How I'd grow Llama Life

Llama Life is a productivity tool.

But what does the product do exactly?

If you’re like me, the first time you land on the website, you’ll presume it’s a to-do list.

And we’d both be wrong because it actually isn’t a to-do list.

The tool's goal is not to create and manage your lists but to help you work through them.

It integrates with the tools people already use and imports their existing tasks.

Then, it uses a concept called timeboxing (the practice of setting a fixed amount of time to complete each task effectively).

Llama Life needs to change a few things about its messaging to communicate that clearly.

First, I’d rework the copy.

There are 3 essential things they want to communicate about the app:

- It helps you focus
- It’s for work
- The magic happens through timeboxing

Then, I’d change the visuals.

It’s essential to show the product because human minds process images way faster than text.

They could use an image or, better yet, a gif to show it in practice.

The rest of the landing page is pretty good, with a well-thought-out structure and attention to detail.

I particularly like how the copy transitions the reader from the problem to the solution.

They’ve been sending a lot of swag to customers, which is a good idea for generating word of mouth.

But people who see a llama plushie won’t get that Llama Life is a productivity tool. Maybe they’ll check it out. Maybe they won’t.

What if people started sharing screenshots to brag about their high productivity levels?

I’d definitely want to learn more so I can replicate the results.

Llama Life could experiment with gamification to prompt people to share their achievements.

I’d also establish long-term partnerships with small creators. There are many blogs, newsletters and social media accounts focused on productivity.

The key term here is long-term partnerships.

The pay-per-post model doesn’t work anymore. People increasingly ignore one-time promotions. You have to select creators who believe in the product and will use it repeatedly. 

Llama Life used side project marketing and created a page where visitors can have fun with a virtual fidget spinner.

Once on the page, they funnel visitors to the main site with a popup.

That’s a great idea, but there’s a huge missed opportunity here. Since they run the side project on a different domain, they’re missing out on the chance to boost their central Domain Authority.

People search for tools like Llama Life using keywords like “timeboxing app,” and yet, they didn’t optimize for that term.

Their first move should absolutely be doing keyword research and going after terms like these.

How should they target it? With a landing page or a blog post? 

In this specific case: both.

This keyword has 2 different search intents. 

You’ll spot this if you look at the results Google returns when searching for “timeboxing app.”

The results are a mix of listicles like “best timeboxing apps” and product landing pages.

Pro tip: most founders don’t want to create a post mentioning their competitors.

This often happens with keywords like “best product,” where searchers want to see a result that lists all the possible alternatives.

But if you don’t do it, your competitors still will. They’ll siphon all the traffic and present their tool as the number one choice.

Llama Life needs to ramp up its social media strategy, starting with Twitter.

Right now, they’re only retweeting when someone mentions them. They need to start creating original content.

Productivity tips, questions, threads, visuals, giveaways… The possibilities are endless, but they need to tweet at least once or twice daily.

At the same time, since they don’t have a big account yet, they need to do things that don’t scale to kickstart their follower growth. 

This means spending time in the app actively engaging with relevant accounts to put themselves on the radar.

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