Content marketing is a popular strategy for brands to attract new customers and grow their business. However, many marketers find that creating tools can be a better investment than creating content. Tools can generate leads, increase brand awareness, and drive sales without any additional effort from the brand.
Content marketing has been a popular strategy for many years. However, the ROI statistics have been lacking. This is why creating tools can be a better investment than creating content. Read more in detail here: content marketing ROI statistics.
Have you considered utilizing a free tool to promote your website? I didn’t until I read about Moz’s analytics data and discovered that Open Site Explorer, their free backlink tool, was responsible for a significant portion of their traffic. After investigating, I discovered that Moz wasn’t the only company reaping the benefits of providing a free product. With their Grader product, HubSpot could generate a lot of traffic and leads. Likewise, SEMrush could attract millions of monthly visitors by giving a free competition research tool. As a result, I decided to invest $45,000 in developing a free website analyzer. I launched it on Thursday of last week, and in the first four days, 17,747 individuals used the free tool to run 22,562 URLs. But it’s what I discovered that’s more fascinating than the use of data.
Everything becomes quiet
The following are the tool’s use statistics during the first four days:
- Day 1: 10,766 URLs were run by 8,462 individuals.
- Day 2: 7,241 URLs were run by 5,685 individuals.
- Day 3: 2,264 URLs were run by 1,758 individuals.
- Day 4: 2,291 URLs were run by 1,842 individuals.
The tool performed better on the first two days because they were weekdays. However, after the launch traffic slows down, the device should still be utilized at least 1,000 times each day, according to statistics from previous launches.
The perceived value of tools is more excellent
Quick Sprout had a bounce rate of 74% before I released the product, with 1.8 page views per visitor. Furthermore, 65 percent of the visitors were first-time visitors, spending 2 minutes and 10 seconds on the site.
Each visitor saw 2.35 pages after I started the tool. There was a 63 percent bounce rate. The proportion of new visitors fell to 57 percent, and they remained on the site for 3 minutes and 10 seconds, increasing visitor loyalty.
I’ve been growing Quick Sprout in various methods throughout the years. I’ve written advanced tutorials, launched a forum, and experimented with various kinds of blog articles. None of these items generated a higher level of interaction than the free website analyzer tool, indicating that consumers value software above content.
More traffic does not always imply that there is more traffic
As I stated before, the tool was utilized quite a bit in the first four days. However, increased use does not always imply increased traffic. For example, I would have published a blog post if I hadn’t launched the tool, and each article brings in new people. Although the tool was used 22,562 times, the site only got 6,301 more visits that I would not have received had I just written a new blog post. I had similar experiences every time I published a new guide.
This implies that, to some degree, I am cannibalizing my visitors since many of them are reading the new material I am providing while disregarding some of my older content. If you want to expand your audience, you should keep releasing fresh material, software upgrades, and anything else that comes to mind. However, don’t anticipate exponential growth since you’ll be cannibalizing part of your traffic, which is ok.
What is the return on investment?
I’ve spent $45,000 so far on the tool’s development. It will cost me an additional $60,000 to complete the remaining features. That would imply a total cost of $105,000 to construct what I desire. Before developing this product, I founded three previous marketing software businesses and purchased one. Based on my earlier experience developing products for marketers, I should convert 2% of those who enter a URL into premium plan members for $97 a year for other features.
If I can keep at least 30,000 unique individuals inputting URLs into the system each month, a 2% conversion rate would result in 600 paying clients each month. At $97 per year, this would produce $58,200 in monthly income. As you can see, if I chose to charge for a premium version, I would easily earn my money back since I am only spending $105,000 on the tool. In addition, my monthly hosting costs for the tool part would not exceed $1,146.50, and the cost of supporting paid customers should not exceed $5,000 per month. I have no intention of charging for the tool or even developing a paid premium edition; therefore, I will lose money. But I could earn a decent profit if I wanted to.
Conclusion
I would still invest the money in the website analyzer if I had to do it repeatedly since it has helped me improve my overall traffic and audience loyalty.
You can get comparable results by adding a free tool to your website, but there are a few things you should know first:
- The ultimate sophistication is simplicity – many successful software programs are ancient and difficult to use, but they are popular because consumers didn’t have as many choices back then. Make sure anything you come up with is simple to utilize. Developing a complex, feature-rich product will not go as far as creating a basic one.
- Build for others, not for yourself – poll your visitors to find out what they want before creating any product. It’s more likely to succeed if you produce something that addresses their issues.
- Wireframe before you design and develop — Once you have a good idea of what your visitors want, make sure to wireframe it before beginning the design and development process. After you’ve created wireframes, ask your visitors for comments to ensure you’re on the correct road.
- Design before you code – I’ve discovered that having your designs finished before you begin the development process makes things more straightforward and less expensive. In addition, this will prevent your engineers from overdeveloping.
- One domain is preferable to two – in most instances, releasing your product in your current environment is preferable. My co-founder and I have attempted to create tools on different sites, but they have usually failed. Prepare to spend three times as much time promoting your device if you launch it on another domain name.
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