Need help with a web app idea...

MouseMan01

Need some advice with regards to a web app idea I have. Any help would be greatly appreciated. :-)

Basically, I've created a first-draft of a web app that was initially aimed at the health/fitness/wellness industry.

The app works by taking inputs from the user eg. weight, age, sex, height, email, first name and then sending an email newsletter to their inbox based on that data. So fitness tips, nutritional tips, recipe tips etc...

After a few consultations with GDPR lawyers. I received some laughable 220€/hour quotes for 'ongoing' GDPR consultation regarding the processing of one-time-use health data.

The app would be based on the freemium model. So most users would be using it for free.

So I'm reworking the app and steering clear of the health data mine-field altogether.

Now I'm looking for other industries to market the app towards. Since the codebase and functionality is pretty much the same.

One idea is to work with a nutritionist client of mine. Take meal preferences and food preference data as inputs and then send out recipe/video tips based on the inputs.

Or maybe a similar web app marketed towards bike shops. That'd take height, fitness, riding terrain and send a newsletter with bike size, riding tips and bike purchase recommendations.

I'd love to get the opinion from some business people regarding this idea. Is there any industry I should be focusing on especially do you think? eg. finance. What other applications would this app have do you think?

Should this be a general app that people can adapt to their own uses? Or should I create multiple versions aimed at different niches eg. bike shops, nutritionists, finance industry?

Any advice, in general, would be great. Thanks.

JMR

It appears to me that what your offering is ongoing expert advice related to a particular topic, right?

Question I have is, who is creating the content, who are the experts and what are their credentials?

That will decide where you should focus your efforts, in my opinion.

There is no point directing your idea at providing financial advice to people if your area of expertise is in, bike riding to take one example you mentioned.
Your authority needs to be strong in whatever area you focus on.
The brand needs to portray that you are THE industry expert and have proven credentials to back that claim up, and that's why they need to sign up to receiving your newsletter.

As for monetising the app, not sure anybody is actually going to pay for the service unless it's very personally tailored (not automated) and that is time consuming.

Best of luck with it anyway

km991148

Don't take this the wrong way, but I fail to see what the product is (and it looks like you are a little unclear yourself).

Health data was such an integral part, buy now it can be thrown out for the sake of a few hundred?

It sounds I'm being harsh. Better to be harsh at this stage than after you have tried to get someone to build something as if you think a few hundred in up front consulting costs are bad, wait until you start paying designers, developers and the like without a concrete idea.. hope you have deep pockets.

MouseMan01

JMR wrote: »

It appears to me that what your offering is ongoing expert advice related to a particular topic, right?

Question I have is, who is creating the content, who are the experts and what are their credentials?

That will decide where you should focus your efforts, in my opinion.

Sorry. That wasn't clear.

The idea would be that clients would embed this app on their website. The client would then register on my site, edit their own personal newsletter email and access the first name and email address (to begin with) for further marketing purposes.

So for example, a bike shop would have the input form on their site. Then go to my site to configure the newsletter email and access the email addresses of people who had used the web app and received a newsletter email to their inbox.

So in otherwords, the experts are creating the content. i'm just the middleman.

MouseMan01

km991148 wrote: »

Don't take this the wrong way, but I fail to see what the product is (and it looks like you are a little unclear yourself).

Health data was such an integral part, buy now it can be thrown out for the sake of a few hundred?

It sounds I'm being harsh. Better to be harsh at this stage than after you have tried to get someone to build something as if you think a few hundred in up front consulting costs are bad, wait until you start paying designers, developers and the like without a concrete idea.. hope you have deep pockets.

Thanks.

It'd be a little more than 'a few hundred' i'm afraid. it'd be an ongoing job at the aforementioned hourly rate.

I've done most of the dev work myself. I think if i find the right target market/niche. it might actually work though.

Thanks for the advice though :-)

km991148

So if you have a product / prototype built, maybe conduct some user testing sessions?

Axwell

So your pivot seems to be an email marketing tool I can embed on my website with a form and then based on the information provided I get a specific email template sent to me.

How is this different from the myriad of CRM and email campaign tools out there - what's your USP?

MouseMan01

Axwell wrote: »

So your pivot seems to be an email marketing tool I can embed on my website with a form and then based on the information provided I get a specific email template sent to me.

How is this different from the myriad of CRM and email campaign tools out there - what's your USP?

Thanks Axwell.

The USP is basically hyper-targeting by niche. So nutritionists could have a form input on their site specifically aimed towards the nutrition industry for example. Along with an email newsletter designed specifically to send nutritional advice. If that makes sense?

Also, it would handle segmentation differently from most CRMs. Instead of segmenting users into groups initially. Segmentation would be handled by conditional requests in the newsletter email copy. eg. if user 'likes' avocadoes 'then' send avocado recipe. To put it in non-coding parlance.

The app would be pretty much free. But i'd sell ancillary services eg. promotion, newsletter design etc...

At the moment, I'm not sure whether to design a general app where clients can create inputs for any data they wish. Or else target it individually to different niches.

Also, how would i handle it if clients started taking health data through the app if i went with the general solution?

Thanks for taking the time.

MouseMan01

km991148 wrote: »

So if you have a product / prototype built, maybe conduct some user testing sessions?

Thanks km991148,

I'll use amazon's mechanical turk for initial user testing. But I'll need to sort out any GDPR issues beforehand.

myNewName

Email marketing softwares also provide very detailed reports on open rates, etc for the clients. Will you be providing these to?

km991148

MouseMan01 wrote: »

Thanks km991148,

I'll use amazon's mechanical turk for initial user testing. But I'll need to sort out any GDPR issues beforehand.

Sorry, I didn't been test the software, I meant test with business owners. Validate that your product has features that have a place on the market. Unless I'm confused?

MouseMan01

myNewName wrote: »

Email marketing softwares also provide very detailed reports on open rates, etc for the clients. Will you be providing these to?

well, it wouldn't really be email marketing software - as in a mailchimp clone - or anything like that.

it would just be used to collect subscribers email and names. You would then export those details to an email marketing app that you could use for ongoing marketing purposes and would take care of open rate stats etc...

The purpose of the tool would be as follows...

1) Convert website visitors into clients. (prospects->leads).
2) Get email addresses of prospects for ongoing marketing purposes.
3) Gain backlinks from other websites in the chosen niche for SEO purposes.
4) Raise the profile of the website through Social Media, Blog outreach, Online Media.
5) Increase Session Time / Time on Site
6) Increase brand awareness / establish thought leadership

That's the idea anyway...

I'm just looking for the proper niche to market it to...

MouseMan01

km991148 wrote: »

Sorry, I didn't been test the software, I meant test with business owners. Validate that your product has features that have a place on the market. Unless I'm confused?

Not confused at all km991148. Valid point.

In fact if you know anyone with a site that gets at least 100 users / day and has a social media following with reasonable engagement. And could see a variation of the tool working for their industry. I can send on screenshots no problem.

I'd let them have it for free, design them a branded newsletter and input form. Then have them test it on their website before they'd decided whether they wanted to roll it out on their live site or not.

PM me if anyone is interested :-)

beauf

Registering users and then communicating with then with email, or through the app or website. Isn't that just what all apps and business's do. I register for a job site and it sends relevent jobs. Etc.

I don't see what your doing that is different to what every one else does.

I've seen a few of these lately that offer coaching is some sort. Well being, digital career coaching, it tech coaching, project management coaching. They want to replace a person giving advice. They seem to think they can replace people with templates. Thus far all I've seen is generic advice. So generic to be useless.

Maybe I'm not getting what this idea is.

MouseMan01

beauf wrote: »

Registering users and then communicating with then with email, or through the app or website. Isn't that just what all apps and business's do. I register for a job site and it sends relevent jobs. Etc.

I don't see what your doing that is different to what every one else does.

I've seen a few of these lately that offer coaching is some sort. Well being, digital career coaching, it tech coaching, project management coaching. They want to replace a person giving advice. They seem to think they can replace people with templates. Thus far all I've seen is generic advice. So generic to be useless.

Maybe I'm not getting what this idea is.

Thanks beauf.

It's basically just a way of adding value/sharing expertise in exchange for an email address.

The advice will only be as good as the questions asked, and the expertise/knowledge of the client who is sharing the info.

You're right. A tool like this can't replace a person-to-person consultation. But not everyone is ready for that straight away. This is just the first step with that eventual goal in mind.

km991148

MouseMan01 wrote: »

Not confused at all km991148. Valid point.

In fact if you know anyone with a site that gets at least 100 users / day and has a social media following with reasonable engagement. And could see a variation of the tool working for their industry. I can send on screenshots no problem.

If the site has 100 users per day and social media engagement - then where does your product fit it?

This sounds like there are a list of people lining up to pick holes in your idea! But I think if it's hard to explain in a way that people understand then there is something not quite right.

Lets come at this another way - who would your competitors be? What problem will your idea solve? Who would be an example of some ideal customers?

beauf

MouseMan01 wrote: »

...This is just the first step with that eventual goal in mind.

That's not realistic.

Even on a very basic level you are trying to productise something which is already basic functionality in most systems or can be thrown together by developer with little effort.

I've seen webinars of people throwing things like this together using powerapps and power automate in 15-30 mins.

YellowLead

MouseMan01 wrote: »

Also, it would handle segmentation differently from most CRMs. Instead of segmenting users into groups initially. Segmentation would be handled by conditional requests in the newsletter email copy. eg. if user 'likes' avocadoes 'then' send avocado recipe. To put it in non-coding parlance.

The app would be pretty much free. But i'd sell ancillary services eg. promotion, newsletter design etc...

At the moment, I'm not sure whether to design a general app where clients can create inputs for any data they wish. Or else target it individually to different niches.

Thanks for taking the time.

Hi OP,
Kudos on your idea and for getting going with all of this. Have to play devils advocate though - CRMs already do this (targeting to specific niches eg. Somebody likes x content send x newsletter), so still not sure what you are offering that is new.
It sounds like you have your head screwed on from a digital marketing perspective - would you not just offer consultancy if you are looking to set up your own business, and forget about the app?

beauf

That's a good point. I know a few of my favourite shareware developers eventually all went open source, and moved into consultancy and contracting instead as a better work/life balance.

Also just because others have has done something similar doesn't mean you can't carve out a bit of that pie by being better, more attractive, or simply local and on site.

A lot of my contract gigs were because they wanted someone local and on site.

Another idea is team up with someone who has experience in selling and marketing in this space.

Axwell

MouseMan01 wrote: »

Thanks Axwell.

The USP is basically hyper-targeting by niche. So nutritionists could have a form input on their site specifically aimed towards the nutrition industry for example. Along with an email newsletter designed specifically to send nutritional advice. If that makes sense?

Also, it would handle segmentation differently from most CRMs. Instead of segmenting users into groups initially. Segmentation would be handled by conditional requests in the newsletter email copy. eg. if user 'likes' avocadoes 'then' send avocado recipe. To put it in non-coding parlance.

The app would be pretty much free. But i'd sell ancillary services eg. promotion, newsletter design etc...

At the moment, I'm not sure whether to design a general app where clients can create inputs for any data they wish. Or else target it individually to different niches.

Also, how would i handle it if clients started taking health data through the app if i went with the general solution?

Thanks for taking the time.

I have not seen anything in this reply or the ones following that makes your offering unique. There are plenty of CRM and mail marketing tools that will let the user gives some information by a form and then based on their choices relevant information is sent back.

Unless I am missing something your client is just linking up choices made on the form by the user with a particular campaign. Like your example, if the user likes avocados and greens send them this - if they prefer peppers and coloured veg send them this.

Regardless of the USP be careful you aren't just trying to shoehorn what you have into something else that maybe isn't needed. Just because the original idea was shelved and you have the codebase sitting there doesn't mean there is a need for what you are pivoting for and just by tweaking it that lots of people will want to use it. There has to be a need, you have to do the market research to determine that need exists, trial with people, get feedback, improve it and repeat.

I haven't seen any mention of any of that, just a pivot from what you were doing to tweaking it and aiming it at a different market and you are indecisive about what way to deliver it so it doesn't seem to be fully thought out.

You clearly have the skills to develop it but the business side of things, market research and a path from development to launch don't seem to be in place yet.

If you had a definite plan of what the product would do and how it would be delivered then you could easily go to business owners (the nutritionist, a bike shop etc) in particular niches and ask if they would spare a few minutes to do a survey. The results of which would give you a clear indication of the features people want, what they don't and what current solutions do well and what they don't. Then at least you can build your product with that information to hand, as right now it seems you are just building it based on your own opinion and as you aren't the target market its all on assumption rather than data.

ironclaw

I think where you will struggle with this is user adoption. Big companies do this already via their own CRMs (We develop apps for over 20 CRMs and live chat tools) and smaller companies, like mom and pop bike shops, won't care to do it. You'll fall smack in the middle between those that have the money to spend, and will spend it elsewhere with highly integrated systems, and those with no money but potentially the interest.

You'd probably have more success making an absolutely foolproof marketing tool for small business (Think ClickFunnels or off the shelf roadmaps), but the flip side is that if someone can't use Mailchimp (By far the most user friendly out there) then they aren't going to be signing up any time soon.

That said, there are reports that every site in the world (Big claim, I know) will have some form of live chat in the next 5 to 10 years, so if you software could be adopted into that niche e.g. Chatbots, to give a very personal experience, then you may be on to something.

MouseMan01

In general I'd say my biggest issue with my digital career is that I'm a builder not a grower. I enjoy building solutions but not really growing them so much.

The curse of the technically minded. Added to that the fact that I don't have a partner. Someone who enjoys growing ideas.

I also have a habit of putting the solution before the problem.

I worked as a dev for a multinational for a year. Hated every minute of it.

Still though. My philosophy is experiment, measure, iterate.

Generally though I love SaaS. Even though many will tell you that it's a losing proposition from day 1. And that even the "successful" SaaS operators have never actually turned a profit eg. Uber, twitter, airbnb.

ironclaw

I have a similar mindset to yourself, I'm a dev first, entrepreneur second.

The challenge with being a dev is that you can usually create a solution pretty quick for nearly any problem, but we usually don't think of the market first. A solution is valueless without a market.

In terms of SaaS, the winning formula (to me) is B2B. If you can save a business money, or help them do business easier, you will make money. B2C is a no-go without viral traction and/or VC money, you simply won't be able to scale fast enough.

I'd recommend you ignore SaaS companies like Uber, Airbnb etc. They are not realistic models for the average developer or company, they are literal unicorns. Your chances of replicating their success is one in a billion.

Axwell

I think chatbots is already something thats done to death, the amount of them I have seen popping up over the last year with various levels of AI and business interaction. If you were going to go down that route you really need to again do the research, look at the market and see where the demand is as chatbots alone is too broad.

This really is just another example of what I said previously and you pretty much verified what I said in your reply. If you want to develop something that actually becomes a product with a purpose and users and growth you probably need a partner who has the idea or at least the passion to drive and grow the business.

Like IronClaw said B2B is probably a better path for the lone developer and automation is always a good area to look at. If you can code something that can be automated and save time and money then a business is interested.

Also the process of converting a visitor to a website from a cold lead to a warm one through automation, email templates etc that someone real can then follow up with and convert to a sale.

Even just doing some basic calculations based on provided data and then giving suggestions to the user, basically helping by providing information and knowledge in such a way it helps with the sale.

It's literally a case of sitting with a business and seeing what are the pain points and what you could do to help or automate part of their processes. Theres infinite ways to be innovative and come up with solutions to their problems if you are a good coder and good at coming up with solutions to problems. Just a bit of creative thinking maybe from the business side of things on what might help them generate more leads and sales if its not automating an existing process.

ironclaw

Another really strong area to consider is plugins and app stores. Most companies, even non-traditional ones like HubSpot, have very strong app stores and businesses will throw money at you to solve problems. Your marketing budget is also slashed as they actively drive people to their app stores and their success teams will gladly promote you to close sales and retain customers.

Simply open their community forums and trawl the questions, I guarantee you will find a gap you can plug and make money if your app solved it.

That said, I'd avoid mature stores like the Shopify app store. It's too mature at this point and you have a huge number of very strong apps and the market cohort is predominately individuals trying to start a business on a shoestring.

Aim for developing app stores with companies that offer a reasonably high barrier to entry e.g. Price, and you can really get motoring fast.