6 Mistakes You Are Making When Choosing Your Software

6 Mistakes You Are Making When Choosing Your Software

Let’s talk about the 6 Mistakes You Are Making When Choosing Your Software. I will always recommend the software that I know and love, or that offers the best value for money. However, there are also some points that you really need to make sure that you have looked at. You make the decision of choosing a software that’s not fit for your purpose.

I thought it would be really helpful if I provided you with the six most common mistakes that I find. To help you avoid making those same mistakes.

1. Overthinking your software choice

So you’re sitting there procrastinating about the software to use. You think I’m going to do this new membership site, it’s going to be amazing. Now, What software do I use? You procrastinate about the software and you think I need to choose this software because I can’t do anything else until I’ve chosen this software. Then you’re procrastinating more and more.

Before you know it, years passed and the membership site has had nothing done with it. You’ve done no content you’ve not launched it. And that’s because you’re still trying to figure out what software to use on top of your already busy schedule.

Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t think about the software that you’re going to use because you should.

But what I am saying is choosing your software should not be the first thing you do when you’re looking to create a new offer. It should actually be the last or one of the last.

What you need to do is to start creating the content you need to start mapping out how that offer looks and how you’re going to deliver it. You need to have all these moving parts answered before you can decide on what software is right for you. That’s because a lot of the time when you start creating the content for this new offer. Because it’s new, you don’t know how this is going to be.

You then start going down a bit of a different path. And that can sometimes mean that you then need to think about another piece of software that’s actually going to work better.

So that’s why I really recommend that you make sure that you have all your ducks in a row. Really, you look at what you’re trying to create and start creating it before you start worrying about the software you’re going to use.

2. Following the crowd

This is probably the most common one, where people say, oh what software do you use? And someone over there says they use this, someone over there so they use that. You end up getting confused because all these different people are saying oh no you have to use this software it’s amazing. It’s brilliant it’s changed my business.

I’m not saying to not take recommendations from people. But what I am saying is don’t just follow the crowd. Make a decision based on what you need and want. Not what their business needs and wants because your business is going to be unique. It is your business, you know your business inside out. You know what your business needs. Ultimately, the person that uses software over here isn’t going to know your business. They’re not going to know what your business needs from the software.

Therefore, that piece of software could work really well for them. But actually, if you then integrate it into your business and your model is completely different. You’re going to have a really hard time to try and figure this out. Because you’re going to get frustrated that it’s not working for you as it works for that person over there. So, do not follow the crowd, make a decision based on what you need and want.

3. Basing your choice purely on cost

I’m not saying here that you shouldn’t make a decision based on cost because you should, of course, take budget into account. But what you need to be looking at is the bigger picture. You need to be looking at the functionality that you need and making sure that whichever tool you have can provide that. Because one of the biggest problems we end up seeing is that someone creates this new business model say a membership site.

And they have basically signed up to the cheapest software version they possibly had. But then six months down the line, their membership sites going really well. They have realised that, actually, the next stage they wanted to bring into their membership site, the functionality is not there. So they ended up having to migrate their entire new offering over to a new platform.

This not only cost them more money than it probably would have by cost signing up to the new tool originally.

Because you end up paying someone to do the migration for them. But it also causes disruption for their members, it causes a bit of a headache for their members.

Especially if they’re changing so much around because remember humans like the routine they like to know what to expect. And if your customers have got really used to the layout of how your membership site works. Then in six months time you say, I’m changing it all and it’s a completely different layout. It can get really frustrating.

So, don’t just make the decision based on the cost. But make sure that you’re not going to find yourself in six months time having to move to a different platform. Because you made the decision to go with the cheapest option. And that doesn’t provide the functionality that you need.

4. Not looking at the bigger picture

So it’s not looking at your overall objective. You want to make sure that you are so clear on the objective for where this new offering is going. But you know what you’re going to need in the future.

Sure, further down the line, you may find that you want to change software providers. Because there’s always new providers coming to the market there might be a new one that comes on that’s better and more cost effective. That’s completely fine, but you don’t want to be doing that, after a few months. 

I’m going to move it there because my customers are going to have a better, better experience.

Maybe there’s more integration there. So you want to be making sure that it’s not only the right move for you but it’s the right move for your customers as well. And what you can do when you look at the future of this new offering.

You can then say, Okay, well actually, the functionality I’m going to need is x y and Z is this going to allow me to do that? No, then that’s software’s out of, out of the decision making. Because you want to make sure that you are able to provide the full offering for what you want to provide. The last thing you want to do is to have these really big grand plans.

And then to be stopped in your tracks because of software. Because not only it becomes really irritating for you after you’ve invested all this energy all this time you have to redo it again. But it’s also a really big money spender because you’re having to recreate all the stuff that you’ve done. And then you become a bit disheartened with your offer.

Then you don’t even do it you don’t put your whole heart into it. And that’s such a sad place to be because that’s ultimately why you put this offer out there. Making sure that you have looked at the bigger picture is really, really important.

5. Not having your offering mapped out or figured out

So you’re not clear on the model that you’re creating. Maybe you say to me, I’m really clear, I’m creating a membership site. And then, actually, when you come to create it. You think this isn’t really a membership site, maybe it’s a group programme. Or maybe it’s a mastermind, and you start getting all these different things to come into your head because actually what you’re creating is not what you thought it would be.

You avoid doing that by having it mapped out to what you want this offer to be. So, don’t just go on the whim and start creating stuff when you could potentially already have content there you could reuse. But you also want to know what problem you’re solving for your customers. Why are they going to want to join this membership site? What did they want from this membership site?

Do they want training from a membership site or do they want the community? What is it that your customers actually want from you? Because knowing what you want to provide and knowing what your customers want from you are two different things. You need to be able to go out there and find out exactly what that is. Because you don’t want to waste your time and energy creating something unnecessary.

Actually, your audience doesn’t want another membership site that’s going to teach them stuff. They know what they need to know, they actually want a community. Then you’ve picked a piece of software that can provide them with training but can’t provide them with a community that they want. So making sure that you have fully mapped out what your offer looks like is really important.

6. Lacking clarity around the deliverability

This is a real big problem when it comes to software because you then don’t know what integrations you’re needing. So, the majority of the time, you can integrate using a third-party tool like Zapier, but the problem is here, that many people would not have the headspace to even figure it out.

And you’re then going to end up having to hire someone before you’re ready, to be able to do that for you. You want to choose a piece of software that has the integrations within that software, if possible.

So you want to keep the third-party integrations that are needed to as minimal as possible. Especially if tech is not your forte. Making sure that the software tool you choose can integrate with your email marketing provider. For instance, is really important to make sure that you can deliver what you have said you’re delivering to your audience. Because you don’t want to sign up your audience and then say. It’s going to be delivered through email, you’re going to get an email and that’s going to tell you all about it.

And then you realise that your software provider for your membership, don’t talk to your email marketing provider. You have to then go and figure out how to integrate them through a third party. Which means that you’re overwhelmed you’re stressed out, and you get frustrated. So, we don’t want that. We want this process to be fun and enjoyable. So keeping it as simple as possible for you really helps.

I hope that has helped you 6 Mistakes You Are Making When Choosing Your Software

That’s probably not the answer that you were looking for. You wanted me to say yes that’s fine, go on to this software it’s perfect. Ultimately, although I would give you my recommendations for software.

I don’t want you to have to figure it out or sign up to something that just isn’t going to work for you. Because, further down the line, it causes a lot more headache. It’s a lot more costly. So, by trying to save money in the short term can often end up costing money in the future. Just bear that in mind when you are looking for the software that you want to choose.

Got a question? Get in touch and we will be happy to help.

6 Mistakes You Are Making When Choosing Your Software

6 Mistakes You Are Making When Choosing Your Software

6 Mistakes You Are Making When Choosing Your Software