How I'd grow Orapa

August 12, 2020

Orapa is a platform that connects startups with commission-only sales reps, where you can hire and pay reps only if they bring results.

They follow a pay-per-meeting model, which means that if they don’t book you an appointment with good clients, you owe them nothing.

The homepage nicely intrigues me with the above the fold part. “If I don’t get results, I don’t pay” is a killer.

Part of this excitement fades away when I click the “see a demo” CTA. I can’t see anything - I need to book it ahead. I’d replace this with an explainer video

A good landing page should counter every possible objection as you scroll so that, at the end of it, you’re ready to click the CTA.

But I’m left with unanswered questions. Who, and how qualified, are these reps? How much does it cost, and what results I can expect?

Strangely, there are more details (and an explainer video) on the page for sales reps.  

But 99% of potential customers aren’t going to see that page, so all their questions will remain unanswered. A lot of them won’t bother signing up, they’ll just leave.

Today, when many products offer the same thing, founders are a real differentiator. Who’s behind this project? People don’t like anonymity.

In cases like these, where the founder is an expert with field experience, making that clear adds a lot of trust and legitimacy.

In general, I think the site lacks depth. I get it - it’s a new project. If it was a SaaS or eCommerce product, a simple landing page would be enough.

But in this case, I need to trust these sales reps. It’s delicate. Orapa should expand their site with important info soon.

How can Orapa grow? First of all - by using their own service! If they get results, they can use it as proof that it works.

This would be the first step right now - they’re new, and need to prove they can produce real results.

In time, I’d focus on writing detailed step-by-step case studies that show different customers’ results.

Using storytelling to tell customer success stories works well because it shows leads what they can expect from a product/service in an authentic way they can relate to.

When you’re starting out and don’t have a lot of resources, creating a case study takes a lot of time, so you need to squeeze everything out of it.

To maximize results, Orapa should repurpose each case study for every suitable channel, and adjust it accordingly.

First, they need to find online communities with their target customers. Then, adjust the format and the angle of the case study, and post it.

It’s important to be an active participant in the community to get an understanding of what resonates, and why.

Then Orapa needs to dive into keyword research to see if they can find a relevant search term to optimize their case study for, so it can rank on Google.

This doesn’t just involve on-page optimization, but promoting it as much as possible so it attracts good links.

Lastly, they need to find relevant social media. Twitter could work well - lots of startup founders.

Instead of posting a link, they could make a thread. Providing value on the platform is better than trying to get users off of it. Twitter and users don’t like that.

I’d try LinkedIn Ads. It’s the only platform with precise enough targeting to reach the potential Orapa customers.

For a product like this, only a few visitors will be ready to convert right away. They’ll need more than a single touchpoint, and LinkedIn Ads can be pricey.

Pro tip: if your business can use LinkedIn Ads, install the FB pixel on your site. It’ll keep track of all the visitors coming from LinkedIn.

This way, you can retarget them using the FB Ads platform - it’s a lot cheaper, so you’ll keep your CAC lower.

Orapa could also try the side project marketing angle: building something that relates to sales and that startups founders could find interesting.

For example, a tool that helps founders compose the perfect outreach email would be helpful and strictly correlated.

Learn marketing from case studies

Every month I pick a new website and write a marketing case study explaining exactly how I’d grow it