Welcome to a new issue of Zero to Marketing.

Every month I pick a new startup and write a short case study explaining exactly how I’d grow it.

Let's dive in.
OnlineOrNot is an uptime monitoring tool for software teams.

In simple words it’s a product that monitors your website, API etc., and sends founders/developers immediate alerts when things go wrong.

It also has additional features like allowing the product team to create a status page to communicate publicly if everything is alright and so on.
You can choose between many different platforms to receive alerts whenever there is a problem with your product
I’m torn about the headline they chose about vibe coding.

I like it but I feel like it’s too specific to resonate with the majority of OnlineOrNot’s potential audience.

It might work well for unaware customers who could benefit from a tool like OnlineOrNot but don’t yet know it exists.

For example it might be great copy for an ad.

But people who are already on the landing page are probably more aware of their needs.
I prefer the copy further down the page: “Detects problems and lets your team know before your customers do”
I like their homepage because it feels a bit like the landing pages you see when running ads. You can tell they’ve tried hard not to distract visitors with too many links focusing attention on the CTAs.

In their case the main CTA is to start a free trial. Interestingly they offer a free plan but don’t promote it much at all. I guess the intention is to use it as a fallback for people who aren’t ready to buy.

I would definitely A/B test the CTAs on the landing page with the goal of increasing signups.

Then either activate a free trial by default for new users so they can experience premium features for 14 days or have a strong email marketing strategy with compelling offers to encourage upgrades over time.
I’d be really curious to see the difference in long-term conversions if they changed all CTAs to something like: “Start free - upgrade anytime”
This is a niche with a lot of competitors which is why I like how they address the “why are you different?” question that every visitor is asking themselves.

But two things I’d improve:

- They mention too many different categories which makes it feel like they’re trying to be everything to everyone. If they have multiple segments it might be better to say something more general like “for founders and developers” or not mention segments at all.

- Instead of only saying why alternatives fall short I’d include something positive like: “We strike a balance between having enough features to be powerful while remaining easy to use and affordable”.
It’s a good start since many products don’t address this question at all but they need to be more specificto really convince visitors
Analyzing their online presence it’s clear they’re primarily using content marketing to grow.

The articles they create vary a lot. Some are traditional blog posts while others feel more like build in public updates.

The latter could become more than just a traffic channel. They could live on a separate feed and be positioned as the OnlineOrNot newsletter.

They currently have one but there’s no signup form on the site except at the end of blog posts. And since the content styles are so different it’s not really clear what you’re subscribing to.
The blog could function more as a resource library (like the first two articles) while the newsletter could feel more like a publication (like the last article).
The biggest area where OnlineOrNot is lacking is social media. Some channels are inactive and on others they have just a handful of followers. They basically need to start from scratch.

How would I build a social media presence for OnlineOrNot from zero?

First of all by choosing the right platforms. Considering their audience is mostly software teams and they have limited resources I’d cut everything else and go all in on X. That’s where most of their ideal customers hang out.

Then I’d block a few hours each day to focus on 3 activity pillars:

- Monitoring (keeping an eye on people asking questions related to the problems they solve)

- Engaging (commenting in relevant conversations where their ideal customers take part)

- Posting (writing about topics their audience might be interested in)
The classic mistake many new products make is turning their social media feed into a list of updates which might be interesting for current users but it definitely won’t attract new customers
I’d also brainstorm ways to incentivize existing customers to talk about OnlineOrNot online.

One idea might be to reward them with some free usage every time they do it.

This could make everyone happy:

- The customer saves money on their bill

- Their followers read interesting content

- OnlineOrNot gets more exposure at no cost
“Got a story when OnlineOrNot saved your ass? Post it on social media and tag us to get one month free!”
They’re doing a great job writing articles about questions related to their niche. But I see two problems with relying too much on this strategy. Let’s take the query “How to check if a website is online”.

It’s a very top-of-funnel question so it won’t convert well. The person behind it might just be an average consumer wanting to check if their favorite site is working. A small fraction might be their ideal customers but the vast majority probably won’t be.

Over time it’s likely that many of these questions will be answered directly by AI engines without requiring people to click and visit a website. I can already see this happening when I ask ChatGPT. They will still drive some clicks but probably not as many as today.
The combination of low purchasing intent and decreasing clicks makes this content still worth it but not super effective moving forward
What OnlineOrNot needs is to push harder on pages targeting high-intent queries.

Step 1: Add more of these pages. I’m talking about pages to intercept searches like StatusCake alternatives, best uptime monitoring tools, private status page, etc. They don’t have any of these at the moment.

Step 2: Make sure their current pages rank better. Right now they’re not ranking well. This involves analyzing whether they have a content gap or an authority gap. Compare their content with the pages that are ranking to see what’s missing (e.g. most competitors have real customer case studies on those pages). Also analyze their backlink profile versus competitors’ (e.g. competitors have more editorial links pointing to their pages).
The number of ads appearing for a keyword can be a good proxy to see if there’s buying intent
To rank high for these terms they need good links. Analyzing OnlineOrNot’s backlink profile I see many “powered by” links.

These links are automatically placed on the public status pages of customers using the tool.

The problem is these links are dofollow and this violates Google guidelines. Although Google usually ignores them there’s still a risk of receiving a penalty.

Fixing this might decrease rankings short term but will keep them safe from unpleasant surprises long term.
Google says that all widget links like the one in the bottom right corner should be nofollow
That's it for today.

See you next month with a new case study.

Andrea
You're getting this email because you subscribed to Zero to Marketing 

Unsubscribe
 
Via Sant'Aquilino 5, Milan, 20148, Italy