How I'd grow Aimchess

Aimchess is a website that analyzes your chess games and helps you improve by creating personalized lessons based on the patterns it finds.

Once you sign up, you connect it to your online chess playing service, and it starts analyzing your previous games.

The first thing I ask myself when I land on their website is: is this for me, a beginner, or is it for expert players?

If they made it completely clear that Aimchess is also for complete beginners, they could capture a lot of new players who are just starting out.

I’d also make the copy focus on the common goal for both new and seasoned chess players: win more games.

Someone willing to pay for a software that improves their game is probably motivated by getting better results, be it in a casual match with a friend or in a tournament.

Three CTAs on the hero section are confusing. Visitors aren’t sure where they lead.

I’d use only 2: “Watch a demo” and "Create a free account.” The demo CTA shouldn’t require a signup like it does now, but just let visitors see an example to minimize friction.

Aimchess funnel should look like this: a visitor is intrigued by the demo, signs up for a free account and, after a few weeks, gets an email sequence with a premium plan offer.

The trick is to balance the features offered in the free plan with premium features.

I’d rework the pricing to accommodate different customers, namely: beginners and more advanced players.

A slightly lower price could appeal to the first and increase volume, while a slightly higher price would increase margins and still be a no-brainer for serious players.

When a product is made for a specific niche, it makes a lot of sense to grow it by word of mouth.

Aimchess could create a referral program or, better yet, try to facilitate organic growth loops (users spontaneously talking about the product lead to getting more customers).

A possible growth loop:

- Player tries Aimchess and get results
- They share screenshots to prove their progress
- Other players see it and want to try the tool
- They get results and share more screenshots
- The loop continues and grows itself

Aimchess should focus on content marketing, and publish their content on their own website - not on Medium.

Publishing on their site gives them full control, and they benefit from earning backlinks and social shares. They can later syndicate to Medium for more exposure.

Pro tip: not all content is equal. You need a mix of top (tofu) and bottom-of-the-funnel (bofu) articles in your content strategy (I’ll spare you the mofu).

Bofu helps you get conversions in the short term, while Tofu helps you build a brand in the long term.

You need to pay attention to content promotion, too. Aimchess should identify relevant online communities and share content there.

A Tofu piece might do well in a generalist online community, while the Bofu one will resonate more with passionate advanced players.

There’s also content made to attract backlinks for SEO. The goal is for it to get picked up by authoritative websites.

The Queen’s Gambit made more people start playing chess, so Aimchess could create a study about it or research the data, and then pitch it to the media.

Influencer collaboration could be a good tactic. They own a very specific audience, and the niche’s competition isn’t excessive.

The problem with influencers is that their followers often don’t take immediate action. It’s good for branding, but bad for immediate returns.

To contrast this, Aimchess needs to find a way to create urgency and trigger action.

For example, they could organize a competitive giveaway by making the influencer post a difficult chess puzzle.

The first 10 people who solve it get a prize (e.g. 6 months free).

I’d also combine influencers with Facebook Ads. FB is Aimchess’ best performing channel, and advertisers can now run ads through the influencer profile.

The audience already knows and trusts the influencer, so they’re more likely to pay attention to their ad.

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