Business Decisions: How We Chose What Product to Build

This is the first in a new series about business strategy choices we’ve made at Synap Software and how they work out. Most of these decisions are applicable to any company or startup, not only software vendors. In an old blog post I wrote a long list of what I called at the time “Best Practices” for software companies. (The post is here but is not required reading for this entry.) I promised to come back to it and explain the thought process behind each decision from the perspective of our company, so here we go.

Decision of Product Choice: Lead Management Software

There are several reasons I choose to build a small business marketing and lead management product. I’ll cover one reason here.

Reason #1: It’s What I Know

Though I promised to write this series some time ago, I was motivated to write this today after reading Phil’s Lessons Learned series. His blog is recommended reading. There is a thread running through his lessons learned series of the value of sticking with what you know and I agree with him. Whether it be the technological aspects, customer behavior, or industry metrics; sticking with what you know gives you a head start, helps you build the right thing, and keeps you interested throughout the long process.

1. Knowing lead management helps us build the right thing

   All designers and developers should read Robert Hoekman’s Designing the Obvious. The first step in his “common sense approach to web application design”, which he admits is “pretty darn obvious”, is to Know What to Build. And what better way to know what to build than to be your own subject matter expert?

   I know marketing, lead management, and workflow systems from 17 years of IT experience supporting Customer Care, Sales, and Marketing organizations. I’ve seen what works and what does not work through the eyes of users. I’ve seen users frustrated with large, long IT efforts and complex, expensive marketing and lead management software products.

   I believe that the major reason for the high rate of IT project failure is the disconnect between the builders and users of software. By “sticking with what you know”, to use Phil’s phrase, that gap between builder and user is substantially narrowed. I didn’t need to go to users and take an order only to find out that what they ordered is not what they really wanted or needed.

2. Knowledge indicates experience which indicates interest

   Another reason to pick a product area in which you have expertise is that your level of expertise probably indicates your level of interest. You built expertise from years of experience and those years devoted to the subject probably indicate some level of interest. Interest in a subject will help keep you trucking through the long hours, seemingly endless work, and sometimes lonely efforts it takes to get started.

   If I had not found small business marketing interesting I probably would never have gotten LeadsOnRails.com to a point of launch. My time and energy would have quickly been distracted into things I did find interesting.

3. I can talk about small business marketing and lead management software with others

   Step 2 of the 7 Steps to Improve Small Business Marketing is to participate in, listen to, and learn from your customers’ community. This is a lot easier and more enjoyable to do when you have your own experience and knowledge in the area.

Is small business marketing and lead management the right decision for us?

Building in a field I know is definitely the right decision. I couldn’t imagine trying to learn something new while also building a product around it. LeadsOnRails is satisfying users’ needs and expectations. I’ve been able to maintain a personal interest in the product through thick and thin.

The one area where I would like to do more is in regular and active participation in the small business marketing and lead management community. I have a plan and will share the results in a few weeks.

Subscribe

The easiest way follow along as I cover more details behind each major decision we’ve made to this point, as well as my assessment of if it was a good decision, is to subscribe to the blog feed.

CREDIT

Two recommended reads prompted today’s post. One is Phil’s Lessons Learned #1 – Stick with what you know. After reading this I realized I haven’t really explained why lead management software is something I know. I recommend you read Phil’s ongoing series on some of his recent decisions. And yes, I realize Phil’s mention to stick with what you know is in reference to technology choices (e.g. desktop vs. web), yet it is applicable across the board.

The other is Ken’s Restarting the MicroISV Challenge where he points out that he never really explained his project idea which, again, made me realize I never really explained much about our company beyond the “about us” and short biographies on our company pages.

Secrets of Success

Every interview in Jessica Livingston’s Founders at Work is full of interesting perspectives from successful people who had no guarantees when they started and probably claim to have no secrets of success. This is not a “success” book or a “how to” book, but simply an interesting book. Yet a read between-the-lines exposes secrets of success.

They are summed up in the interview with Paul Buchheit, creator of GMail and Adsense. Here is Buchheit on the idea for and the first implementation of Adsense:

”It was an idea that we had talked about for a long time, but there was this belief that it wouldn’t work. But it seemed like an interesting problem, so one evening I implemented this content-targeting system, just sort of as a side project, not because I was supposed to. And it turned out to work.”

Two Secrets of Success

In this quote we see two secrets of success common among folks that rise to the top of their industry:

1. They work on what they find interesting. Not just on what they are told to or supposed to.
2. They pursue ideas not generally expected to work.

Success and the micro-ISV

I suspect many micro-ISV owners have these traits and see themselves in this approach. To micro-ISV owners, it’s no secret.

In fact there are not really any “secrets of success” – it’s a simple risk-reward formula. Yet if this JoelOnSoftware thread is any indication, it is one that is too easily forgotten.

Success and the Employee

Work on what other people assign to you and you will likely complete the task, but will not find career-changing success. Work on something you find interesting and others find unlikely, and your chances for breakout success are increased almost immeasurably.

This advice is for everyone – not just company founders. For example, Paul Buchheit who I quoted above, is not a Google founder but an employee who practices these non-secret but too easily forgotten “secrets of success”.

Are Strange Search Results Worth Analysis?

Google’s Webmaster Tools

I regularly do analysis on this blog’s top search phrases as reported on the Google Webmaster Tools “Top Search Queries” report for SynapSoftware.com. I look for patterns such as how much, if any, impact does the post title, post word count, frequency of search terms, outbound links, inbound links, and other items have on the search result ranking. I’ll share this week’s analysis later on.

Strange Phrases

For now, I wanted to share a strange phrase that popped up on this week’s report and ask for input on why. I get first or second page results for phrases that do matter to this blog (e.g. “manage leads”, “small busines sales and marketing”, etc) but our results in #1 slots are always strange phrases. Now, some of this has to do with lower result volume for strange phrases, but we are still talking millions of results returned.

For example, result #6, with an average top position of 5 is “mild discomfort times now”. Today this blog is returned as the #1 result out of 2.2 million for that strange and rather useless search phrase.

This search phrase really does me, and probably the searcher, little good.
Maybe this phrase is not even significant because it is so irrelevant to the searches I am really going after. But hoping to learn more about optimizing for Google search, here is the thought process I went through for this result.

1. The phrase “mild discomfort times now” is not found in the posts that come up as the Google search result. So it is not a case of an exact phrase match pushing up to top results. Check that off the list.
2. The one blog entry where I talked about mild discomfort is in a review of the Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard that I have and love. The phrase “mild discomfort” appears one time in the post. Here is the sentence: “Repetitive stress injuries caused from long and continuous rounds or working at the computer can result in damage ranging from mild discomfort to extreme damage requiring surgery.”
3. That blog entry is 371 words long. The search phrase appears no times, the word “mild” appears once, and “discomfort” appears twice. The #1 search result ranking of this strange search phrase is not a result of a strong semantical match. Check that off the list.
4. Here’s the kicker. That blog entry is not even the result returned by Google. Instead it is the “category/productivity” page of the blog.

Each Blog Post Does Not Stand Alone – The Importance of Categories

Here’s my main question then. It’s a simple question with maybe not a simple answer – there’s a whole industry around Gooogle SEO after all!

Q: Why does the only posting that contains each of the target words not rank at all in search results while the broader view of all the posts in that category does?

A: There are other articles in the same category that have a few mentions of “time” and “now”. They are in completely different context and I would not have thought that 2 more mentions of a word would make such a difference. Still, my guess is that these 2 extra mentions of “time” and “now” helped put the larger scope fo “category/productivity” on the map while the post standing alone is nowhere to be found. Do you think that’s it?

But Then Ratio of Search Words Occurance To Word Count Had No Effect

The single blog post has a higher ratio of search words to content than the broader cagegories page does. So, in this case that measure was not a predictor of search results. If this is so, then for this blog proper categorization of like posts is more important than any particular post.

Do you find categories important in your blog’s SEO efforts?

Blog Entry SEO Checklist

_ Title uses common words. For example, I have Google rank #3 on “Capture Leads from a Website”. I wish I had written it as “Get Leads from my website” or something with more common wording. I would have been competing with 22 million results vs. just 9 milliong for “Capture Leads…”, but I would have had more impressions. The only way to know, is to post another blog entry – this time using “Get Leads…” and see what happens. When I have occasion to do so, I will.

_ Frequency of target phrase or words.

_ The Importance of Blog Categories for SEO.

I regularly do some analysis on this blog’s top search phrases as reported on my Google Webmaster Tools “Top Search Queries” report. I look for patterns such as how much, if any, impact does the post title, post word count, frequency of search terms, outbound links, and other items have on the search result ranking. I’ll share this week’s spreadsheet analysis of this blog’s search results later in the week.

For now, I wanted to share a strange phrase that popped up on this blog’s “Top Search Queries” report. Result #6, with an average top position of 5 is “mild discomfort times now”. Today my site is returned as the #1 result out of 2.2 million for that strange and rather useless search phrase.

This search phrase really does me, and probably the searcher, little good. But hoping to learn more and more about optimizing for Google search, here is the thought process I went through for this result.

The phrase “mild discomfort times now” is no where in the posts that come up as the Google search result. So it is not a case of an exact phrase match pushing up to top results. Check that off the list.

The one blog entry where I talked about mild discomfort is in a review of the Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard that I have and love. The phrase “mild discomfort” appears only one time in the post. Here is the sentence: “Repetitive stress injuries caused from long and continuous rounds or working at the computer can result in damage ranging from mild discomfort to extreme damage requiring surgery.” That blog entry is 371 words long. The search phrase appears no times, the word “mild” appears once, and “discomfort” appears twice. The #1 search result ranking of this admitantly strange search phrase is not a result of a strong semantical match. Check that off the list.

Here’s the kicker. Synap Software blog is the top result (and the #2 subresult), but it is not this blog entry that is returned. Instead it is the “category/productivity” page of my blog and the August 2006/month page of my blog.

In other words, the article that has the keywords in it does not rank while the aggregated category and monthly archive containing the article does.

Anyone know why? Is it worth trying to understand why? Or is this such an anomalous phrase that it presents little useful analytic value?

4 Ways for People to Contact Us

Our work thrives on contact and feedback from users so I have four ways for people to contact us. If you are considering adding contact methods, here is my anecdotal experience of what contact methods are most popular and two questions for you.

In order of most used contact method to least used contact method by LeadsOnRails demo and trial users:

1. Contact/Feedback form built into the product
2. Email
3. Campfire chat room here
4. Phone: (303-683-3522)

I think it’s no coincidence that the two asynchronous contact methods are the most popular choices. This could be for any number of reasons. Maybe there is not a need for immediate contact, or fear that any live contact will turn into a sales call, or that those top two contact methods are just simply the most convenient.

Do you find the same preference for online contact forms and email or do people contact you more directly? Am I missing any important contact methods?

Feedburner SmartFeed

We have several articles showing you how to use RSS and Digg and other tools to publicize your blog and to make it as easy as possible for people to find you – obviously and important part of your small business marketing plan.

Here’s another quick tip. Use FeedBurner (you are using FeedBurner, right?) and set up your blog to use SmartFeed. Described by the FeedBurner folks as an option that “translates your feed on-the-fly into a format (RSS or Atom) compatible with your visitors’ feed reader application”, this lets you have one feed link and is just another small step you can take to make it easier for people to subscribe. Something to help with ”#3-Be Heard” on the list of 7 Steps to Improved Small Business Marketing.

Add This

If you have not yet checked out AddThis.com, take a look. Addthis is self-described as “Simple and recognizable widgets to help your visitors save and promote your website or blog to the social bookmarking and feed reader services!”.

I would have just said that you can replace this:

with this:

When someone clicks the “Bookmark” button, they are brought to the above list of options. Keeps your blog nice and clean but still offer your readers their favorite social bookmarking options.

How to Add This

When you sign up for an account, AddThis will create the button code for you based on how you are using it (website, blog, etc.). Simply cut and paste and you’re good to go. If you are using Typo, I’ll post a shot howto on our Rails blog.

Measurement

AddThis also has button statistics built in so you can see how many times each bookmark or feed is collected.