We have a broad-based, loosely constrained web application. Our users engage with the site in a variety of different ways for a number of reasons. That makes it difficult to take a bunch of usage information and turn it into actionable data about how to position our product.
In searching for data to form the basis for a concise statement on our site’s value proposition, we ended up in an unexpected place. We had built an invite system which was super simplistic. A user could type in an email address and include an optional message. We would email that person with an invitation to sign up to use iDoneThis (no special referral URL, just a link to http://iDoneThis.com).
It turns out that when a user invited her friend to use iDoneThis, she used the optional message, not merely to say hello, but as an opportunity to pitch her friend on using iDoneThis. Our invite system ended up containing concise statements of how users use iDoneThis, how it works for that use case, and the value they derive from it — and gives us the language to express all of that.
Turning those words into a word cloud gives macro-level view on the key concepts used by the crowd to pitch iDoneThis. Day, done, email, and track are the most commonly used words. After that, simple, send, see, work and every stand out. Finally, journal, calendar, sends, diary, and free have a good number of mentions.
- “Every” and “day” describe the temporal context of the “done” and the “email.”
- “Email” is the medium within which we work — everyone knows how to use it, so it’s “simple.” We “send” a daily email, which describes the difference between push versus pull.
- What got “done” is what’s being “track[ed]” — it’s the question for which we’re prompting a response.
- “Track[ing]” daily “done[s]” creates an object of value, a “journal”, “diary”, or “calendar” which could be used personally or for “work” that you can look back on and “see” your progress.
The prominence of words such as “really”, “like” and “love” to express the concepts above suggests that, whether for personal or professional use, iDoneThis is valuable because it’s a friendlier way to do status updates because a nagging boss isn’t involved.
Ultimately, the taglines to use are the ones that convert the best. Implementing a dead simple invite system is one of the easiest ways to seed that iterative process. Let your own customers pitch on your behalf, and see what they say.