{"id":1746,"date":"2012-12-17T18:13:09","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T18:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intercom.com\/blog\/?p=1746"},"modified":"2020-07-30T13:04:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T12:04:04","slug":"bad-channels-motivation-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad channels and the wrong customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Problem:<\/strong> You’ve launched your product, it’s getting plenty of coverage. People are signing up, but no one is actually using it.<\/p>\n

Sometimes they’re not using it because they have no need for it. You can make something easy-to-do, quick-to-do, simple, clear and obvious, but if none of the people you attract want to do it, then it’s all for nothing.<\/p>\n

You may as well try sell wedding dresses to single guys.<\/p>\n

How to fix this:<\/strong> You’re attracting the wrong type of people through bad marketing channels. Fix your marketing. More importantly, filter out bad channels so they don’t pollute your data and prevent good analysis.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/strong> A friend runs a wedding website. One day their conversion rate sank from 6% to 0.5%. They panicked and rolled back recent updates thinking they’d screwed up.<\/p>\n

They hadn’t. They were Techcrunched, hardly a great source of brides to be.<\/p>\n

Key idea:<\/strong> Eliminate bad channels that cost money, and filter out the ones that don’t from your data. Don’t waste time stressing about, A\/B testing or trying to convert dead traffic.<\/p>\n

\n

This is the first in a series of short<\/em> posts asking a simple question. “Why won’t my users do X”, where X can be anything. Next we’ll look at problems around Discovery, Value Proposition, Complexity, Competition, and Conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Problem: You’ve launched your product, it’s getting plenty of coverage. People are signing up, but no one is actually using it. Sometimes they’re not using it because they have no need for it. You can make…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"category":[5],"tags":[150,70,62],"coauthors":[348],"class_list":["post-1746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-product-and-design","tag-engagement","tag-marketing","tag-product-management"],"yoast_head":"\nBad channels and the wrong customers - The Intercom Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You have launched your product, and it's getting plenty of coverage and traction. Many people have signed up for it, but no one is using it. What do you do?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bad channels and the wrong customers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You have launched your product, and it's getting plenty of coverage and traction. Many people have signed up for it, but no one is using it. What do you do?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Intercom Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intercominc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/destraynor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-17T18:13:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-30T12:04:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/motivation-740.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"740\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Des Traynor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@destraynor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@intercom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Des Traynor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Des Traynor\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/eca2beed88876408030509097abe63c2\"},\"headline\":\"Bad channels and the wrong customers\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-17T18:13:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-30T12:04:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":232,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/12\\\/motivation-740.png\",\"keywords\":[\"engagement\",\"marketing\",\"product management\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Product & Design\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\\\/\",\"name\":\"Bad channels and the wrong customers - The Intercom Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/12\\\/motivation-740.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-17T18:13:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-30T12:04:04+00:00\",\"description\":\"You have launched your product, and it's getting plenty of coverage and traction. Many people have signed up for it, but no one is using it. What do you do?\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/12\\\/motivation-740.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/12\\\/motivation-740.png\",\"width\":740,\"height\":506},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Intercom Blog\",\"description\":\"Articles and Podcasts on Customer Service, AI and Automation, Product, and more\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Intercom Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/08\\\/Intercom-logo-sq-black-trans.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/08\\\/Intercom-logo-sq-black-trans.png\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"The Intercom Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/intercominc\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/intercom\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/intercom\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/2491343\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pinterest.ie\\\/intercom\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCJG0MvLP03kyzzAkD-w98aQ\",\"https:\\\/\\\/en.wikipedia.org\\\/wiki\\\/Intercom_(company)\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/eca2beed88876408030509097abe63c2\",\"name\":\"Des Traynor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/09e398a496ac2704b5a250c7e1aa65b160bb3650bb5bd89ed26723898ee32b30?s=96&d=mm&r=pg2b6d61a5289bb1233dbc5e2b0420fffb\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/09e398a496ac2704b5a250c7e1aa65b160bb3650bb5bd89ed26723898ee32b30?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/09e398a496ac2704b5a250c7e1aa65b160bb3650bb5bd89ed26723898ee32b30?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Des Traynor\"},\"description\":\"Des leads Intercom's R&D org and oversees its product strategy. He often speaks about product and growth strategies at conferences worldwide, including SaaStr, Web Summit, and The Next Web. He's also the host of the Intercom on Product podcast. Prior to Intercom he co-founded Exceptional and worked in UX design.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/destraynor\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/destraynor\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intercom.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/des\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bad channels and the wrong customers - The Intercom Blog","description":"You have launched your product, and it's getting plenty of coverage and traction. Many people have signed up for it, but no one is using it. What do you do?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bad channels and the wrong customers","og_description":"You have launched your product, and it's getting plenty of coverage and traction. Many people have signed up for it, but no one is using it. What do you do?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/","og_site_name":"The Intercom Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intercominc","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/destraynor","article_published_time":"2012-12-17T18:13:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-07-30T12:04:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":740,"height":506,"url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/motivation-740.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Des Traynor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@destraynor","twitter_site":"@intercom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Des Traynor","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/"},"author":{"name":"Des Traynor","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/eca2beed88876408030509097abe63c2"},"headline":"Bad channels and the wrong customers","datePublished":"2012-12-17T18:13:09+00:00","dateModified":"2020-07-30T12:04:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/"},"wordCount":232,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/motivation-740.png","keywords":["engagement","marketing","product management"],"articleSection":["Product & Design"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/","url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/","name":"Bad channels and the wrong customers - The Intercom Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/motivation-740.png","datePublished":"2012-12-17T18:13:09+00:00","dateModified":"2020-07-30T12:04:04+00:00","description":"You have launched your product, and it's getting plenty of coverage and traction. Many people have signed up for it, but no one is using it. What do you do?","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/bad-channels-motivation-problems\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/motivation-740.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/motivation-740.png","width":740,"height":506},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/","name":"The Intercom Blog","description":"Articles and Podcasts on Customer Service, AI and Automation, Product, and more","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Intercom Blog","url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Intercom-logo-sq-black-trans.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Intercom-logo-sq-black-trans.png","width":1000,"height":1000,"caption":"The Intercom Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/intercominc","https:\/\/x.com\/intercom","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/intercom\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/2491343","https:\/\/www.pinterest.ie\/intercom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCJG0MvLP03kyzzAkD-w98aQ","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Intercom_(company)"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/eca2beed88876408030509097abe63c2","name":"Des Traynor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/09e398a496ac2704b5a250c7e1aa65b160bb3650bb5bd89ed26723898ee32b30?s=96&d=mm&r=pg2b6d61a5289bb1233dbc5e2b0420fffb","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/09e398a496ac2704b5a250c7e1aa65b160bb3650bb5bd89ed26723898ee32b30?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/09e398a496ac2704b5a250c7e1aa65b160bb3650bb5bd89ed26723898ee32b30?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","caption":"Des Traynor"},"description":"Des leads Intercom's R&D org and oversees its product strategy. He often speaks about product and growth strategies at conferences worldwide, including SaaStr, Web Summit, and The Next Web. He's also the host of the Intercom on Product podcast. Prior to Intercom he co-founded Exceptional and worked in UX design.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/destraynor","https:\/\/x.com\/destraynor"],"url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/author\/des\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/motivation-740.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category?post=1746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1746"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}