Applying Lean and MVPs to Web Development

Applying Lean and MVPs to Web Development

by | Jul 22, 2022 | Branding, Design Strategy, Digital, Marketing

When you are launching a new company, or product, or brand, it’s important that you like it. But it’s really really important that you have customers who like it. 


A business without sales, has a hard time sticking around. So while your idea may be great, and you have a passion and a vision for it  If you haven’t tested it you really have no idea if it will sell. Lean Startup philosophy uses a technique called Minimum Viable Product (MVP) where you create a website to sell or pre-sell an idea that doesn’t exist in physical form to gather data about how the idea or product will perform in the market place. . Here are some keys to ensuring your MVP is a success. 


Build a Website  (It should say who you are, describe the benefit, include illustrations and diagrams, videos)


Incorporate E-Commerce (It’s not enough to just track visits, you want to know who will  buy in)


Build A Marketing Strategy (SEO, Digital Advertising, Email Campaign, A/B testing)


Track Your Data (analytics, tracking, CRM)


Manage Expectations (communicate how/when your product/services will be delivered)



Setting up lean and MVPs (minimum viable product) in your website can be a great way to test new language and marketing with your audience and gather feedback, so that you can have more conclusive data before investing the big funds in your messaging and marketing.

As a design agency, we specialize in brand communications, and we get especially jazzed about digital platforms. We start by understanding who our clients are, and creating colors, logos, fonts, and styles that express this identity within a snap-judgment second of web scrolling. We also think strategically. Aside from visual strategy, we work with expert copywriters to ensure that content is relevant and engaging, and we talk about all of the tiered goals so that we know what should be built and implemented now, and what we want to build and implement in the future after some user feedback. 


Some advantages that come with leaning into a tiered web approach could be more clearly identifying your target audience and their pain points, understanding how they use the website and how they want to use the product, understanding your direct and indirect competitors, and learning what to highlight so that you are differentiated from the competition.

Ready to get started? Schedule a complimentary consultation. 


Brand Brag:


One great example of an MVP site is Groupon. When Groupon first launched, this was a brand new concept- digital coupons. They started with a simple WordPress site, and used downloadable PDFs as the groupons. Once they proved a desire and made some revenue, they stepped up their game, and now have a net worth of 0.69billion dollars. 

They Love Me, They Love Me Not

They Love Me, They Love Me Not

by | Feb 7, 2022 | Branding

We all know a marketer’s worst fear; having their message be misunderstood. When this happens, there is a chance that your customers will forgive and forget. However, that is not always the case. Because of social media and the ability to voice any opinion at any time, marketing mishaps can shift the perception of your brand for the long haul. The goal is to avoid making marketing mistakes in the first place, but no one is perfect. Here are five steps that will help your brand recover if your marketing campaign doesn’t land well. (according to zoho.com) 

  1. Listen to what people have to say– in order to learn from your experience and ensure that nothing similar ever happens again in the future, you need to understand where you went wrong. It is important to listen to your consumers and value their opinion. Once you hear what they have to say, own up to your mistakes and take responsibility for your actions. 
  2. Think like a customer- remember, your marketing campaign can flop even if it wasn’t offensive. Maybe it wasn’t unique. Maybe it didn’t highlight what made your brand different from the rest. Maybe it didn’t do anything wrong, but it didn’t do anything right either. Put yourself in your customers shoes and ask yourself if you would remember the marketing campaign that you just created. If not, go back to the drawing board and rework it so that your customers are engaged. 
  3. Analyze your numbers- you need to dig deep. Sometimes just looking at a metric does not tell the whole story. If something has a lot of views, it doesn’t mean that everyone watched it. They could have clicked on your video and then exited out because they found it boring. If you look at the data and you see that a lot of people clicked out of your video at the same part, go back in and make changes. Do people click away once they see numbers? Do they click away when the music cuts out? Pay attention to these minor details and it can make a major impact on your brand. It helps to have analytics installed on your website, to use a CRM platform to track different messages, and to compare analytics from different forms of communication.  
  4. Do one thing at a time- do not feel rushed to jump into many different avenues after (or before!) a marketing mishap. Like with anything in life, it is best to fully dedicate yourself to one thing then it is too spread yourself too thin and try to cover too many bases. When you do this, you are not fully dedicating yourself to one task, and are missing out on an opportunity to excel in something. So learn from your mistakes, and take your time to fix it. Focus. 
  5. Hire an Expert- Remember, marketing takes up an entire section of your business plan because without it you don’t have a business. Too many business owners waste time and energy trying to tackle marketing tasks that they don’t understand. When faced with any challenge it’s always better to meet with an expert, come up with a budget and use what you’re good at to earn the money you need to hire the right help.

Remember that every business has its failures and it is okay to make mistakes as long as you are willing to learn from them. 

Wish You Could Clone Yourself? 3 Places to Automate

Wish You Could Clone Yourself? 3 Places to Automate

by | Jul 22, 2021 | Design Strategy, Marketing

As business owners, we’ve all had that fun challenge of learning to scale. How can we increase our revenue, knowing we can’t increase ourselves. When time, resources, and accessibility are limited, it can be difficult to scale without substantially increasing cost. Automation is a great way to bring in some recurring revenue so that your business can continue to make money, even when you take time off.1 ) Automate your customer relationships. Relationship marketing continues to be of the most importance. Word of mouth is still the number one referral. It can feel daunting to keep in touch with all of your customers while trying to make new customers. You can automate this. By using tools like email marketing, social scheduling, content planning, and a CRM system, you can keep track of your customers, and contact them automatically at the necessary times without even stepping foot into your office.

2 ) Automate your sales. It is easier to scale products than people. If you are looking for a way to automate your sales, consider creating a product line. This can be something simple like a digital book, or digital course, or branded material goods. By creating a product line, you are allowing income to continue coming into your business, even when you take a vacation.

3 ) Automate your processes. Instead of starting from scratch with each new customer, automate your processes. Create a sales funnel and think about what you want your customers to experience, from the first time they hear about you to years after purchasing. You can use things like landing pages and digital ads to bring people in, emails and social messages to stay in touch, and digitized onboarding and offboarding processes to reduce the amount of work with each new interaction. If you are a service-based company, there are many online platforms that offer digitized contracts and invoicing so your clients can sign and pay immediately online. If you’re product-based, consider a service like Shopify that can help you manage e-commerce online.

Whether you choose one or all three of these options, automation can make your business, and your life, run much more smoothly and profitably.

Would you like to automate your business? We’d be happy to help. Schedule a complimentary 30 min consultation call with us here.

5 Tips to Winning Your Sales Cycle

5 Tips to Winning Your Sales Cycle

by | Jun 22, 2021 | Marketing, Uncategorized

Brand strategy is a tool you use to grow your business, increase visibility and build brand equity. One of the ways to build a winning strategy is to align your marketing with how you’re already getting and doing business. To do that it’s best to understand your sales cycle.

Leverage the Power of Your Data
When it comes to reviewing data, time is your friend. It takes time to gather enough data to observe patterns caused by your sales cycle. If you are constantly adjusting your messaging or operating without a strategy, your audience won’t develop with enough consistency to deliver measurable results. They need a clear long-term strategy and consistent messaging to build a relationship with your brand.

Change with the Seasons
Here in Pennsylvania, we have 4 robust seasons. Seasons mean weather, and drastic changes in weather can greatly affect people’s habits which in turn affects your sales cycle. We also see fluctuations around holidays, graduations, weddings, and other life events.

Indentify Irregularities
As you review your marketing each quarter, take note of each of the factors that could be contributing to your data. A dip in engagement and/or sales may not mean that your audience doesn’t like your brand or messaging. It may just mean they were busy planning for a vacation. Likewise, an increase could mean you capitalized on a unique seasonal opportunity or lucked out being able to provide a product or service that met a particular need. You’ll want to consider if these factors are one-offs or if they will persist year over year then make adjustments to your sales and marketing strategy accordingly.

Know Where Your Customers Are in Relationship to Your Process
You’ll also want to understand where your customers are in relationship to your sales process. In any sales process, there are phases your customers go through — beginning with the customer who knows nothing about you, then the customer who kind of knows about you but isn’t really engaged, followed by the customer who knows about you and is interested but isn’t quite ready to make a purchase, and finally the customer who is ready to take action, and the customer you’ve already converted into business. Each of your customers will also navigate through your sales process at different rates. So it’s important to adjust your strategy to offer unique support and messages to individuals throughout each phase of the process.

Create a Branding & Communications Strategy that Aligns with Your Process
The goal of branding and marketing is to leverage your messaging, visual assets, and data to shorten your sales cycle and increase your rate of conversion, thus maximizing your time, and resources. Ideally, you’ll want to begin communicating with your audience at phase 1 and continue the conversation so that you are already top of mind when they are ready to take action. Strategies that see the most effective results target the person who is pre-decision, so you gain their business the second they decide to shift into action.

Do you need help understanding how to align your brand strategy with your sales cycle? At Intelativity, we offer full-service brand strategy. Schedule a complimentary consultation with one of our Strategists to get started.

Sarah Michelle

by | Sep 2, 2020 | Collaborators

Meet Sarah Michelle. Sarah Michelle is the creator and CEO of HoneyMAP and a seasoned Brand Strategist. With a decade of combined experience in business strategy and lay psychology, Sarah looks at both the business as well as the company’s leadership to get to the heart of who they are, why they exist, and how to tell people. She has held roles in both ad agency and internal marketing and has spent the last five years helping business leaders harness their core mission to grow healthier brands. Sarah’s mission is to sweeten the world by ending identity crisis, and she speaks and consults nationally on discovering and owning brand and personal identity. When she’s not geeking out on identity, you can find her hiking with her furbabes or drinking copious amounts of coffee in independent bookstores. You can find her online at sarahmichelle.love or Facebook/Instagram @SneakPeekSarah