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App Marketing Interview: Sam Soffes, Cheddar App

We bought an opportunity to interview Sam Soffes from Nothing Magical, that constructed the Cheddar app. Sam advised us extra about his app, how he bought it identified and shared some helpful advices. You may both hearken to the recorded interview or learn by way of the abstract & key factors beneath. Or each.

App Advertising Interview: Sam Soffes, Cheddar App

Our apologies for the sound high quality: it isn’t good and a few phrases are lacking. That’s what occurs when Bastien just isn’t in command of audio high quality… Additionally, the interview begins with Sam speaking right away and ends ups kinda out of the blue. I’m French (therefore the accent) however not that impolite, relaxation assured that we talked earlier than and after ?

AUDIO APP MARKETING INTERVIEW

SUMMARY & KEY POINTS

Slightly than a transcript for the interview, listed here are the important thing factors that we talked about. You may hearken to completely different elements within the audio part through the use of the timed feedback on the participant.

Concerning the Cheddar app and Sam Soffes

Background and workforce

Nothing Magical edits the Cheddar app. At present, Nothing Magical is simply Sam so he does all the design improvement and advertising and marketing help.
Beforehand Sam was an engineer at Hipstamatic and he has additionally labored at different startups. He left about 4 months in the past.

What’s Cheddar and why Sam constructed it

Cheddar is a extremely easy todo checklist. Sam first wished to work on one thing he might launch shortly. He thought he might do it in two weeks and it took him three months. He doesn’t like every of the todo lists on the market and simply makes use of a textual content file: he wished to do one thing higher that’s easy and syncs.

Advertising the Cheddar app

Participating Individuals and Producing curiosity across the Cheddar app earlier than launch

Sam had about a few 1000’s followers on his twitter accounts, that had been fascinated with what he was doing after leaving hipstamatic. After a month (2 months earlier than launch), he put up a teaser video asserting what he was making and welcoming individuals to enroll in the event that they had been . To his shock, lots of people signed up and had been actually excited.

A pair weeks earlier than launch he opened up signal ups for 20 to half-hour right here and there, and different a 1,000 individuals signed up.
He’s additionally speaking about it on a regular basis since he’s full time on it, in addition to on his personal podcast. He had a pair press mates writing for tech blogs who he reached out to. A few of them had beta assessments variations, too. A few days earlier than he despatched them his press package.

On launch day, when the brand new homepage was up and everybody might join he reached out to his contacts (mates and others) to allow them to know the Cheddar app was out and asking them to jot down one thing about it.

To contact everybody that signed as much as be notified, he’s really ready for some corrections to be made to the app.

The response since launch day

He bought 11,000 customers in lower than per week, and didn’t anticipate so many individuals. There are actually 17,000 individuals. Cheddar for Mac is arising, and that ought to assist with each signups and retention.

The primary manner individuals have discovered concerning the Cheddar app

The Fb and Google+ don’t have a lot visitors. Twitter is by far what brings the most individuals to the Cheddar app web site. In fact some individuals go on to the App Retailer too.
On twitter, he follows all interactions with the cheddar account (@cheddar) very carefully so if anybody mentions Cheddar in any respect he’ll reply to them both for help or when individuals advocate it (which occurs lots).

Life hacker and a pair large blogs coated it which generated large spikes however on a traditional day it’s often twitter. Moreover 5/6 contacts he talked to, individuals often went to the Cheddar app press web page, downloaded the press package and wrote concerning the app with out contacting him.

Utilizing the Cheddar app promo video and teaser

The video bought a loopy quantity of views. He appears like a todo checklist is a foolish product, and that having a video to indicate how cool it’s is healthier than having a bunch of copy for individuals to learn. He really bought individuals referring to his app web site and app video as examples.

He thinks the teaser one was efficient, and the present one too as a result of it exhibits how briskly the syncing is.

Inventive ways in which bought individuals to speak concerning the Cheddar app

He provided anybody with a twitter.com or github.com electronic mail tackle a free+ account for all times as a result of they’re big influencers. He even bought press only for arising with this concept.

He additionally accepts the requests for interviews and postcasts, as a lot as he can, as a result of he thinks it’s extra helpful than we might give it credit score.

Making the iOS code open supply and creating an API

Open Sourcing introduced a really sudden spike in signups and every thing else and bought him on the entrance web page of Hacker Information. He bought about 30,000 views on his web site and over 1,000 signups throughout a 2-day interval.

It’s additionally been serving to him: he can put up a problem on GitHub and somebody he doesn’t even know may also help him with code.

There’s already an app on the App Retailer that makes use of the API, Fast Cheddar, which was launched like per week after the API got here out. Cheddar for terminal to make use of Cheddar with command traces, and so on. Individuals have constructed a ton of stuff already in solely a pair weeks.
The enterprise mannequin for Cheddar is the month-to-month subscription, and he believes the extra issues are constructed across the platform the extra he can get subscriptions. The thought is to construct an ecosystem across the platform, which shall be good each for him and customers.

App advertising and marketing strategies/experiments tried with Cheddar that weren’t value it

He considered shopping for adverts, however didn’t undergo primarily based on individuals’s recommendation. He did sponsor a podcast for two weeks, which was fairly reasonably priced, however has no thought of the response he bought from that. He’s pondering lots about doing stuff to carry visitors however plainly most of his visitors is natural so because it’s simply him he’s specializing in having completely satisfied customers.

Recommendation to somebody that has a terrific app/scores and is making an attempt to get it identified

Sam advises to remain very attentive to all of the feedbacks, which he does on twitter and individuals are very pleased with the help he supplies. Builders need to make their customers really feel heard.

Additionally he had been advised by lots of people that having a press web page was vital and for him that’s one other must-do.

Wrapping Up the App Advertising Interview

Previous and present challenges

It’s simply him, so there’s loads to be completed: tackle bugs, end Cheddar for Mac, add issues to the web site and the API. He feels behind and one of many challenges is managing his time higher and getting as a lot completed as attainable.

Additionally, the App Retailer scores are decrease than he would really like due to some bugs and likewise as a result of there are individuals complaining concerning the subscription worth (though the conversion charge is 2.25%).

Sam is doing one thing fairly fascinating for Cheddar for Mac: releasing the alpha model for Cheddar for Mac, usable totally free for anybody that has a Cheddar plus account. That manner individuals which might be very enthusiastic about Cheddar and wish to strive it have made the subscriptions go up.

One thing else that he did earlier than launch when he was opening the signups: individuals might get Cheddar straight away in the event that they subscribed to a Cheddar plus account. The sensation of lacking out appears to be a really large motivator for individuals.