Free - Too Good To Be True!!!

happyeveryday

Hi, about to launch a new website....yet another special offers website, with a few small differences to the usual stuff been launched on a weekly basis at present, primarily it is completely free for businesses to list their deals on the site. It's fully self managed, ie businesses register, upload their business details and list their offers. For the users, it's a very simple location based and category search functionality. There is no registration/printing vouchers/endless clicks etc.

Anyway I digress, the issue after several weeks of meeting SME owners and putting the idea out there to generate content, is that the reaction is either a very sceptical one, or they show great enthusiasm at the time of meeting but don't actual follow through with registering etc. We were originally hoping to sign up 50/80 businesses a week at the start until such time as word spread about the idea. As I know it'll be asked, we eventually hope to generate advertising revenue from the site. We don't expect to be retiring on this idea with millions, only working 2 days a week at present so have plenty of spare time.

So can anyone advise as to how to generate the content/business sign up at a better rate then 22 businesses after 3 weeks. Putting up offers without the businesses permission is not an option, for 2 reasons, one we can't guarantee it's availability and secondly annoying business owners who may have different preferences. We don't want to launch with low content, resulting in users not finding relevant offers and thus not returning to the site.

Thanks....
Not disheartened about the idea just lost in cold calling and door stepping!

nellyshark

Would say creating a page on twitter and facebook and contacting businesses that way rather than cold calling be an option? Might generate some extra anyways (I think/hope)

Edit: I see you already have facebook and twitter

And visit your local enterprise board, where you could meet some startups who would surely have some startup promos going on

tonyagrey

Whats the name of the site?

subway

tonyagrey wrote: »

Whats the name of the site?

fairly obvious?

subway

in terms of the business, if a company can advertise for free, why would they pay to advertise?

happyeveryday

Subway - we're not expecting SME's to advertise, more major brands etc...a hint of cynicism from your two replies.

Mods you can edit if necessary, link thatsagreatoffer.com

nellyshark - have the facebook and twitter as our forum/connection to users, but using it to push the idea to businesses seems like just another form of spam, which i don't like.

tricky D

Your focus seems off. From looking at the homepage you're not addressing the 'what's in it for me?' for visitors. Worse still is you're certainly not doing it for potential signups. There's lots of other sites doing this, most of them badly and late to market against established brands, so why choose you?

The design also needs a lot of work e.g. the calls to action should be orange, not the business names and categories. You also have zero SEO. There's a helluva lot more that could be improved. Head over to the Design forum for a more in depth review.

arctictree

Looked at your website. Chose 'Bray' and 'Food & Groceries'. Search returned nothing. Then I decided to expand my search by leaving the location blank. I then get an error. Why do I have to put in a location? I might want to drive to where the nearest special offer is....

Dublin_Gunner

I'm going to be brutally honest.

The website looks cheap, and I see no reason to click any of the links. Upon opening, I scanned quickly, and immediately closed the page.

It reminds me of those holding pages you get when you type an address in wrong.

It needs images, it needs focus, it needs brands on the front page.


Your site is 'thatsagreatoffer' - well, what is a great offer? I need to know what is a great offer as soon as your page opens.

Sorry if I'm a bit harsh..

happyeveryday

Cheers for the replies, not what i expected but may well explain why we are struggling to get businesses involved.

Tricky D & Dublin_Gunner, thanks for the honesty, the intention was to keep the design simple so the site preformed well on mobile browsers, without having to produce a separate .mobi site for the moment. On the SEO, hands up completely messed up here and are trying to correct it fast. All of this is probably better suited to the web design forum.

Arctictree, as i said in my original post, "we don't want to launch with low content, resulting in users not finding relevant offers and thus not returning to the site", if you enter ireland, dublin or wicklow, you'll see whats happening. However it seems there are more fundamental flaws then this from the reaction here.

flash harry

hey happy...

well done first of all, just getting off your arse and trying something deserves respect IMHO.

The biggest problem here, I believe, is companies and people tend to value a product based on what they pay. In your case because it is free, its valued very lowly (perception wise anyway).

I helped with an online start-up about a year ago. Slightly different to yours but some similar problems. Here's what we did:

We took ALL the work away from the content provider, in your case phone them up, get them to give you the offer, and put it up on site - just get tehm to agree it.

Tell them its free FOR NOW - if they think they can come back whenever they want and put an offer up, they'll wait "to see how it goes" - as you correctly say if there is no content on startup, it will go no where.

Use examples in each sector/area so you can say - hey Insomnia wanna sign up like Starbucks did, its free till Tuesday and you wont have to do anything but okay the finished offer

You will spend way more time on each offer provider but will convert a much larger %

Hope something there helps

FH

CathalDublin

I think this site could definitely work if done correctly and you get enough business' on board.
The Location box I agree with the other comment, you shouldnt have to fill it in, or better yet if it was a drop down with say
Dublin City and surrounding areas
Dublin North side
Dublin South side
Similar for all the large counties
Or even if there was just a drop down by county and then an advanced search which you could specify more details

Sonnenblumen

happyeveryday wrote: »

Hi, about to launch a new website....yet another special offers website, with a few small differences to the usual stuff been launched on a weekly basis at present, primarily it is completely free for businesses to list their deals on the site. It's fully self managed, ie businesses register, upload their business details and list their offers. For the users, it's a very simple location based and category search functionality. There is no registration/printing vouchers/endless clicks etc.

Anyway I digress, the issue after several weeks of meeting SME owners and putting the idea out there to generate content, is that the reaction is either a very sceptical one, or they show great enthusiasm at the time of meeting but don't actual follow through with registering etc. We were originally hoping to sign up 50/80 businesses a week at the start until such time as word spread about the idea. As I know it'll be asked, we eventually hope to generate advertising revenue from the site. We don't expect to be retiring on this idea with millions, only working 2 days a week at present so have plenty of spare time.

So can anyone advise as to how to generate the content/business sign up at a better rate then 22 businesses after 3 weeks. Putting up offers without the businesses permission is not an option, for 2 reasons, one we can't guarantee it's availability and secondly annoying business owners who may have different preferences. We don't want to launch with low content, resulting in users not finding relevant offers and thus not returning to the site.

Thanks....
Not disheartened about the idea just lost in cold calling and door stepping!

OP - good idea and try and avoid incurring any advertising spnds/costs initially by getting involved with business communities, groups, networks.

Broadcast your offer details on central websites and publish details in member monthly publications. Another group to target is sites/directories offering links, the sooner you get shouting, the sooner you'll get sign ups.

The alternative 'door knocking' will be very slow and tedious. Go for fast volume. You might also pick up some on boards.ie?

Best of luck - novel idea!

happyeveryday

Cheers Sonnenblumen and flash harry, was almost ready to throw in the towel. resulting from the harsh but realistic comments. I have decided to change a few aspects and give it a real shot.
Changed the strategy regarding talking to businesses and getting more positive feedback, it's funny how a phrase or a positive message can change the whole attitude of a pitch.
Again thanks for all the comments, good, harsh or otherwise.

Dublin_Gunner

happyeveryday wrote: »

Cheers Sonnenblumen and flash harry, was almost ready to throw in the towel. resulting from the harsh but realistic comments. I have decided to change a few aspects and give it a real shot.
Changed the strategy regarding talking to businesses and getting more positive feedback, it's funny how a phrase or a positive message can change the whole attitude of a pitch.
Again thanks for all the comments, good, harsh or otherwise.

Don't give up, please - that was in no way my intention for my harsh-ish comments above.

I just think maybe you need to attack the simple, clean design in a classier fashion.

happyeveryday

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Don't give up, please - that was in no way my intention for my harsh-ish comments above.

I just think maybe you need to attack the simple, clean design in a classier fashion.

No they were fair comments, opened my eyes to what others were seeing, especially business owners.

tricky D

Sure, many comments seem harsh. You made an effort, put yourself in the pit for the first time and got a bit of a mauling. What are you going to do? Learn or give up? Bear in mind most of the criticism you've got here is pretty standard.

Don't give up, if anything you need some more criticism on the design front.