We’re all about onboarding and helping websites turn visitors into core users at Kera. We’re kicking off a new series you can follow called Product Page Report Card. In this series we will analyse and grade web product pages.
DataSift will be analysed in this article. You can submit your site to be analysed by commenting on this post.
Initial Impression
There are two prominent buttons. Take a Tour and Free Trial. I see a lot of Social media icons and the name Datasift makes me think it’s a tool to analyse social data. Still I have no idea what it does. There’s a lot of text on the page so I ignore it because I’m not hooked. They haven’t given me a reason to look further yet.
Carmine Gallo from The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs:
According to scientist John Medina, our brains were formed to see the big picture. Medina says that when primitive man saw a saber-toothed tiger, he asked himself, “Will it eat me?” and not “How many teeth does it have?”
In the same way, websites should convey meaning such as key idea or concept to help the user put the product in an easily understandable category first. And then begin to paint a more detailed picture.
To try to understand what the product is about I click on Take a Tour. There, I’m hooked.
Grading Criteria
1. Hook - The purpose of the hook is to arouse the audience’s attention and interest. DataSift does this by launching you into an interactive tutorial. It’s very powerful because it is engaging the user and getting the user involved. Similar to the famous and often cited Codecademy hook.
Grade: A+
2. Problem and Pain Explained - In the famous book SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham, one of the main messages is the importance of drawing out implied need and asking the right questions to develop the seriousness of the problem before offering a solution.
From the book:
This is the central purpose of Implication Questions in larger sales. They take a problem that the buyer perceives to be small and build it up into a problem large enough to justify action.
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There have been many occasions when we’ve been talking to decision makers after a call and heard them comment favourably on salespeople who asked them Implication Questions, saying things like “that person talked my language ” Implications are the language of decision makers, and if you can talk their language, you'll influence them better.
DataSift doesn’t spend much time emphasising the pain or empathising with users initially but if you go into their plans and industry section, you’ll see some of this technique. From their plans page:
I’m a small business or start up with under 250 employees looking for a certified data partner that can aggregate many social sources and can help me target social users by sophisticated filters.
This is DataSift’s weakest area. It can be improved by better conveying its knowledge of the customer’s pain.
Grade: B+
3. Top Level Picture - DataSift quickly explains it is a social data platform in its video. It also clearly states what it’s about on its home page with this line:
DataSift is the leading platform for building applications with insights derived from the most popular social networks and news sources.
If you’re not in the sector, it still might be confusing what that sentence means. There’s some business speak in there, but taking a quick tour or watching the video clarifies a lot.
Grade: A
4. 3 Key Benefits Explained - It’s best to only include 3 key benefits because that’s the optimal number to be able to persuade and still be retained. Once you end up on their trial page. You’re hit with the 3 key persuasive arguments. My interpretation of their benefits:
- Unlocks value in your data
- Works with your existing BI products
- Scalable
Copy could be better though.
Grade: A
5. Social Proof & Partners - Customer evidence is one of the most powerful tools in marketing. Showing off your customers and partners provides trust and reduces perceived risks. DataSift has a lot of coverage from notable news publications such as Bloomberg, TechCrunch, and Forbes. It’s also a Twitter partner. However, not showing which companies are using its platform is a shortcoming.
Grade: A-
6. Multimedia & Video - Videos are vital to communication and conversion. You need multimedia to keep the visitor interested and engaged in your messaging. Furthermore, there are 3 types of learners: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. DataSift engages all of the learning types. DataSift has a pretty decent video explaining their product with audio and visuals. They also use an interactive tutorial that gets the hand-on visitor trying the tool without needing to sign up!
Grade: A+
7. Use Cases - Uses cases makes it clear to the visitor how the product can be valuable in their lives. This is where DataSift excels. They go into industries and spell out the value for the visitor.
For example, finance. Bloomberg:
Since DataSift introduced a product for financial firms in September, customers have been using the software to gain insight into sentiment around companies ranging from Facebook to Research In Motion, and determine how that influences stocks or correlates with price movements, said Rob Bailey, DataSift’s chief executive officer.
Grade: A+
8. Calls to Action - Having multiple calls to action is great. Using different copy for calls to action is excellent. They definitely make it easy for a visitor to buy.
Grade: A+
Overall grade: A+
DataSift does an excellent job of showcasing its platform. It scored highly on all of our product page criteria. This is definitely a good example of a well made product page and tour.
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Taige Zhang
Product Marketing at Kera
