Nov 26, 2008 Posted by alan jones on Nov 26, 2008 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Grüv me and the importance of a clear consumer benefit

John Biggs over at CrunchGear today neatly skewers music startup Grüvme.com and in the process talks about exactly why early-stage tech startups need the help of people like me.

GruvMe must fail. In a world of good ideas, it is a me-too media service that can’t even get its core business model – selling the songs people want to listen to – right. These clowns can’t even explain themselves in their FAQ, let alone produce a service worth or time and/or effort.

John has a lot of other criticisms of the product itself, but he points out exactly why your core consumer benefit must be front-and-center in everything you do online and off. Here are the big errors Grüvme has made:

Don’t mistake the user interface of your site for your core consumer benefit. Most new visitors will not understand what your service is about simply by gazing at the interface. Most users will be confused/annoyed enough to click off and never come back.

Don’t mistake a shiny photo of a happy person for your core consumer benefit. You might be excited that you found the perfect photo on a free stock photo library and your cousin the graphic designer was able to work it into your homepage design, but it’s not telling the visitor anything about why they should stick around. Looking at happy customers does not convert visitors to happy customers.

Don’t bury your core consumer benefit in a FAQ or Learn More section. Most casual visitors will never get that far — or spend that much time — on your site.

How can you make sure I don’t make the same mistake as Grüvme?

1. Build your service so you have a separate version of the homepage for new visitors, another for returning visitors that arent logged in, and a third version for loggedin users. Each audience has its own needs and won’t play nicely with the others.
2. Make sure you have your consumer benefit explained in 50 words or less.
3. Explain it in words. They are universal. Even searchbots understand them.
4. Use simple images to enhance, not replace.
5. You may use demo videos, but in addition to words. Keep demo videos very short and get to the point in the very first second of the clip.
6. Don’t force users to sign up before using your service (as Grüvme does.) Let them use a limited feature set without registration.
7. Get an expert (like, say, me) to help you do this as best as possible.

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