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Strategic relationships can make or break a young business. As with any relationship there must be a balance of give and take, and as a young business you need to quickly discover what it is you have to offer in order to gain any leverage. Evver’s CMO John Stein tells us how his company was able to leverage its unique strengths to forge relationships that fueled new growth.
Evver is a service that lets users create slideshows synced to music that has found its niche by filling its music library with quality music from independent musicians. In exchange for their music, Evver offers musicians exposure. All the while, the consumer (that’s us) is finding a cool and engaging new way to save, share and experience photos in a whole new way.
As Evver’s ecosystem requires content for it to function, acquiring this content becomes essential. A key partnership between ReverbNation and Evver connected Evver to over 3 million independent musicians looking for an innovative new way to share their music and connect with fans.
This is a perfect example of how fledgling companies can quickly grow through leveraging their service with that of a compatible company. In this case, Evver looked to take ReverbNation’s content and add value to it by helping artists better connect with their fans. As John Stein explained, “Music is content. Fans make content. Evver is that bridge between the artist’s content and the fan’s content.”
Their first contest for ReverbNation generated about 5,000 entries. This quantity allowed Evver the luxury of selecting the best entries, filling their library with quality content, creating a cycle that would be perpetually generating content.
Evver’s partnership was fruitful not just in providing content for their service, but also in driving traffic to the site. These are part of the essentials of cross-pollination that serve as the basis for growing brands. The more places a brand is, the bigger it gets. Reviews, even lukewarm, can increase traffic. A review in Singapore of Evver was picked up by a site in Brazil and began to drive traffic internationally. Today, Taiwan generates more users for Evver than any other country in the world, U.S. included. As the technology advanced from MVP to beta, site visits jumped from 1,200 visits a month to 9,000 visits in under three months.
The genius of Evver’s business model lies in its ability to connect the dots. Evver doesn’t create the content, it augments it. It helps musicians make their music more shareable, crucial in today’s free-range music marketplace. Users now have a new way to share and store their pictures through the site.
Now that the product is validated and there is enough content to drive it, the next step for Stein and the Evver team is to monetize their business model without diluting the beneficial experience they’ve created for users. A startup needs to keep a few key points in mind when monetizing, Stein said: the first, as mentioned before, is to not have monetization detract from the experience created otherwise users might feel alienated. Also, make sure the monetization method is scalable.
Following its own advice, Evver will soon begin introducing premium features for a fee, such as paying for videos lasting over two minutes, keeping the video up for a longer amount of time and paying to download it. Additionally, bands will be paying to be featured in premium spots on Evver’s music library. With 1,000 videos and bands signed up, Evver seems to have found the sweet spot of a highly scalable profit monetization model that doesn’t detract from the user’s experience.
Moving forward, Evver will continue to focus on growing their content and reach on a global scale by constructing micro-site catered to high-traffic countries that will redirect users to Evver’s main site. The independent music scene has been a good fit for them and it looks like both with continue to experience mutually beneficial growth.
Just like Evver worked for ReverbNation, the platform can work for other sites that cater to the independent artist. Through these relationships, by presenting itself as a pivot point, Evver’s service has the potential to get in front of millions just by engaging mutually beneficial relationships. It’s the ultimate marketing tool that only requires one thing: the service that’s already built.
