#77 - Why Did You Buy?

#77

                            November 23, 2020

                #77 - Why Did You Buy?

                        Customer research findings from Early Bird Plus customers, app and reading challenge updates, and looking ahead to a new recommendations page!

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#77 | 23 November 2020

Why did you buy?

This was one of the things I wanted to figure out during my latest round of customer research.

I reached out to a random selection of people who had recently pre-ordered the Plus plan.

Turns out that most people didn't pay much attention to what exactly was on offer.

They just want an ad-free, non-Amazon-affiliated, Goodreads alternative to survive. The best way for that to happen, they concluded, is if they put some money into the company.

Early Bird pricing ends on Jan 1st!

Is this initial support enough to eventually build a sustainable, profitable, long-term business? Should we be concerned?

One way that we're thinking about these results is this: okay, people might pre-order now just because they want to support us. Can we honestly expect any more at this point given we're in beta and offering something which doesn't exist yet?

But, how about we make it such that after everyone's first year, they're so wowed by the product, and the extra value the paid tier brings them, that renewing will be a no-brainer? 🤞🏾😁

Last week

I remember the moment when one of our earliest beta testers texted me saying: "Hey, so I just tried to share a link to a book from the app with one of my friends, and I couldn't see a way to do so. Is this even possible?"

Back then, my answer was: "Oh, snap! Nope." 😬

But now my answer is...

"You sure can!"  😎

(Top right for the share icon in case you're not sure what I'm talking about)

There have been so many improvements to reading challenges over the last week — have you spotted them all? — but one that I'm very happy about is providing the ability to add and remove books from prompts on the prompt pages themselves! 

This week

Rob and I have got some plans cooking for the next iteration of how we provide recommendations on the website.

Watch this space! 👀

Maybe going down this path wasn't completely misguided...

What I'm reading right now

In The StoryGraph's Onboarding Reading Challenge, there's a prompt that says: Read a book that you discovered on our Community page.

I hadn't heard of Elif Shafak's 'How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division' until I saw one of my closest friends had started reading it on my Community feed!

I'll be reading it today.

Have a great week,

Nadia

P.S. If you know a friend who's an avid reader or would enjoy following along with this journey, please do forward this email to them! Thank you. :-)

Haven't tried the beta site yet? Give it a go today!

Love the beta site? Consider pre-ordering our Plus plan!

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