It took me five years to figure out (a) I needed a story and (b) what the story was. It's hard. But one story beats a pile of AdWords A/B tests.
I have found that there are 2 kinds of stories: classes and instances...
Class: "X can solve problem Y using our product."
Instances:
"Acme saved $30,000 per month by figuring out how to better load their trucks using our optimization software."
"The Smith family had their first ever reunion when John and Linda Smith realized how easy our family organizing software was."
"Jones Gifts doubled their sales in 3 months using our bolt-on e-commerce solution."
The class is good. The instance is better. People love stories and the instance is a real story, while the class is the framework for a potential story. The class is a commercial; the instance is a testimonial. Also, an example cuts through all the clutter right to the reader's reptilian brain. Naturally, the closer the instance is to the reader's situation, the better.
OP's story was a class. I would have loved to hear a few instances of that class: some real stories about people who got real benefit from his product. People naturally want to know about other people.
Does that vary based on the kind of product (and has anybody studied with any rigor how class v. instance stories work)?
The BigCorp engineers I know really hate instance stories when trying to find information on possible products they might use; they view those stories as being mainly targeted at managers. Especially true if it's hard to find anything but those kinds of stories, which is the case with a lot of enterprise offerings. "Tell me what the damn thing does, not this marketingspeak about how SomeCorp leveraged your solution to save $3m" kind of thing.
Raising the interesting question, do manager types or developer types drive people past your product?
IE, professional bloggers and journalists. Are they more likely to be appealed too by the story, or the function? Sure, they're not buying your product, but they're advising the people who do.
And, you're right, some of them ARE technical people, and PREFER the function. But just as likely, more in my opinion, they're not.
If you're trying to market an optional solution (IE, one that adds value but isn't critical... Fun Unit Testing status lights, instead of IDEs) then you might NEED the story to let people know they WANT your product.
I agree entirely it's great to know what something does. I prefer it, but I don't think 'the market' (God I sound like a douche) does.
I often say when out, "What's inside counts... But what's outside gets them close enough to find out", because it's true. Look kinda creepy? No-one's going to want to find out the weird scar is from when you had an accident while drift-racing to fundraise for the "Save the Adorable Baby Panda from Breast Cancer" foundation.
I have found that there are 2 kinds of stories: classes and instances...
Class: "X can solve problem Y using our product."
Instances:
"Acme saved $30,000 per month by figuring out how to better load their trucks using our optimization software."
"The Smith family had their first ever reunion when John and Linda Smith realized how easy our family organizing software was."
"Jones Gifts doubled their sales in 3 months using our bolt-on e-commerce solution."
The class is good. The instance is better. People love stories and the instance is a real story, while the class is the framework for a potential story. The class is a commercial; the instance is a testimonial. Also, an example cuts through all the clutter right to the reader's reptilian brain. Naturally, the closer the instance is to the reader's situation, the better.
OP's story was a class. I would have loved to hear a few instances of that class: some real stories about people who got real benefit from his product. People naturally want to know about other people.