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Ask HN: How to market a product with two distinct use cases?

7 points by konschubert ↗ HN
I am making an e-paper screen that can be:

  1. An easy to set-up google calendar display

  2. A canvas to render any bmp image served from a server
To me, these seem almost like two distinct products that appeal to different groups of customers.

So I am building two distinct landing pages for each feature...

https://www.invisible-computers.com

https://www.invisible-computers.com/programmable-e-paper-screen.html

These both link to the same store page.

I am worried that having a unified store page will be confusing for at least one of the customer groups.

But having two store pages also seems wrong - people might get rightfully confused if it's the same product or not. Not even speaking of search engines...

HN, what would you do in my situation?

PS: I know I should probably just focus on one thing, and make that work. The thing is, that's what I did and it didn't work. So I am trying to test if the second positioning of the product works better... considering a pivot.

11 comments

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Comevius
Personally I think the picture display is not user friendly (requiring a HTTP endpoint with a 800x480 monochrome bmp image).

I like the calendar display, but concerned about the limitations and the price.

Who is the customer? Decide that and then go out and show it to them. I also recommend Just Enough Research from Erika Hall, it's about studying your potential customers, market and product.

This product needs to be attractive and easy to use. A smartphone app the customer can use to change the display would be helpful, and it could justify the price.

konschubert
Yes, there is a smartphone app for configuring the calendar. Basically that’s for the “consumer” market.

By I have also noticed demand from makers for a more open platform. That’s why I decided to expose the bmp feature. That’s for the “hacker” market.

I’ve sold a few of these so I know that there is demand - but I am struggling find a marketing channel. Maybe there isn’t enough demand, it’s possible.

codingdave
This sounds like a single product - a canvas that can render an image. You are hard-coding one potential use case for that image: a calendar. I'd abstract that out to a complementary product line of canned apps that render to the correct image size and format. The calendar is just your first app.
konschubert
True, from a programmers mindset this is totally true. But I think that some customers will just come looking for an e ink calendar - and then get confused/repulsed by the complexity of a tablet with apps.
pigtailgirl
two use cases = two marketing personas - build the two personas - then run a channel & massage analysis for each persona - run the messages in the channels that surface for each persona - 1 landing page but track conversion from each persona campaign - after a few months if conversion is an issue - try 2 distinct landing pages -
konschubert
Hey, you sound like you know what you’re doing.

What I am struggling with : I feel like the two use cases are so distinct that it would confuse users to have them one the same landing page.

Why do you think that one landing page is better than two?

But even if I have separate landing pages, i still need to figure out how to put it all on one shop page without confusing people.

pigtailgirl
it's just experimentation - you can start with 2 - you can start with 1 - doesn't matter much - you just need to find the result of what works quickly - 1 is easier to start with - 2 might be over optimization - run the test and check the conversion then decide - you probably don't know enough yet to know what is better - more testing needed - get comfortable with utm - :=)
XCSme
I am having the same issue marketing https://www.uxwizz.com

There are at least two different use cases:

* users who just want a private analytics platform to track their own stats * agencies who want to earn money by running their own analytics platform

Almost everything is different when trying to market to the two distinct categories: benefits, pricing, features set, etc.

I am still struggling with this, I also leaned towards having distinct landing pages (but I didn't have the time to try them), but recently I switched to a different approach: build two different products for each of the target audiences. In this way, marketing and reach becomes a lot easier, as you know exactly who the customer is when it reaches your website.