Erik Torenberg

Fomo - Online equivalent of a busy store.

the world's first social proof proof marketing platform, with a vision to give honest entrepreneurs the credibility they deserve.

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Ben Tossell
What's the feedback been so far? I've no doubt that it would convert people but I can't help thinking that it would drive some people mad!
Please delete
@bentossell the first time I saw something like this was on @themakeshake website. It definitely answered the question "would anyone use this" and it gave me that hint of anxiety that I was missing the train by not getting anything. As long as it's discrete and not too invasive, I thought it was done well.
Ben Tossell
@caprihiggins @themakeshake yeh and thats why I can definitely see it will convert people. But being in the startup game and previously in marketing... 'growth-hacking' techniques dont work on me... a pop up to get my email puts me off more than makes me want to use it. I feel like this would do the same for me. Although that may well be the minority
Please delete
@bentossell oh does FOMO pop ups ask for email? I never saw that on Make Shake. I will say that the more I am immersed, the more I see through the fishing nets but this world is definitely the minority. Most people (at least in my circles) have no concept of half the stuff on PH and would be impressed with the show.
Ryan Kulp
@caprihiggins @bentossell we're proud that Make Shake was a Fomo customer!
Ryan Kulp
@bentossell Thanks Ben, and agree. We value user experience far beyond "capturing more emails" and recently wrote about this here: http://blog.usefomo.com/dont-fig... Instead of asking for anything from* your users, Fomo lets you share information to* your users, and it's up to them if they want to consider it in their browsing behavior. Visitors may also disable Fomo permanently on their browser, by simply clicking the 'x' button in the top right corner of most notifications.
Jeffrey Wyman
interruption marketing. not a fan.
Justin Mares
@jeffrey_wyman Respectfully, I completely disagree. I think popovers, full screen grabs, etc. are interruption marketing. We think of Fomo more like reviews or testimonials on steroids than as a tool that interrupts. With Fomo, you can opt out for months at a time, it will never stop you from reading content or doing anything on a site, and it won't insult you. Instead, it gently surfaces information to your visitors. I wrote about this more on our blog, would love your thoughts - http://blog.usefomo.com/dont-fig...
Jeffrey Wyman
@jwmares wouldn't you rather have their full attention on your content?
Justin Mares
@jeffrey_wyman Truthfully, that's often not enough. For lots of content, adding a social proof layers - reviews, comments, testimonials, etc. - makes people want to engage further in your content, not leave your site.
✎ Andrew Warner
@jeffrey_wyman I've been on sites that do this and I never thought of it as an interruption or as marketing. It just felt like the store was active. Often, I can't tell if an online business is even running any more or shut down. I check the copyright date for a clue, but that often auto-updates. Something like Fomo lets me know it's still up and other people trust it.
Ryan Kulp
@andrewwarner @jeffrey_wyman "Fomo lets you know what's up!" << I dig it. :)
Brian Kidwell
Overall I'm a fan of the concept. From a conversion optimization perspective I'm curious if it's worth distracting them to look in the corner of the screen though... Is there any way to embed it into a certain section of the page instead of having it as a popup?
Ryan Kulp
@thebriankidwell thanks for the support brian! the corner is all for now, but a future release will have exactly what you're proposing -- the ability to both a) inject fomo notifications into specific page elements (ie: custom
) as well as user-driven gestures that trigger them, like a click, hover, etc.
Ryan Kulp
@thebriankidwell big fan of your flight list BTW... going to bali next month because of it!
Brian Kidwell
@ryanckulp oh awesome! Congrats man! I got a flight out to Bali in February for $467 or something like that thanks to Scott. 🙌Scott is damn good at finding cheap flights! I'd love to put the site here on PH but I'm not sure if it fits the "product" requirement...
Ryan Kulp
@thebriankidwell hmmm IDK, anything that makes the world a better place and works in my sleep is a product to me. what do you think @bentossell? heard of the scott's flights platform?
Ben Tossell
@ryanckulp @thebriankidwell DM me on twitter - keep this thread for Fomo related stuff :)
Evan Kimbrell
FOMO is such a no brainer. I first saw this on a Shopify store and even though I had no interest in the product being sold I remember getting itchy and thinking "wait, maybe I SHOULD buy this". Compared to static testimonials these slide ins are way more convincing. I'm already looking at getting this installed on my blog to show every time someone signs up for my Slack chat. Possibilities are endless
Ryan Kulp
@evankimbrell thanks for the love evan! and exactly-- stale testimonials are on their way out. rich, up-to-date, customer-centric media is on the way in. syncing with slack chat signups would be a great use case. let me know if you need help implementing on your platform.
Nick deWilde
Really like this idea. Brings a party to any static e-commerce website.
Brent Summers
This is awesome. "Don't fight your users" is something more growth hacking products need to follow. Turn off your popups and stop turning off potential buyers.
Ryan Kulp
@brentsum thanks Brent! BTW, super impressed with the Codefreebnb.com project -- was admiring it earlier this week when it was featured on HackerNewsletter.
Jason Wise
Great idea and interesting events to showcase! I dig. The only criticism I have is related to the image choices for the orange section benefits under the hero on your landing page...Arnold as the Terminator with a gun above "Inspire action" made me cringe...
Ryan Kulp
@jawise You don't love Arnold?!
Jason Wise
@ryanckulp I saw the drawing as Arnold but someone with less pop-culture savvy might see something different or misinterpret your intentions. More about first impressions than feelings about Arnold.
Ryan Kulp
@jawise thanks for the feedback jason. a new homepage design is already in the works -- we'll consider this in that iteration.
Bruno Wong
This looks really cool! Have you guys seen it increase conversion % for any of your customers? And by how much?
Ryan Kulp
@brunowong thanks Bruno! Great question. About 6 weeks ago we launched an analytics tool for a small group of our ecommerce customers. Of the 130 who authenticated their Google Analytics platforms with Fomo, they generated a collective $511,000 in sales. Since we have a few thousand customers, we predict Fomo has generated north of $10 million in sales for our customers.
Nik Sharma
If you look at a lot of the "detox" tea companies - FitTea, Flat Tummy Tea, Naked Me Tea, BooTea - they all use this. Whether it's real or not is another question, but it seems to work like gold for tons of these companies who have that younger F 14-25 y.o. audience.
Ryan Kulp
@mrsharma Yup, FitTea is a customer, BooTea used to be. ;)
Dave Gerhardt
Congrats on the launch @jwmares - excited to see what you guys do!
Robin Singhvi
Would love to use this! No special promo code for PHers?! ;)
Ryan Kulp
@robinsinghvi Hey Robin! We have a forever-free plan, and I'm happy to give you an extended free trial (90 days ok?) for a premium plan. Just ping me, ryan@ usefomo.com. Cheers!
Shashank
Looks like a good idea but what if the people just start faking all these notifications ? Will that count as fraud ?
Ryan Kulp
@itsshashank This is a valid point and something we take seriously. Fomo users are encouraged to use our API, Zapier connection, and other direct integrations so that 'spoofing' data becomes more difficult; in the case that folks abuse their ability to manually 'hard-code' notifications, we reserve the right to challenge their account status. Because unless the data Fomo streams is accurate, nobody wins. So we're keeping an eye on that. Good looking out. :)
Ross Blankenship
Super. Simple. Brilliant. Absolutely love this product. What's in store for long-term product pipeline? Ross Blankenship CEO | AngelKings.com
Ryan Kulp
@rossblankenship Thanks for the support, Ross! Longer term, we have several things in mind: * Cross-site persistence, ie: end-user gets a cohesive experience jumping from site A to site B, because both use Fomo * Tapping into social graphs (instead of "John Smith did this," "Your friend Sam bought this") * Affiliate promotions (Sunglass site has notifications that up-sell another website's suntan lotion) * Giveaways (ie, users will visit sites that show Fomo notifications with special deals or free event tickets, etc every 1 / XXX times they're shown) ... and much, much more. :)
Cody Juric
This is great! Not disruptive to customers and provides a sense of activity to otherwise quiet brand engagement.
Paul Engelbertink
Hi, Nice product, I like it.. Do you know: https://www.conversify.com/ They almost do the same, use little different data! Maybe it inspires you!
Elliot Nash
I love this. I didn't realize @JustinMares (co-author of Traction, which is one of the most important startup books) was one of the makers until reading the comments here, but it makes perfect sense. Awesome work, can't wait to use it!
✨Lauralynn Stubler✨
pretty darn cool, looking forward to trying it!!!
Ryan Kulp
@lauralynnz Thanks Lauralynn! Ping me if you need any help setting up.
Frank Denbow
Great app, I recommend it to all the Shopify store owners I work with.
Ryan Kulp
@frankdenbow You're the man, Frank! Thanks for all your support.
Drew Meyers
To play devil's advocate - why is this not just a tool to trick people into buying stuff they don't want or need?
Justin Mares
@drewmeyers Because it's not a trick. There's no bait and switch and no deception at any point. In the same way seeing a line of people at a restaurant doesn't "trick" someone into eating at that restaurant, showing what other users are doing on your site doesn't trick someone into buying your product or service. Plus, this only works if someone is already on your site :). Hopefully, if they're on your site, they're not there to buy things they don't want or need.
Stefan Kojouharov
Will definitely give it a try. If you need feedback don't hesitate.