Question

Topic: Taglines/Names

Title And Subtitle For My Startup's Homepage?

Posted by kajmagnus3 on 9/3/2019 at 11:25 AM ET 250 Points
Hi, I've experimented with different titles. I've never found a title that was both understandable to others, and also seemed interesting. — Now I'm wondering: What do you think about this title and sub title, for my startup's homepage?

Title 1: Create a forum for your co-workers

Sub title 1: and help each other — with the best features from StackOverflow, Discourse, Slack, Reddit, Disqus.

Looking at the title — is it unclear what this is about, and does it seem boring?
Or you have an idea about what this can be? It piques your curiosity or not?

Other titles, what do you think:

Title 2: Instant help for your co-workers,
Sub 2: Create a self building knowledge base with Questions & Answers. Crowdsource ideas, discuss, pick the right ones.

Or these ones?

Title 3: Create a Q&A forum for your co-workers,
Sub 3: Find help "instantly" — save time. Gather feedback and ideas.

Title 4: Empower your workplace / community,
Sub 4: Crowdsource ideas. Upvote, discuss — revitalize and improve.

Title 5: Create a community discussion.

Title 6: Create your own effective forum (my parents' suggestion).

***

Thanks for any thoughts & feedback :- ) I'll try to post feedback to some other people here ... whilst waiting :- )
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mgoodman on 9/3/2019 at 11:35 AM Accepted
    Let's start at the beginning: Who is your primary target audience? Where? What important and unique benefit can they expect if they deal with you? What are they doing now to address the need you propose to fulfill? (Why should they switch to you?)

    Do you have a company name yet? Is this one of several offerings from your company, or is the company essentially going to be your website?

    If you will help us to better understand your business/website, we will come up with a great title/subtitle.
  • Posted by kajmagnus3 on 9/3/2019 at 2:35 PM Author
    Hi mgoodman, thanks for the questions,

    > Who is your primary target audience?

    Initially small / mid businesses with a bit technical people. E.g. an ed-tech startup, or a software company with maybe 10 - 50 people.

    > Where?

    Initially most focus on North America and Europe.

    > What important and unique benefit can they expect if they deal with you?

    They get an internal or external support/discussion tool that helps them find good answers and ideas. And that's open source if they want to install on their intranet.

    > What are they doing now to address the need you propose to fulfill? (Why should they switch to you?)

    Example 1: They're using a chat, e.g. Slack, and feel it's not so easy to find old discussions in the chat. They want a more structured discussion tool. And search the web for "StackOverflow alternatives" and find my project, Talkyard.

    Example 2: They don't want to use Disqus (a blog commenting system), because of ads and tracking. So they search for "Disqus alternatives", and find my project. Or they use Ghost (blog software), look at Ghost's integrations page, and find my project there.

    > Do you have a company name yet?

    Yes, the software is named "Talkyard".

    > Is this one of several offerings from your company, or is the company essentially going to be your website?

    It's the only software the company builds. It's an open source discussion tool, with paid hosting for those who don't want to self host. There's the website, and also a GitHub open source code repository.

    I hope this helps :- ) ?
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 9/3/2019 at 6:37 PM Accepted
    All your sub/titles miss the key benefit that you alluded to in answer Michael's questions: What you offer isn't just another discussion tool, it's a BETTER discussion tool. The question is, how much better or better in what ways?

    What have your existing customers said about your tool? Why do they LOVE it? What tools were they using and switched away from? What cinched the deal for them?
  • Posted by chiron34 on 9/4/2019 at 12:18 AM Accepted
    Given that your clients are operating businesses, you can be more direct in your message. What are the two major burning issues that keep small business proprietors’ awake at night? Right! Profitability & productivity. Within that context, here is a suggestion:

    The Business Improvement Company.
    ... enhancing business profitability & productivity through ‘Talkyard’, our unique secret sauce!
  • Posted by mgoodman on 9/4/2019 at 10:04 AM Accepted
    How is your solution BETTER, and BETTER FOR WHOM? If you can identify your core target audience and promise them a meaningful and unique benefit, you have the basis for a good title/subtitle. Otherwise you are just another loosely-defined solution that may or may not survive.

    Focus on how you will make a customer's life better, and not so much on what you want to deliver.
  • Posted by mgoodman on 9/4/2019 at 10:28 AM Accepted
    Question: What important and unique benefit can they expect if they deal with you?

    Your answer: They get an internal or external support/discussion tool that helps them find good answers and ideas. And that's open source if they want to install on their intranet.

    Several things missing in the answer. First and foremost, there's no benefit. To the extent that "good answers and ideas" is supposed to be the benefit, you don't claim credit for them. You only claim that you "help them find" those answers. The primary burden is still on the user; you're just a helper.

    And "open source" is a feature, not a benefit.

    You may want a deeper exploration of the customer need you are proposing to address.
  • Posted by kajmagnus3 on 9/4/2019 at 10:43 PM Author
    @chiron34 wrote:

    > "enhancing business profitability & productivity through ‘Talkyard’"

    Thanks for the suggestion :- ) Actually I think it's a bit too "high level", could describe any B2B service or software out there? I think such a title won't make people feel interested.

    I think it can be on the right track though, in that it's about goals the customer wants to achieve.

    @Jay wrote:

    > What have your existing customers said about your tool? Why do they LOVE it? What tools were they using and switched away from? What cinched the deal for them?

    and @mgoodman wrote:

    > [...] identify your core target audience
    > want a deeper exploration of the customer need

    Those are good points. I can contact the people who use the software, and sign up to try it out, and ask what they like about it, and why they evaluate it / use it. And then I'll get better at seeing things from their perspective and I can find a title that resonates with them.

    Actually I think I need different landing pages with different titles. Sometimes, the people are from a non-profit, in other cases, a small startup, or a larger company, or a teacher & students. And since it's not possible to create one single page & title that makes everyone feel "wow this is for me", then ...

    ... the main homepage, will either 1) focus only on the most frequent & typical / "best" type of users/customers, or 2) it'll have buttons people can click to find "their" landing pages where they can read more, with use cases & terminology that matches them and what they're doing. (Or 3) maybe both? Hmm. If can be done in a good way.)
  • Posted by kajmagnus3 on 9/4/2019 at 10:47 PM Author
    So, I'll talk with existing users, & those who try it out, and eventually I'll have better ideas about good titles. ... Maybe I'll have one or more different title ideas I can submit here and ask for feedback about,

    Thanks everyone for the help. I'll leave this question open for one or two days (in case anyone has more thoughts), then I'll accept the answers & close.
  • Posted by kajmagnus3 on 9/5/2019 at 1:27 AM Author
    > And "open source" is a feature, not a benefit.

    Hmm, I suppose this feature translates to these benefits:

    - Save money (open source = free).

    - Reduce risk: You have the software and all source code, if something unexpected happens to the supplier.

    - Reduce risk: You can install on your intranet, your data won't be exposed to any external company.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 9/5/2019 at 8:23 AM Accepted
    Free generally translates to worthless. If you don't put a value on it, then why should others? Requiring a tech-savvy person to modify it (and then support/test it) is a benefit only for those organizations that value such freedom. Your customers are looking for solutions to their problems (the value benefit), not simply a tech freebie.

    Your user survey results may surprise you. Tech companies have pivoted based on feedback when they found out that their tool was used based on a single feature or an unexplored niche. Be open-minded enough to pay attention to what others are saying.
  • Posted by kajmagnus3 on 9/6/2019 at 11:02 PM Author
    @Jay wrote:

    > Your user survey results may surprise you ... Be open-minded enough

    Yes that's a good point, I'll try. I've already gotten a bit feedback that was different than what I expected (they liked something else than what I though).
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