The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Entrepreneurship => Topic started by: OkieM on October 09, 2018, 02:18:36 PM
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My wife and I got really interested in meal planning. So then I built this website, https://mobilemealplan.com (https://mobilemealplan.com).
I've spent a lot of time adding features to make it faster to use and more useful. You can use it like you would when you are trying to find a place for dinner, except the computer is the one that suggests meals then you can veto the ones you don't like. You can also add your own recipes, etc. And I hate subscriptions so its $0.99 to buy a meal plan with the shopping list, but its yours forever.
So to get to the point, I've been running daily test with a few dollars of spend on google ppc ads. I'm starting to get some conversions/sales just out of the ether from that. Not good enough conversion rate that google ppc would be a good channel for me, yet.
I'm stuck with when I do start doing more marketing and what channels vs spending more time adding more features like integration with instacart for grocery delivery.
I'd appreciate anyone's experiences on similar situations, advice, or general feedback on the website. Thanks!
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If you let people share their plans they will do the advertising for you. You could even make a marketplace where shops can publish meal plans(for a fee ofcourse). It is also usually easier to get money from advertisers than consumers, so consider making it free for normal people.
The website looks a bit dated. Times new roman is very 1995. I really like Helvetica myself.
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I agree that the site looks pretty dated. I'm pretty heavily involved in the online food scene, so here's some other feedback:
I feel like most people who buy meal plans buy them from bloggers who have lots of public recipes and food photos (and sometimes cookbooks). Usually the blogger's focus is either being a great cook or being a fitness/nutrition person. So when you sign up you know the general style of food that will be covered and who is responsible for the recipes.
Just from looking around the site I have no sense of who is making the meal plan or the recipes. Is it created by a chef or nutritionist or just some random person? How are the recipes tested? Are the recipes original or from random cookbooks? Is seasonality taken into account? Can you filter for allergies or diets? It's odd to me that there are no food pictures on the home screen and no copy about food.
I got excited when I saw this bc I thought you made something for meal planning on your own. I would love an app that was more customizable for making my own meal plans (and gathering circulars) in one place. None of them out there are great IMO, but the meal plan landscape is highly saturated. Pics are everything too, I would recommend wayyy upping the photo element and advertising through an Insta account.
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Thanks for the feedback! Lots of things to think about. Changing the font has been buried down my to do list, looks like I should move that up.
rdaneel0 - I started with a completely custom setup where you can pick from all the recipes, filter a million ways, change serving counts, mark off ingredients you already have, etc. It tested awfully. Could barely get my Mom to buy once. It was just so many clicks, so many decisions. But if that is your thing, knock yourself out - https://mobilemealplan.com/buildmealplan. It should still work, but I removed all the links to it from the rest of the site.
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Hey, if you tested the site my way and it didn't take then that's all you need to know! I may not be the target demo for what you're doing! I'd still recommend advertising on Instagram to drive more traffic, especially with food pics and promos/discounts. If you can build a Insta following based on your food pics (which will be easier if you have a unique perspective, like vegan, paleo, healthy, cheap, low calorie, etc.) I think you'll be golden.
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I’d suggest changing the pricing. As a consumer I really hate the idea of having to get my wallet, get out my credit card, and type in all the details for just a 99 cent payment. For that price it might as well be free. Also, as the business owner you’re having to convert so many people to make any decent money. When you do actually convince people to get their wallets out to give you money you’ve then done the hard work at that point so you want to be receiving more that a dollar (or 80-90 cents after fees).
I’d either make it free and monetize another way, charge more, or make it some kind of recurring fee - eg $5/month for unlimited meal plans.