We’re quite a few months along, so how are things going with Yotpo?
Development is going ok and we are starting to establish our community. Finally, I have the time to sit down and strategically map out all those great sales ideas we pitched during the seed presentation. But since our presentation, we have learned a lot and adjusted & tweaked our plans accordingly. With plans that are changing rapidly, it is very important to analyze & rethink the ways of our execution strategy. We need to know what we need to accomplish in the next 3-4 months.
When mapping out our strategy I focus on two major factors:
- CAC or Customer Acquisition Cost: how much will gaining a customer cost. (For you Lean entrepreneurs take into consideration our evaluation of the Lifetime Value of a customer is premature).
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- Availability: how fast can we contact the relevant position in company and how fast he/she can make the purchase decision.
I need to find a strategy that lowers the CAC & increases availability.
Everybody agrees that the “promised land” is when users enter your site, download your product and pay you through the web system. The big question we are facing now is how to get there? Meanwhile we need to think on some alternative ways to generate revenue.Excuse the analogy but like Moses, I need to bring people to the promised land. This is easy to understand, but getting there is much harder to figure out.
In the meantime, I needed to find alternative ways to generate revenue.With that in mind, here are some potential opportunities and short analysis (after an intense research) on every idea. Keep in mind, our main audience is divided into two: E-commerce and mobile startups:
Conventions
There are couples of US and European conventions surrounding the e-commerce world, including IRCE, Shop.org and Expo. I contacted a rep from each one of the conventions to get some information about the event itself. Based on the information gathered from conference representatives, here is what I found
Pros:
Cons:
Business Collaboration
When I consult business geniuses, they always suggest collaboration as their favored method. I have to admit that there is something really interesting with smart collaboration.
The principal of business collaboration would partner us with a company that has an already-established customer base. That company would then use our technology.
For Yotpo, I think we could potentially collaborate with e-commerce platforms who are always looking for new technology to improve their platform. Lucky for us, most of the major providers have a built in partner program. Some of the programs are more convenient than others but all of them are based on the same principal.
Another collaboration we are considering is partnering with m-commerce applications. These m-commerce applications could use Yotpo to enhance their customer experience & revolutionize the way their users consume reviews.
Pros:
Cons:
Business collaborations take time, a lot of time. First you need to be introduced with a relevant position inside the company, then you need to convince the businessman (who gets probably 10 similar calls) that your system will make their customer’s life better. Based on the estimates of experienced founders, this takes around 2-4 meeting and dozens of phone calls.
When you’re finished convincing the big man inside the company, the hardest part is still to come. Now you have to figure out how to integrate yout product inside their system. For e-commerce platforms with plugins it’s a bit easier but still a lot of work and time.
I have spoken with a couple of entrepreneurs who were disappointed from the revenue that they generated from business collaboration. So before going through the entire process, take time to consider how much the e-commerce platform will help you? Will they be a part of the sales cycle? Is it in their best interest to help you?
Sales team/VP/Outsource:
A lot of startups, founders and investors believe in bringing on a VP of sales very soon. Looking at the other side of the story, many founders and investors bring a VP of sales when they have established their target market and have gone through a first round of sales on their own.
The VP of sales is the first of your company to deal only with sales. He/she needs to be the first suit in the office.
Pros:
Cons:
Blogging/Inbound Marketing
I know, I wrote too much about blogging at Yotpo, sorry about that. But if you want conversions, you must have traffic – it’s a simple logic.
Pros:
Cons:
To conclude these are the main methods we are exploring and by no means the only way of doing things. As we progress, we will begin to better understand what works best for us & our methods may change. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them…
Story byTomer Tagrin
Tomer is a young and highly motivated entrepreneur. The co-founder of Yotpo- Social Reviews platform for e-commerce websites.Tomer is an Int(show all)Tomer is a young and highly motivated entrepreneur. The co-founder of Yotpo-Social Reviewsplatform for e-commerce websites.Tomer is an Internet junkie, a dog person and a computer geek. Follow@Yotpo
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