Forem: Akshay Raveendran

Hero Section Copywriting The framework that Converts 3x

Akshay Raveendran — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 01:57:20 +0000

Your landing page has less than 3 seconds to hook visitors.

If they only read this text on your page, will they know exactly what you offer? Or even better, will it tempt them to learn more about your brand?

A weak message will make people instantly bounce.

Here's my go-to framework:

Headline

Explain the specific value people get that only your brand can offer. This is your promise to prospects, your big idea, and the reason your brand exists.

No vague claims like "get more done!" or "increase collaboration!"

The trick is to not talk actually talk about what you do, but instead what transformation you're helping with. Tap into either their deepest desires or their most superficial, nothing in between.

Example: a tax software for startups

Old headline: Have your taxes automated ---> New headline: Get $20k back from the IRS in 20 minutes

The old headline explains what they do, which is a helpful service. Saving time on manually doing taxes is great, but what people really want to hear is them either saving or making more money.

Subheadline

This is where you can give more detail about your offer. To show people how you give value while handling any objections they may have.

What you do + who you're helping + how you're helping.

Following our tax software example: We help SaaS startups claim tax credits that most accountants miss.

You can also add a guarantee to help with any uncertainties they have. "Pay $0 if we don't save you any money."

Main CTA

drives excitement, fomo, and reduces friction. More of a call-to-value than call-to-action. Don’t add any pressure, let them take action on their terms.

learn more —> create your ___ now
sign up —> start your free trial, no CC required
get started —> start building
buy now —> get x% off today!

Bonus tips:

Write how your audience talks. You can take examples from positive reviews of your brand and negative reviews from your competitors
Eliminate uncertainty by addressing their objections and showing social proof.
Take stand with your audience. relate to them, empathize, and be by their side.
Don't sell products, sell painkillers, lifestyle upgrades, transformations, investments.
If possible, have different landing pages depending on the source of traffic and how aware they are of your product. The landing page of someone unaware + coming from tik tok has a different message than the landing page people see after actively searching on google.

Resources

Design

Repository of design resources - https://neede.co/#/
Repository of design resources - Brad Traversy's Resource Collecttion
Repository of design resources - https://hoard.fyi/
Color schemes - https://colorhunt.co/ | https://coolors.co/ | https://paletton.com/

Photos

CC0 attribution-free stock photos [see license] - https://unsplash.com/
CC0 attribution-free stock photos [see license] - https://www.pexels.com/

Icons

Customizable SVG icons - https://tablericons.com/
CSS/SVG Icons - https://css.gg/
Vector Icons - https://fontawesome.com/
Icons, Photos and Vectors - https://icons8.com/
Free SVG drawings - https://undraw.co/search
681 customisable icons - https://tablericons.com/
Custom Icon pack creation - https://icomoon.io/
PNG/SVG icon packs - www.flaticon.com
2M+ Royalty-free icons - https://thenounproject.com/

CSS

CSS Hover animations - https://ianlunn.github.io/Hover/
CSS Animations - https://animista.net/
Frame comparisons - https://juxtapose.knightlab.com/
Box Shadow generator - https://www.cssmatic.com/box-shadow
CSS Gradient generator - https://cssgradient.io/
CSS @ font-face generator - https://transfonter.org/
Cubic-Bezier Curve visualizer for css animations
JS
JS Tilt effects - https://micku7zu.github.io/vanilla-tilt.js/index.html
O'Reilly JavaScript education - https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS/tree/1st-ed

Notion Template

Founders Stash- A notion template for writing your ideas and execution with the framework of the "Grow Method".

Hope it was helpful!

Fundamental you need to know if you want to get paid in $$$$

Akshay Raveendran — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 14:21:23 +0000

Go for the things customers CAN'T do - Get paid in $$$$
Go for the things customers WON'T do - Get paid in $$$
Go for the things customers DON'T do - Get paid in $$
Go for the things customers ALREADY do - Get paid in $ ONLY

One more way to think about this is

Important and Urgent things for customers - Get paid in $$$$
Urgent but NOT Important things for customers - Get paid in $$$
Important but NOT urgent things for customers - Get paid in $$
NOT Important and NOT Urgent things for customers - Get paid in $ ONLY

One more way to think about this is

Sell product to MORE CUSTOMERs (market size)
Sell MORE PRODUCTS (cross sell)
Sell product MORE FREQUENTLY (consumption)
Sell products at the PREMIUM PRICE (brand)

One more way to think about this from Product perspective is

Make something BETTER
Make something FASTER
Make something CHEAPER
Make something EASIER

Any thoughts on how your business is getting paid?

Hope you found it somewhat useful. Any specific questions lmk. Now, this is where it gets meta. Maybe I can tempt you with my Growth Mindset newsletter. I write about self-improvement, productivity, happiness, and other small pieces you may miss while being busy in achieving your goal.

10 most impressive companies that have generated millions in revenue with 0 employees

Akshay Raveendran — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 17:14:32 +0000

I want to offer some motivation to solo developers out there, as I am a solo founder myself. Y Combinator advised me to find a co-founder using their matching tool, but it's challenging for me because I have trust issues.

Many people might say that you need co-founders, workers, etc. to hit your $1M goal. However, I strongly believe that's not the case. If you are putting effort into solving a problem and providing value in people's lives, then you don't have to worry about anything.

Here are some companies who achieved the result as solo warriors;

Stardew Valley

It's a country-life role-playing game
Developed by Eric Barone
It has generated $300M+ in revenue in 6 years
Eric could become the first 1-person founder to do $1B+ in sales

BuiltWith

It helps you find what technologies and services a website uses
Founded by Gary Brewer
It generates $14M in revenue per year

Viral Nova

It's a curation site for the most viral content on the Internet (similar to Buzzfeed)
Founded by Scott Delong
At its peak, it generated $5-$10M per year in revenue and 100M readers per month with 0 funding and 0 employees

Photopea

It's a free photo and graphics editor
Made by Ivan Kutskir
It generates 10M visits per month and ~$1.5M in revenue per year
People spend 1.5 million hours a month using Photopea

Digital Inspiration

It builds google plugins for docs, sheets, slides, and more
Founded by Amit Agarwal
It gets 5M visits per month and earns $10M in revenue per year
40M+ have downloaded the plugins

Rego apps

3 of its apps (5-0 police scanner, remote for tesla apps, and police scanner+) are the most downloaded apps in their category
Founded by Allen Wong
He has made over $100M+ from these apps

Portfolio of diverse businesses

Justin Welsh has built several businesses that generate $3M+ in revenue (94% margins)
He earns through consulting, courses, paid community, newsletter sponsorships, and more

Brumate

It sells adult beverage (beer, wine) cans to keep them cold for 24+ hours
Founded by Dylan Jacob
He made $20M in revenue with 0 employees
It has 2.5M+ worldwide customers

Portfolio of diverse businesses

Pieter Levels has built several companies—remote job marketplace, AI photography, nomad community, and others—that make ~$3M+ in revenue

Carrd

It's a one-page website builder
Founded by AJ
It generates $1M+ ARR
4M+ sites have been built on Carrd

I wrote this post in my newsletter to encourage my readers to adopt a positive mindset towards their work and projects. It's important to keep moving forward and remember that success is a gradual process. I want to highlight the importance of learning to be patient and taking pride in every little accomplishment along the way.