Ask HN: Am I doing this right (launching, press releases, blogs)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1779355

by chrisfarms • 16 years ago

44 30 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

We created our SaaS app (pacpacs.com) and initially released it as a kind of preview/trial to a select few people. We found it very hard to follow the "release early" mantra since the MVP for our service was not really that minimal, so drumming up any hype for the unfinished product was tricky.

A few days ago we opened our doors to the public and I'm now trying to get the word around.

I've started emailing relevant blogs and have put together a more formal 'press release' type page that I am linking to in my emails (https://www.pacpacs.com/press/20101007). But I'm not getting much of a response.

Is this the method most other people use in more niche industries? Should we consider paying a newswire service to run the release too?

And a longshot: are there any physical therapists on HN that might be interested in giving any feedback :)

Any feedback on the site/service/biz much appreciated!

ryanwaggoner• 16 years ago

I know nothing about your industry, but I think your design is sharp. On marketing, this blog post might be useful:

http://balsamiq.com/blog/2008/08/05/startup-marketing-advice...

You might also consider running some Adwords or other SEM campaigns.

chaosmachine• 16 years ago

You have a product aimed at physiotherapists. Find out where they spend their time (forums, email lists, etc). Most niche forums are operated on a tiny budget, so you may be able to buy advertising for very cheap (perhaps in the form of a "sticky" topic). Find these places, and get in touch with the admins.

chopsueyar2• 16 years ago

If you can find the physical address of the editors/authors and FedEx(not sure in the UK, though) them a press release with a cheezy gift that somehow ties into your offering, you will get attention.

Also, follow up by phone, to make sure they received the package and you can talk up your service again.

chopsueyar2• 16 years ago

Also, you may want to have U.S pricing, too (detect by IP).

And, since I like you... http://www.womenssportslink.com/PhysicalTherapy.shtml

devmonk• 16 years ago

First impressions. Please take with a grain of salt:

* I can see some market for this, but I have a strong feeling you've burned through a good bit of funds and may not see much come out of it immediately (like 3-7 years).

* Trainers will most likely provide sheets on what to do via printed sheets to their patients. This is cost effective and much easier than even logging in to a site and entering a patient's email address.

* To me you are not answering the question of how you are really making a trainer's life easier via this site until the demo is viewed. You need to have that front and center in the top of the page, not a big picture of a laptop with hard to read writing. Just the fact that it is online, does SMS (?), and email, is not describing the need or how it fills it.

* Could you pivot to aim the site at health insurance companies or others that might want to actually replace the trainer and provide physical training online? For example, there have to be some people that need rehab in hard to reach places. Maybe you could provide trainers via webcam that could interact with these patients. It wouldn't necessarily be that scalable, but it might get you more business than you would have had otherwise.

You can spend time getting the link to your site out in various blogs by posting them yourselves in forums, etc. like others mentioned. But, I'd address these questions asap.

chrisfarms6• 16 years ago

* Trainers/physios certainly do use printed handouts, but the idea for this project was born out of those handouts being misinterpreted and therefore rehabilitation not being as efficient as possible. (you can also do printouts from pacpacs - but I get your point)

* Since that was not put across on the site, then I'll certainly rework the site to ensure that is clear.. great feedback thanks!

* One of our current clients fits the "health insurance/rehabilitation" label, but they tend to require totally customised products — it's certainly something to look at but it's quite a different market to the general physiotherapy practices which we're initially aiming at.

n9com• 16 years ago

You need to be going out and demoing this to physical therapists if you want to secure customers. Product looks great, under priced.

chrisfarms6• 16 years ago

Thanks, yes pricing has been an ongoing discussion, we decided to set a price we don't think anyone would argue with, then re-evaluate it later – obviously without upsetting anyone on the current plan :)

maxklein3• 16 years ago

You have a B2B product. Business rarely look for new stuff, you have to shove it down their throat. So just search for about 100 physiotherapy stations near to you and then email them a short email, asking them if you can actually email them with the product information.

A personalised email for EACH site individually. Hire someone to do this if neccessary. Track your replies. If nobody replies, then you don't have a product. Otherwise, lead them through it.

The more emails you exchange with a customer, the more likely he is to buy! B2B is all about communicating with the customer, making him feel safe with you, like you are a partner taking care of a small part of his business.

Always end every email with a hook that will make him reply to you.

Press-Release, Relevant Blogs and so on are NOT going to make you customers. You have to reach out personally! Your market is too small, too in-cohesive and too static for anything other than aggressive personal approaching your customers to work.

I've done years of these types of sales, and I hate it with a passion. If you don't like writing emails to people then figure out how to get someone else to do it for you.

DevX101• 16 years ago

Although you hate it, have you been successful at it? What your recommendations for finding someone willing and able to reach out to these potential customers and create real sales?

maxklein3• 16 years ago

It took me through many years of my student life with an enough-to-survive income (like $2000 a month). I never tried to expand hard beyond this, because that was enough for me. So I'm no whiz marketer, just aware of the different things I tried and what worked for me.

I really don't know how to find someone, I wrote the emails myself. What I know is how to talk to people to close the sale - and most of it is just about making people feel secure, and going above what they expect.

Aggressive pushing almost never works for me. Just be nice, see if your product really solves their problem, point out what they will save in time and money, and make sure you are there for them.

To do these type of selling you need someone smart and who has empathy with people. Then just monitor the emails they send to make sure they don't sound marketey or selling too hard. Also, they should not get a customer too excited before purchase, cos the customer finds it hard to back down then, so usually just disappears. The customer wants to feel like he chose you, not like you forced him to buy by being so friendly.

kranner3• 16 years ago

Any book recommendations on this sales process?

I'm in the same boat as OP as to B2Bness-of-product and experiencing cold-email-fright at the moment.

maxklein3• 16 years ago

I'm not THAT good. I'm not a salesman, I never made so many sales. All I know is what causes you to lose sales.

The process is like this:

1. Approach your customer with a solution to a problem he has. Focus in the start ONLY to get him to reply your email. Don't sell yet! Make sure he replies, and half your task is done

2. When he replies, be honest about what your product can do for him, and if he needs it.

3. Allow him test it, or give him some special access, making sure to back off completely at this point. If he feels under pressure, he'll disappear. He has to impale himself on your stake, you don't drive it into him

4. After that, if he indicates interest to buy, make it easy and painless for him

It's really all about honesty and solving peoples problem, the rest is just about not fucking up. It's like meeting a girl who likes you (customer that needs your product).

It's all about you just not fucking up the process, that's it. Just guide the person to the sales page gently, without being overeager or annoying. If he does not want it, he does not, if he wants it, he'll buy it you don't need to really sell it.

culturengine• 16 years ago

The Four Steps to the Epiphany by steve Blank is pretty good at guiding you through the customer development process.

joshkaufman• 16 years ago

"SPIN Selling" by Neil Rackham: http://personalmba.com/review/spin-selling/

thehickmans• 16 years ago

You might find http://www.leadgenerationbook.com/ useful. It will seem like common sense, but for me the book was valuable in that it showed what a comprehensive sales and marketing program might look like.

earle• 16 years ago

I believe that patient information even at the Physical Therapist levels require HIPAA compliancy. I'd speak to a lawyer before you start having people use this, so that you are not liable.

chrisfarms6• 16 years ago

thanks for the heads-up for the US, patient data is regulated under the Data Protection Act and ICO in UK (and a few other Health related acts about releasing the information). I will consult a lawyer about the EU and International implications.

dazzawazza• 16 years ago

There has to be trade mags for the industry, contact them. They will most likely be desperate for stories/content so you should be able to entice them to do an article on your site.

I'd seek some sort of accreditation from a UK authority. That would give you credibility within the UK/European profession. This will help with the next point.

To get anywhere in the UK you are going to have to interface with the NHS. This could take a long time but could be lucrative. They will need to see some evidence that your system provides a benefit to the end patient (less time to recovery, less readmission to hospital etc). This will be expensive. You should seek to set up a pilot with them where you provide the service for free for x months and they gather statistics (via an independent third party).

Bupa like to add value added services for their clients so you should approach them about possible tie in's. Since bupa essentially use the same therapists as the NHS you will be reaching the same customers but stand more chance of becoming the defacto provider of this service.

I don't know much about the industry you are in but my first impressions are that there are going to be a few BIG players (industry, government, professional bodies) that you need to get on board to make any headway.

Good luck.

rlpb• 16 years ago

> To get anywhere in the UK you are going to have to interface with the NHS.

I would focus on private first. Completely independent is even better - do independent physiotherapists and practices exist? Leave BUPA and the NHS for later. Reasons:

1) The product is a quality one, not a value one. The focus of the people who buy for the NHS is to save money (their incentive to provide better care mainly ends up in high visibility areas such as trauma). I don't mean to sound negative. I think the NHS is great for what it does for us, but that's how it is. On the other hand, the sole purpose of private practices is to provide a better service than the NHS.

2) Once you have one private practice using your system, other private practices will look bad if they continue using just printed instructions, giving them a direct incentive to buy. This is helped because...

3) Patients talk to each other, especially so here because presumably there is a correlation between the subset of patients who go private and those with a particular socio-economic status. Patients will hear about the better product from friends and expect the same from their own therapists.

4) Validation from a smaller segment is incredibly valuable in moving up. A proven track record with independents will help convince BUPA (imagine trying without this). A proven track record with BUPA will help convince the NHS (and presumably the NHS won't accept it unless it directly reduces their costs or the expected quality of care rises such that your product is required).

Also, get this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-Technology-...

Edit: fixed typos.

melissamiranda• 16 years ago

I would find every physiotherapist that ever went to school with you or that you otherwise know through friends of friends and linked in/branchout and email them about your product. Ask them for feedback, and for as many as are responsive, continue the conversation until they tell you how to sell your product to their company, with their support of course. Good luck!

webwright• 16 years ago

With your pricing, you can't do direct sales or 1-to-1 email marketing effectively... But it might be worth doing to test out the viability of your product. You'll need to find scalable customer acquisition strategies-- SEM, other advertising, channel sales, etc. You don't build sales by building "hype".

Related: "Online Rehabilitation Exercise and Client Management Software" is descriptive, but is a pretty weak marketing headline. I'd suggest spending a week or two reading voraciously about online ad copy and landing pages. If your business succeeds you'll either have to be amazing at that or you'll have to raise your prices dramatically.

goodlab• 16 years ago

Hey - nicely done v1! Really Nice!

FYI - I have a ton of experience marketing/educating to Health Care Professionals, patients etc. Give me a shout via email of you want to discuss further.

OUTREACH - Get a list from your local Medicare office: Get a few small wins by focusing on local therapists. Visit their offices. Drop off a postcard, talk with them in person. You can also get a list from your local Medicare office - they will tell you who in your area accepts medicare for Physical Therapy.

I can also query a database of HCPs for you - reach out to me.

OUTREACH- Blog marketing is time consuming. I am not saying don't do it but it is time consuming. I have had more success with twitter. It is more immediate - and you end up meeting the bloggers anyway.

OUTREACH - Set up an affiliate program Your product seems like a great fit for an affiliate program. Make one before starting you twitter work.

Website: I agree with some of the comments below. The site needs to get to the Aha moment quicker for therapists. As you described yourself, patients often complete these exercises incorrectly. Helping therapists avoid that seems to be the real benefit here. The other things, like email , tracking patients etc are cool but they require work. SO the real benefit is the increased likely hood that patients will do their exercises correctly.

Another idea: Have you considered licensing those videos out as standalone components. If you have rights maybe this could be another revenue stream. At least this way you could capture revenue from the offices that don't want to go through all the work of using the full app. And in the opposite direction - it may be a ice-breaker product. I mean that you get in the door with that - then up sell to the full app. You'd have to think this through - I am just spurting out ideas.

Shoot - just noticed you are the UK. My database query only contains US so it may not help out much unless your marketing here as well.

chrisfarms6• 16 years ago

I'd hope targeting US would not be far off, but starting UK (and even more locally as others have suggested here seems like our first goal). Someone else mentioned sniffing IPs and showing USD pricing... this would be a pretty easy step towards US. Would love the help when we are at that point though thanks!

I've thought a little about affiliate programs, but couldn't see much working. What makes you think it would be a good fit?

chrisfarms6• 16 years ago

ps: yes we created the videos and own the rights, some kind of 'just access to the videos' account might work. Well... if I come up with a better name for the account than that.

tansey• 16 years ago

It can't help that your page title on google is "PacPacs | Signups Closed".

I have a relative who's a physical therapist. I sent her the link and asked for feedback. Where can I forward her response?

chrisfarms6• 16 years ago

GoogleBot seems to be on hiatus for the domain at the moment ...probably on a monthly crawl as so little changed until recently... rather frustrating.

Thanks for the forwarding, any responses can go to team at pacpacs.com (which is myself and co-founder)

Ask HN: Am I doing this right (launching, press releases, blogs)

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