I just launched my SaaS recipe software and would love your feedback

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#1

Hi all,

I just launched my new recipe management system and I’m looking for feedback on it. I’d love to get any and all thoughts on it, positive or negative. I cook quite a bit and this originated out of a need that I personally had and the existing systems out there didn’t fit my needs given that they are either mobile apps only or very old systems. Long story short: my aim was to create something that is purely focused on managing recipes with a modern interface.

https://www.recipemod.com

Things that I would be very appreciative for given that I’m just starting out:

  • How to best drive traffic to it
  • Should I consider a freemium model?
  • Critique of any of the pages, particularly from a conversion standpoint (since I don’t have traffic volume to measure at the moment)

I’m trying to avoid creating “yet another recipe site” or social media platform. There are plenty of those floating around, so I wanted to differentiate by focusing on one thing and doing it really well.

#2

It wasn’t clear to me what that one thing is. “Modern” is, I’m afraid to say, not much of a differentiator. Nor is “easy to use”. =

BTW: you should get a friend or family member to proofread your site. I spotted a couple of typos when casually skimming.

How to best drive traffic to it?

That’s the challenge we all have with new sites. Content is the ever-reigning king. Regularly add well-written content and be very patient.

#3

Design looks clean which is good. So far so good.

I do not see why anyone should pay for posting recipes (with images)?
And what are “businesses” in that context?
Can you explain the idea behind the buinsess model?

#4

Thank you! It’s definitely a minimum viable product at the moment, but businesses in this context were envisioned as caterers, restaurants or other food preparation type establishments. On the business side, I intend to eventually incorporate nutrition facts for all the recipes, which would leads to printing out nutrition labels, which I’ve been told would be the real value.

On the person (non-business side), where I’m headed will be the same direction in terms of generating nutrition facts, but also allow for people to print their own cookbooks using all the data they’ve entered.

In terms of the business model itself, I see a monthly subscription as the core revenue model with additional one-time upsells off of that.

#5

Thank you, I appreciate the feedback! I’ll take another pass at all the wording with help this time.

#6

I can’t offer any feedback on traffic or which business model is ideal, but as an interface designer a number of things jumped out at me about the landing page and the app itself:

  • The helpbox in the bottom-left corner obscures part of your headline.
  • The “create your first recipe“ button is the same color as the helpbox, but because the helpbox is much larger, users are less likely to see the button (harming conversions).
  • The screenshot of a recipe doesn’t look that easy to read. I would focus on left-aligning everything and indicating hierarchy in the information with bold and different color/sized font.
  • The “Add a recipe” form feels long and clunky. I would experiment with ways to make it smaller, snappier, and faster to use (think of the way AirBnB lets you add a new listing). Maybe get a friend to add a recipe while thinking “out loud” (a basic form of user testing) to see where sticking points may lie.
  • When I first login the screen is blank. For ‘Browse’ I would suggest adding a list of existing recipes and some filters (A ‘Browse’ page with only a search box is just… a search feature).

Best of luck!

#7

Are there established competitors in this space? Are there restaurants paying for software like this?

I have never heard of software of your type, and although I could be wrong my gut feel tells me restaurants don’t invest in software unless absolutely required.

#8

The established competitors seem to be Excel (at one end of the spectrum) or much larger systems that do everything including managing inventory, point of sales, etc. There is very little in-between, especially if you’re a small business with limited funds.

I have one customer who was looking for this exact solution. I don’t imagine they are unique, so I’m optimistic there are others in similar situations out there.

#9

Great feedback, thank you so much!

#10

Great for home cooking, catering or restaurants.

These are very different markets. Which one are you aiming for? Who do you see as your ideal customer?

#11

Yes, I can understand that assessment. The way I thought about it was the home market would get me volume and allow me to validate with a larger group of people The businesses would allow me to charge a higher premium and provide the profit.

#12

It is possible to sell to consumers and businesses. I do with my PerfectTablePlan software. But I recommend you pick one segment of the market to focus on initially. I would probably go for the businesses. Concentrate on getting a few businesses actually using the software before you add any new features.

#13

BTW I would concentrate on cold calls, cold emails, friends or friends, talking to local restaurant owners etc, rather than trying to get traffic to your website. You’ll get much better feedback that way.

#14

Thanks! Doing marketing that “doesn’t scale” is definitely up next for me.

#15

A new notes on the web site/design

A the bottom of the page you have a nice summary of the product:

RecipeMod is the easiest recipe management software available, built for people who love cooking. Track and store your recipes securely in a system that is optimizesd for efficient preparation and cooking. Great for home cooking, catering or restaurants.

I would put this at the top of the page. It’s much clearer than the headline/lead text you have there now.

I might change the wording slightly though. Possibly take out the “software” part. Instead of focusing on it being software, focus on what it does and what value it brings. For example, something like this:

The easy way to manage your recipies. Track and store your recipies in a system optimized for efficient preparation and cooking. Suitable for restaurants, caterers and home cooking enthusiats.

Your “call to action”

What does the button “Create your first recipie” do? It’s unclear what to expect when clicking this, which means I won’t click it. Same goes for the “Start creating recipies” button. What does it mean? Does it mean I will be sent to a page where I start writing a recipie, or is it a button to sign up for a trial version of the service?

I might be a bit traditional, but I prefer an explicit “sign-up” or “start trial” button. (I’m sure a horde of A/B testers can prove me wrong on this one.)

Regarding the business case/your target customers

If I owned a restaurant, I’m not sure I would be willing to depend on an Internet-service to access to my recipes. It would mean that if my venue went offline (for whatever reason) I could no longer access my recipes. This may not be a big issue if the service had a good printing feature, but I think you need to find out how your potential customers would actually use the software to answer this. Do they want to print the recipes in advance, or maybe they want to view the recipes on a tablet in the kitchen as they are preparing the food?

Personally, I would prefer a “local” solution, such as a desktop/tablet app with a centralized recipe storage (possibly on-premise), or at least with a copy/cache of the recipes on each client for offline access.

I guess a hybrid approach could be to deliver the software as a device-installable and then charge a monthly fee for keeping their recipes synched/backed up “in the cloud”. I think this could be useful for people running more than one restaurant, or even just chiefs and managers who want to work from home and have their recipes available when they get to work.

It all depends on who your intended customers are. Small resturants/single venue? Chain-restaurents/multi-venue? On-premise/off-premise use?

I think the nutritional info part could be of value, as would being able to get a list of allergens from recipes. For example, a catering business could use this to print a list of the allergens based on the recipes for the food they prepared for a specific delivery. In Norway (and the EU) caterers and restaurants are required by law to provide a list of allergens for all food they serve (it’s normally printed on the menus).

As for getting (more) customers (and for purposes of product development) I would simply walk into some (nearby) restaurants and ask them how they organize and use their recipes today. I would also ask them if they vere interested in trying out the software, for free.

I think geting a few pilot customers this way could be very benificial for validating the market and figuring out how they want to use the software, what features they need (and don’t need), etc. You don’t need to let them have it for free forever, just in the pilot phase (however long that may be).

I would also ask them if they would be willing to pay for such software, and possibly how much. If they will only use it when it’s free it’s not much of a market.

#16

Fantastic! Thank you so much. I appreciate all the feedback and suggestions you have.