I have this 100k niche account where I put memes for nurses. I keep sharing a meme a day for 3 years. So the followers are all organic 70% are US, 7% from Canada and the rest from UK and Australia. The engagement is quite high with 1.5m impressions a week and and 500k account reached a week. 88% of the followers are females. I tried monetizing it by selling shoutouts once or twice a month and it made me some decent money. Recently I've been getting offers to buy the account and one offered 5.5k$ and I don't know if it's the right price for such a meme page. So I wonder what would be the right price for it. And whether if I should sell it at all or not.

    submitted by /u/NetInteresting6037
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    How do you come to know if a profession has high demand but low supply?

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 07:42 AM PST

    Has anyone thought about this?

    submitted by /u/vich_lasagna
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    I will make you a website for free!

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 11:06 AM PST

    Hi business owners!

    My name is Tiago and I'm a professional web developer that is looking to create his own professional portfolio.

    I'll be happy to create a full WordPress website for your business for FREE! Yes, you heard me right, you'll not have to pay me a single penny.

    You will only need to pay for domain and hosting (that's how I will make money, I'm an affiliate)

    If you're interested, make sure to send me a message! You've got nothing to lose.

    submitted by /u/Strike4327
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    How long should it take to build an MVP?

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 10:58 AM PST

    FAST money ����

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 10:49 AM PST

    Do u have any ideas on how to make $230 by tomorrow? My electric is gonna be cut off if i cant pay it 😅😅 any suggestions are appreciated

    submitted by /u/Edge-Several
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    How much would you charge per week for a weekly car wash service from your home? (Outside only, no wax)

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 06:54 AM PST

    I'm looking to start up a car wash business as I don't really have much to do other than school, and I'm looking to raise capital to start other business ventures?
    You go to the customers house.

    View Poll

    submitted by /u/JP091404
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    After setting up 40+ welcome flows and $50M generated in revenue, this is how Chase Dimond sets up his welcome flows and captures emails.

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 06:53 AM PST

    After breaking down losing and winning emails. Chase and I talked about the flow every entrepreneur needs. The Welcome Flow

    Write up below, but for the full context the podcast is on Apple and Spotify.

    Capturing Emails

    Email popups, they pop up in the middle of the screen. Sometimes they take up the full screen sometimes less. Fly outs will come from the corner or the bottom, a little less intrusive, like a banner across the page. Forms can be embedded in blog posts or in the footer, they're there all the time and can be scrolled right past.

    • Simple simple Sign up for our newsletter will get a 1-2% conversion rate.
    • Standard discounting offer will get you a 5-10% conversion rate, no real correlation to the discount, so stop over discounting!
    • Giveaways convert the best with a 10-14% conversion rate. To maximize sale conversion rates on the email giveaway, make sure every entry gets a runner up prize.

    Email 1 Typically the highest open rates at 30-50% but Chase has seen as high as 80%. Keeping the content of the welcome flow fresh with timely events like PR, news, or holiday updates. For example, the last day to order before the holidays. Especially during a global viral pandemic.

    What to do when your first email isn't opened?

    Change the subject line and send it again before sending the second email. You can change the copy a little bit if you want, but make sure you change the subject line. If a customer doesn't open the emails or purchase, make sure you still send them your campaigns.

    Email 2

    Typically sent 1-2 days after the first email, you'll want to test your own data to see what works best for your brand. At a minimum it should hit 20-40% open rate, and as high as 60%. This email should focus on the brand story, and the benefits of buying from you. Answer your customers, What's in it for me? Testimonials and quotes like "97% of our revenue comes from repeat or referral customers". Whatever your competitive advantage is, now is the time to show it.

    Typically subject lines for a second email can be things like:

    • Learn more about us
    • Here's our story
    • Why we started Company, and why people like you are glad we did
    • Level up your (sneaker/sock/cereal/podcast) game

    Email 3

    This is where to show social proof and best products. Some of the best social proof are. Typical open rates for this email are 20-35%, still strong but starting to drop. The third email should come out another 2-3 days after the second email. Some of the best ways to showcase social proof are:

    • Customer Reviews
    • Press mentions
    • Celebrity endorsements or brand mentions
    • Retail footprint

    Great subject lines can include:

    • What our customers say
    • Have you treated yourself lately
    • See why Celeb/Press Name called us (quote from them)
    • Not ready to buy online, shop in store

    If you do get some PR, don't just use that to drive the sale, use it for social proof to increase your conversion rate. It will provide a boost, but you can keep telling people about it forever.

    Email 4

    If people haven't purchased yet, get them into your community. The call to action here can be to join a Facebook group, follow on Instagram, or subscribe to a podcast on Apple. It will go out 3-4 days after email 3.

    What about when a customer does purchase?

    If they do click through to a product or start a purchase you can add them to a browse or cart abandonment email. Nothing ruins conversions and deliverability faster than spamming your customers and ending up in the social/promotions inbox.

    If you liked this, Chase and I also broke down losing and winning emails. If you didn't like this, hit me where it hurts with a 1 star review on Apple.

    submitted by /u/walkerlucas
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    5 lessons in customer awareness that are being used by successful brands for 5 decades

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 06:03 AM PST

    Schwartz, a legendary copywriter, and marketer who is still considered one of the pioneers in marketing, explained in his book "Breakthrough Advertising" about 5 different stages of awareness of customers that are used even today, five decades after the book was first published.

    When we talk about customer awareness levels, these levels are separated by psychological barriers.

    On one extreme we have indifference and on the other end, we have extreme intent and our copy and branding should address that.

    Before I show you an example of how successful companies use this framework in their design and copy, here are the 5 distinct stages of awareness:

    • Completely Unaware: Prospects have a problem that they don't fully realize and hence they are not looking for a solution.
    • Problem-Aware: Your prospect knows they have a problem and they recognize the problem immediately when told about it. But they can't connect your product with the fulfillment of that problem.
    • Solution-Aware: Your prospect knows or recognizes immediately the solution but they are not aware that your product offers that solution
    • Product-Aware: Your prospect knows about the product but isn't completely aware of what your product does, or how well it solves their problem
    • The Most Aware: Your prospect knows your product and wants to buy it. He/she is waiting for the right bargain or timing.

    Each phase of awareness requires a different framework and approach to move your potential customer from being completely unaware to the point of purchasing your product.

    Uber is an example of one of the successful brands that demonstrate how they approached their prospects at each of these phases of awareness.

    Uber's home page from 2011 (The year of launch)

    The headline used to be- "Everyone's Private Driver"

    With this vague headline and no sub-heading, you'd have imagined the type of users Uber targeted with its home page back in 2011- those who were Completely Unaware of the product or the solution.

    In 2011, people didn't even know that ride-hailing is possible using an app where drivers are willing to work as chauffeurs. They were obviously not looking for drivers online. Uber addressed these prospects by targeting an inner desire to ride a chauffeur-driven car.

    Uber's home page from 2013 (2 years after launch)

    In 2013 ride-hailing gained some popularity and people knew about the problem. However, they still needed convincing. Uber was targeting a Problem Aware group.

    Their page had multiple slides speaking to different types of users with different problems.

    In 2013 they were talking about problems- yet no mention of the Uber brand or its features.

    The problems they highlighted in their landing page were ease, affordability, safety and convenience, work while you travel, style, and global acceptance.

    Uber's home page from 2016 (5 years after launch)

    This year their landing page spoke about the solution- Get there using the app. They were clearly targeting a solution aware audience.

    No mention of the problems- take customers right away to the solution.

    On the right side of their landing page, they had a screenshot of their app where you could get started as a rider or driver. People were ready to use the solution- they just needed a push.

    Home page from 2018 (7 years after launch)

    At this point, Uber was targeting Product Aware prospects.

    People visiting their page knew what Uber was offering and how to use it. Uber just had to talk about 2 things- how to register as drivers and riders.

    They rightly assumed that people know about the solution as well as the product. So give them what they are coming for without any other distraction.

    And finally, when I looked at their home page in 2021, Uber has gone back to the product awareness stage but this time with their food delivery app.

    They are not even showing rides in the default view as they know their riders/drivers are already in Most Aware stage and they now have to push their other products to them.

    There are 2 primary learnings from these designs and copywriting approach:

    1. Psychology plays a critical role in any branding exercise. Since each company is targeting a unique audience, their copy should reflect the psychology of that primary audience without any exception.
    2. If we are to take some lessons from a large brand for our copy or branding, we have to look back to a time when they had a similar product, solution, and target audience as what we have now.

    I'm writing a series of posts using frameworks from 2 legendary marketing and copywriting books- "Breakthrough Advertising" and "The Copy Workshop Workbook" and combining them with examples from recent times. You can subscribe to my free newsletter to get updates on new posts in this series.

    submitted by /u/datameer
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    How do you scale up your startup? When I established my startup I was always wondering how can I scale it.

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 05:55 AM PST

    In the early days of my startup journey after we established and got a few customers, I was always trying to find different ways to grow it.

    Scalability is probably one of the biggest problems startups have to face and that's why a lot of them shut down.

    In order to make your startup grow, you need to make sure you have the right resources by your side like people, systems, mindset, etc.

    However, you should keep in mind that not every startup it's meant to make it big. Of course, you would say sure but that's not mine, mine will make it. Don't be stupid.

    So, for this to happen you should be prepared, make sure you're on the right track, the business is in the right phase and the people have embraced that mindset.

    Here are my tips on how you can prepare:

    1. Before you started, you should make your fundamentals as strong as possible, this means that your product/service reaches market fit and you can make small but significant improvements based on the feedback and user data from your customers.
    2. Next, you should define the largest core customers- these are the ones that not only spent the most but also are the engine for your business, the largest part of your revenue comes from their spending.
    3. Discover marketing channels with the biggest ROI potential and start testing them with a small budget.
    4. Make sure you have the funds you need to scale. Don't run out of money when you're planning to scale your business.

    Something else you should pay attention to is automation. Automate everything you can from setting up cloud storage and organization, training processes of new hires, marketing automation, payroll for rapid processing, etc.

    This may take a long time in the beginning but it will pay off at the end, since you'll be able to access data faster, hire faster, market better, and pay easier.

    You're in a marathon, but it includes many sprints. Start winning the little races and you'll create momentum! —Grand Cordone

    When it comes to marketing, it's definitely something that you should spend extra time and effort on. Because the business can't scale if nobody knows about it.

    Define what marketing channels and tactics work for your business at which of them will provide scalability.

    Experts say that word-of-mouth and direct marketing don't provide scalability like content marketing.

    Content marketing has viral potential and that's the reason why most startups choose it as a grow-hack method. Another thing startups can do is outsourcing.

    Nowadays big companies tend to do this as well, but startups are leaner to it since they can't afford a lot of services to be "in-house" like corporates. Lawyers, graphic designers, developers, etc, don't have to be in-house.

    Keep an eye on social media. Every startup especially the ones that are new on the market, is watched and examined by the world.

    Maybe you don't have the power like a big corporation to influence the social media presence, but with the right content showing to the right audience, you can provide not only growing but also surviving to your business

    I've recently come across this sentence " If you really want your business to be scalable, it must run fine by itself."

    If your business runs fine by itself that means it's growing, be happy. That's all folks, roast me in the comments and give me a few insights on how you grew your startup.

    submitted by /u/chrismatters
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    Opening Internet Cafe in 3rd world Country Advise

    Posted: 04 Feb 2021 05:14 AM PST

    Im about to open a Internet cafe , which is still very succesful in my country.

    People come there to copy or watch movies and shows, anime etc. (we dont have cinema)

    But how can i stick out and provide something special, any advise would be great.

    I wanted a gaming interent cafe but my funds are limited

    submitted by /u/maho90
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