this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
1 points (100.0% liked)

Entrepreneur

0 readers
1 users here now

Rules

Please feel free to provide evidence-based best practices, share a micro-victory, discuss strategy and concepts with a frame work, ask for feedback, and create professional conversation. Treat every post as if you're at work and representing the best version of yourself.

founded 10 months ago
MODERATORS
 

Hello Fellow Entrepreneurs,

I made https://writeitapp.co.uk - I soft launched two years ago... What a wild journey it has been- From getting blackmailed by devs to being scammed by marketing firms. At the launch we got over 2000 organic users and over 1000 stories posted - within the first few months. After bugs + being totally scammed by a marketing company I hit the drawing board again to revamp the app. Now the app has a totally new design, faster, less bugs and has more features like the ability to listen to stories.
I may be crazy, but I genuinely believe in my product...So Im sticking with it. Recently hit a brick wall, thinking its too much of a mountain for me to climb...How do I get users on board without going completely broke? That's the real question. The App is free so marketing is a cost with no financial kickback.

It is however a mountain I will continue to climb, yes things have gone against me but I have spent too many years of working hard to even make the app a real thing.
Would love some feedback and some advice on how to kickstart a community on the platform, and how I should go about getting real downloads going!

That's my brick wall. How!

Thanks guys

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] dontwantanaccountata@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

If what Im gathering from the website is correct the app is for sharing actual stories - aka long narratives and written stories about events that have happened in people’s lives. I know one of the other comments said they don’t see the value since they can share their story on any social media site, so I think there’s a disconnect in the message between “story” as in a written story or “story” as in IG/TiKTok 24hour stories. The only thing on the website that got me to understand you mean literal stories is the pictures which all feature long post.

Anyways that being said I think you’re actually much more niche than 18-30yo, and you should be targeting people who are interested in story telling, creative writing, blogging, maybe even theater.. basically people who value the art of sharing and reading long content post. With this you need to figure out how you can make your website & marketing strategies more efficiently target and appeal to these people. From there you can find places these people hang out, maybe book clubs for younger people, flyers in coffee shops and libraries, etc. Maybe also micro influencers in your city, people who have their own blogs - fashion, food, travel, parenting - since if they get on you can pitch it as another way for them to tell their story/grow their brand, and if they get their viewers on they will also enjoy sharing/reading stories.

Unfortunately targeting a university as a whole won’t do you any good. College students who love tiktok/ig/twitter aren’t your market - they’d rather tell their “story” verbally on their 24hr story as a “rant” or in short hand writing as a post, and not take the time to write out and read their friends. However, if you want to target a specific group at university I’d recommend finding book clubs, creative writing clubs, maybe school newspaper team, and pitch to them to get on the app and use it. Again value proposition that it’s for people like them with their interest.

Long story long you just really need to hone in to your target audience and define them as specifically as you can, and then it’ll be more clear how you get them to join. Yes your goal can be to eventually be to be used by all young people across the globe, but you need to start smaller and be super specific so you can get a strong foundation which you can continue to build on. I think your ideas of having contest are great and would engage your target audience, but again you really need to understand who your target audience really is, who would use the app, and who will take the time to share these stories. Because as someone 18-30 it’s definitely not everyone who’s 18-30.

But your users are there, you’ve had organic growth, there is a market and i’m sure you’ll find it! i believe in you! keep hustling and get it done!

(i know it’s such a long response i’m in a similar boat building and marketing a niche social media app so ive been learning a lot in the process)