Up and Running Blog

Address your target customer!

by Sabrina Parsons on September 19, 2007

I just read about MINT, an online money management application, winning the TechCrunch 40 conference. I read TechCrunch, and I immediately wanted to see more about the chosen winner. I also happen to be the person who deals with tracking my household’s finances — from paying bills to budgeting our income. So when I heard Mint won, I was definitely interested in how it might make my life easier.

Here is the rub: Mint does not address this question very well on their website. Here is what they say about why you will love Mint:

  1. You’re always up-to-date
  2. You know your spending
  3. You find real savings
  4. We look out for you
  5. You’re safe and secure
  6. … and it’s free!

I have been using Quicken for over 5 years. Considering the market share Intuit has, I am sure that I am in good company. Do I LOVE Quicken? NO! Does it get the job done? Yes. Is there room for improvement — plenty! This is why I was so immediately interested in Mint. If they can improve on the budgeting side of things I would gladly switch over.

But they don’t address me as a potential customer at all. They don’t seem to allow me to import financial data that I have sitting in Quicken (which could help them build a better budget for me). They also don’t address why I may not need to import my financial data. 

Help me out Mint — write a little marketing copy to hook me in and sell me your service. I am a perfect potential customer — but you lost me on your home page.

Sabrina
Mommy CEO

About the author: Sabrina has served as CEO of Palo Alto Software since 2007. She and her husband, Noah, founded a UK software distribution company in 2001 that later was purchased by and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Palo Alto Software. Sabrina is a successful Internet expert, having served as Director of Online Marketing at Commtouch, Senior Producer at Epinions.com, and founder of her own Web consulting company, Lighting Out. She is a graduate of Princeton University. Sabrina masquerades as MommyCEO (www.mommyceo.org), where she writes a blog about running a business and balancing that with life with her husband and three young sons. When Sabrina is not at work she can be found chasing her kids all over Oregon: biking, hiking, swimming, skiing, and anything outdoors that uses up a lot of little boys' energy. More »

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