I’m building a “DesignPickle” for all things Funnels. Would love your feedback...

Hey Entrepreneurs,

Early next year I’m rolling out a productized service business along the lines of Design Pickle, but instead of design assets, we create on-demand marketing assets: Things like landing pages, lead magnets, email campaigns, etc.

This is NOT an agency with client engagements, etc. 

It is an on-demand, menu-item style fulfillment platform where we do a few predefined things really, really well, and as much as possible try to reduce the complexity (and required customer inputs) so that creating your next killer Funnel is as easy as ordering dinner on Skip the Dishes.

Below I’ve laid out our current thinking (we’re still distilling this into a deck), just so you have the full context. 

And at the end, I pose 5 feedback questions.

So if this “deck” seems interesting to you, then I’d love to get your feedback at the end 🙂

Thanks! And here goes...

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The current elevator pitch: 

We will research your business, your market and your competitors to develop a killer Lead Magnet, Landing Page, Ad Creatives and a 30-Day Email Drip campaign designed to turn your traffic into a rabid, lifelong buyer tribe (that you can email for years... like having your own, on-demand cash printer). 

The overall thesis: 

While AI is getting continually better at creating things like one-off graphics, article content, and so on - we do not think it can deeply understand market psychology, what keeps your customers up at night, or the underlying emotions that drive purchase decisions at the individual level, for your specific offer(s).

Moreover, it’s also this psychological aspect of marketing where most businesses simply do not have the talent, resources or frankly the experience to create high-performing funnels themselves, regardless of how much "automation" they might have at their fingertips.

And that’s because this is where you need to know who your customer really is, and what they’re actually buying (hint: not your features). Few marketers focus on these fundamentals, let alone understand the selling process.

This is also why tools like ClickFunnels, HighLevel, LeadPages, etc. while very helpful, can only help with the logistics of selling. It’s still on each business to figure out how to actually tell their story, capture demand, and sell effectively.

This is why a productized service that nails market research, competitor analysis & world-class copywriting that can actually turn cold traffic into lifelong customers is going to be a no-brainer for a business that’s currently struggling to actually get a steady flow of online sales.

This is not something we see AI replacing effectively, any time soon.

Current gaps & unknowns: 

At a top level, I’m not overly worried about validation or viability; there are several existing competitors, and obviously the automation platforms have substantial customer bases (ClickFunnels etc). There will be a certain cohort that will want experts to do the actual thinking for them, storytelling, etc. Even if it’s a relatively small cohort, given the CLTV of a service like this, it still makes for a decent sized business.

But where I’m less confident is in who our ideal customer actually is...

Yes, basically every direct-response internet business needs an effective funnel that can sell. Whether you’re an Enterprise SaaS platform or a solopreneur launching your first $39 ebook, you will benefit from a killer funnel.

As a “DesignPickle” type service though, here’s the challenges I see with each core customer category...

• B2B SaaS: While sales decisions are still emotional, it’s more about account-based considerations; people usually aren’t spending their own money, so it’s more about not looking stupid vs. gaining some benefit. Harder to systemize. Very high stakes.
• Consumer / SMB SaaS: While I think in general these are ideal customers, there will be resistance to leaning in hard on personality (and personal brand); founders usually want to sell at some point, so if they become the face of the platform, then boosting performance with a high-personality funnel might ironically make it a harder business to sell. SaaS founders are also generally very technical and stereotypically avoid marketing like the plague.
• Ecommerce: Most DTC brands think of funnels as an extension of their FB ad campaigns; few see their customers as a long-term audience that can become a significant asset. However, certain lifestyle / luxury brands might differ.
• Online Courses / Coaches: Of all the customer profiles, this group probably has the most appreciation for the effectiveness of marketing psychology, copywriting, etc. and would get the value prop quickly. The problem is that most won’t have the budget or traction to outsource asset creation. This is the “poorest” segment of the market.
• Service Businesses: Agencies, consultancies, and so on would greatly benefit from having a strong personal brand + storytelling premise (funnel). However, they’re also the worst offenders when it comes to never practicing what they preach / do for others. Client work soaks up all their resources.
• Local & Brick/Mortar: Generally speaking most local businesses are going to have smaller audiences (email lists under 2K subs), where funnel ops might have limited value long-term due to a lack of scale. And for larger B&M brands with franchises across various locations, you get into stakeholder friction; messaging usually gets watered down to basic corporate-speak as a result.

Now, to be clear, I still see a ton of opportunity in each of those main customer categories as well, but I like to be clear-eyed about the overall resistance each niche will have - mainly because this helps to refine messaging to an ideal customer profile within them.

In this case though, so far, nothing’s really jumping out at me as a clear “winner” at a category level.

So far, what I’m thinking is our ICP might be situational / conditional. For example:

• A business has a funnel / is invested in the process, but it’s not working yet
• A business sees their competitor killing it with a funnel, and they’re ultra motivated to do it even better
• A business has one funnel that’s working awesome, and everything else they try sucks (so they can’t scale / expand)

Etc. Basically, our most ideal customer might be ANY type of business who gets it, who’s tried to do this themselves, and now needs the pros to come in and fix things.

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This is where your feedback would be incredibly valuable...

First, if you’ve made it all the way down to this point - thanks for enduring my rambling mess above! But I did think the context might be helpful.

Based on our overall biz plan & go-to-market considerations discussed above, if you run a business (or work with one) that might benefit from something like this, I’d love to ask a few questions...

• What is the nature of your business? (What do you sell)?
• What do you find hardest about selling to your online audience?
• Have you built a funnel in the past / are you running one currently?
• If not, what’s stopping you from building a high-performing funnel?
• If you had a “magic marketing lamp” where a genie could create ONE amazing marketing asset for you (eg. a killer landing page, video ad, launch strategy, etc), but you could only use it ONCE, what would you have the genie do for you?

Please reply below as a comment, or DM me if you’d prefer to keep answers anonymous. 

Thanks so much

And again, apologies for the novel...

Cheers