How I'd grow CV Engineer

CV Engineer is a mobile resume app that helps job seekers compose a resume that stands out (and hopefully gets them their dream job).

The app provides little advice snippets as you fill out the sections, recommending which subjects to cover, and giving practical examples.

My first thought was: it has a confusing name. In the US, a CV and a resume are 2 different things. A CV is used when applying for an academic position.

A user scrolling through apps won’t spend time researching CV Engineer. They’ll just skip it and install a different one.

There are a lot of similar apps. Why should someone choose this one?

CV Engineer has a big competitive advantage: it wasn’t built by a random programmer, but by a professional recruitment consultant.

That should stand out above the fold on the landing page.

How does CV Engineer make money? You can have 100k downloads, but you need a sustainable monetization strategy to get somewhere.

The app is free to download, and there are no ads. You can download and print your resume for free. If you like it, you can leave a tip.

I think they’re leaving a lot of money on the table. I’d experiment with a freemium model.

One idea could be adding one-time app purchases of premium templates, specific to different jobs and roles.

In time, they could expand their interview questions and answers section, to help candidates get ready.

Adding more premium material could be an awesome opportunity to build a recurring revenue stream that lasts until the candidate gets the job.

A good CLV means paid ads, and that’d be wonderful news! Their audience is pretty easy to target.

Their core users will probably be those fresh out of college, or within the first years of work experience. Simply target by location and age, and let the algorithm do its job.

Their target demographic predominantly uses Instagram and Snapchat, so I’d concentrate the paid ads effort there.

E.g. A fun and casual video testimonial of a real student explaining how they got a job using the app.

I’d also try to come up with a simple social media strategy to generate free downloads since CV Engineer doesn’t currently have one.

The founder is a former recruiter. It shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with some useful tips to share with their followers.

Since this is a mobile app, ASO will be important to get downloads. However, in their case, ASO’s importance shouldn’t be overvalued.

There are already a lot of competitors, and a limited number of people actively looking for a mobile resume builder.

Implementing a top-of-the-funnel content strategy is a huge opportunity.

This is because the majority of potential customers are not aware of the solution.

The goal should be to intercept them with related content, and make them aware.

And, of course, SEO is probably going to be the most important distribution channel for this informational content.

Luckily for them, they aren’t completely starting from zero. They got a few good links from relevant and authoritative domains.

At the moment, they’re not taking advantage of it. Their blog lacks content, and it’s not the right type of content.

Someone searching for a keyword like this isn’t going to need an app like CV Engineer. They probably just have grammatical doubts about something else.

Pro tip: don’t get blinded by search volume. What you really want to see in a good keyword is intent.

You can get more conversions from a keyword with 10 monthly searches but high intent, than from one with 1000 monthly searches but low intent.

Once you get a good link from a famous domain, the difficult part is done. Now they should just contact websites listing the best resume apps.

Good outreach mentioning that Cnet included them in their “Best 2020 resume builder app” list will be their passepartout.

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