Waytik was born out of a desire to redefine social connections in a digital age where genuine interactions often feel out of reach. The app is the brainchild of a team of five international students studying business management abroad in Barcelona.  We are from Mexico, USA, Poland, and France, united by a shared vision to create a platform that fosters meaningful connections. Drawing on our diverse cultural backgrounds and skills in design, business, and technology, we set out to build a tool that empowers people to socialize authentically, no matter their comfort level or location.

Building an app like WayTik—a platform where you can share and pin your location with friends and discover exciting events—has been an exhilarating adventure. But creating a product we believe in is just one part of the journey. The other? Ensuring people find it.

When we first launched WayTik, we faced a daunting question: How do we connect with users who need us but don’t know we exist? That’s where keyword research came in. Here’s the story of how we discovered the keywords that are now helping people find WayTik and join our community.

Step 1: Understanding Our Audience

Before diving into any tools or strategies, we spent some time reflecting on what WayTik really offers. We asked ourselves:

• Who would use WayTik?
• What problems does it solve for them?
• What would they type into Google to find a solution?

The answers were clear. Our app revolves around two core features:

1. Sharing Locations with Friends – Think of those moments when you’re coordinating a meetup and need to drop your pin.
2. Discovering Local Events – Whether it’s a pop-up market or a live concert, WayTik helps users stay connected to what’s happening nearby.

These conversations helped us step into our users’ shoes. It was a crucial first step—because keyword research isn’t just about numbers; it’s about understanding people.

Step 2: Exploring the Tools of the Trade

Equipped with a clearer picture of our audience, we dove into keyword research tools. It felt a bit overwhelming at first (so many metrics! so much data!), but here’s how we navigated the process.

Starting Simple with Google Keyword Planner

We began with Google’s Keyword Planner. It felt like cracking open a treasure chest of possibilities:

• High-volume keywords like “location-sharing apps” immediately jumped out, but they were super competitive.
• We found long-tail gems like “how to share a pin with friends” and “best apps for local events,” which felt more achievable and directly relevant to WayTik’s features.

Diving Deeper with Ahrefs

To get the edge, we turned to Ahrefs. This tool let us peek into the performance of keywords that similar apps were ranking for. For instance:

• Competitors like Google Maps dominated “location sharing,” but not every result catered to social, friend-focused interactions.
• Event-focused apps, like Eventbrite, ranked for terms like “find events near me,” but they didn’t prioritize local, spontaneous fun.

This insight helped us spot opportunities where WayTik could shine.

Tapping into Curiosity with Answer the Public

We stumbled upon Answer the Public, and it was a game-changer. It revealed real questions people asked, like:

• “How do I share my current location?”
• “Which app is best for finding events near me?”

These questions became the basis for some of our first blog posts, like “5 Ways to Use WayTik to Discover Local Events.”

Step 3: Learning from Our Competitors

Keyword research wouldn’t be complete without looking at who we were up against. We analyzed apps that overlapped with WayTik’s mission, like Find My Friends and Eventbrite. It was like studying how seasoned chefs create their signature dishes.

We noticed:

• Their content strategy was often focused on “how-to” guides. This inspired us to create similar helpful content for our audience.
• Missed opportunities in conversational, community-driven topics like “What’s the best app to share plans with friends?” These were gaps we could fill.

Step 4: Turning Keywords Into Action

With a list of promising keywords, the real work began. We didn’t just stuff them into our website and hope for the best. Instead:

• We rewrote our landing pages with phrases like “share your location with friends in real-time” and “find exciting events near you.”
• Our blog became a hub for search-friendly content, like “Top 10 Apps to Discover Local Events.”
• We even optimized our app store descriptions, sprinkling in keywords users might type while looking for a solution like ours.

Step 5: Testing, Tweaking, and Learning

Here’s the thing about keyword research: It’s not a “set it and forget it” process. We regularly check tools like Google Analytics to see:

• Which keywords are driving traffic.
• How visitors interact with our site once they land there.

If something isn’t working, we tweak it. For instance, we recently found that people searching for “best apps to share a pin” weren’t sticking around on our homepage. So, we built a new guide just for them, showing how WayTik simplifies location sharing.

A Few Lessons We Learned Along the Way

• Think like your user. Keywords aren’t about what you want to say—they’re about what people are looking for.
• Find your niche. We can’t compete with Google Maps for general terms like “location sharing.” But for “pin locations with friends,” we’ve got a chance.
• Stay flexible. The search landscape is always changing. What works today might not work tomorrow.

Where We Are Now

Thanks to our keyword research journey, WayTik’s visibility is steadily climbing. More importantly, the right people are finding us—the ones who value staying connected with friends and discovering events that matter to them.

If you’re an entrepreneur or a marketer feeling daunted by the world of SEO, know this: It’s not about finding everykeyword. It’s about finding the right ones. And that starts with understanding your audience, experimenting, and staying curious.

WayTik’s journey is far from over, and we’re excited to see how our SEO efforts continue to grow. If you’ve got tips or want to share your own experiences with keyword research, drop us a comment. Let’s keep the conversation going!

In the fast-paced and competitive world of location-based apps, like WayTik, marketing plays a pivotal role in scaling the business and building meaningful connections. For our growth, we’ve utilized marketing automation tools to streamline our outreach processes, ensuring we can effectively reach potential business partners such as restaurants, bars, clubs, and gyms. Alongside automation, we’ve made sure to follow legal guidelines, especially with email marketing, and took an ethical approach when it comes to gathering contact information.

In this post, we’ll walk you through the importance of marketing automation in our sector, the legalities of email marketing in Europe, and how we used Hunter.io to collect business emails in a compliant way.

Why Marketing Automation is Essential for WayTik’s Sector

For businesses in the app sector, particularly those like WayTik that focus on location-sharing and event discovery, marketing automation is a game-changer. Here’s why:

1. Scalability:
   Marketing automation tools allow us to reach out to a large number of potential partners efficiently, while keeping the messages personalized. It’s the key to scaling our outreach without compromising on quality.

2. Efficiency:
   By automating tasks such as email campaigns, follow-ups, and analytics tracking, we free up our team to focus on strategic decisions and user engagement rather than mundane tasks.

3. Data-Driven Insights:
   With the detailed analytics provided by automation platforms, we can track how well our messages are performing, optimize our strategy, and continuously improve engagement rates.

4. Consistency and Timeliness:
   Marketing automation ensures that our emails go out at the right time, maintaining consistency in communication with our potential partners, which is crucial for building trust.

Legality of Email Marketing in Europe: GDPR Compliance

In Europe, email marketing is heavily regulated to protect user privacy. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) outlines strict rules about how businesses can collect, store, and use personal data, including email addresses. As a company committed to ethical practices, WayTik follows these important guidelines:

• Explicit Consent:
  For email outreach, GDPR requires that consent be obtained from recipients before we send marketing emails. While some businesses may be eligible for outreach based on “legitimate interest,” we prioritize gathering explicit consent for every email we send.

• Transparency and Opt-Out:
  Every email sent includes a clear and easy opt-out option, ensuring recipients can unsubscribe if they no longer wish to receive communication.

• Secure Data Handling:
  We ensure that any contact data collected is securely stored and processed, and we use compliant tools to gather and manage that data.

How We Used Hunter.io for Email Outreach

To identify potential partners in industries like hospitality, fitness, and entertainment, we turned to Hunter.io, a popular tool for email finding. Here’s why it became our go-to solution:

1. Verified Data:
   Hunter.io provides access to verified business emails, significantly reducing the chances of bounces. The platform cross-references email addresses from various sources to ensure high accuracy.

2. Easy-to-Use Interface:
   Hunter.io’s search function lets us find email addresses for businesses in our target sectors with just the business name or domain. With its powerful filters, we can refine our searches by location, industry, and even role (e.g., marketing manager, business development lead).

3. Bulk Searches:
   With Hunter.io’s bulk email search option, we can quickly generate a list of contacts for a large number of businesses, which is essential when reaching out to hundreds of potential partners.

4. Compliance:
   The platform adheres to GDPR guidelines, which reassured us that using Hunter.io was an ethical and compliant way to collect email addresses.

Challenges We Faced and Lessons Learned

While Hunter.io has been a great tool for email outreach, it wasn’t without challenges:

• Quality Control:
  Ensuring that each email is personalized was key to avoiding the appearance of spam. We learned the importance of pacing our outreach and tailoring our messaging to each recipient's needs and goals.

• Handling Rejections:
  It’s inevitable that not every email will result in a positive response. We refined our follow-up strategies, ensuring that every outreach felt like a genuine conversation rather than a cold solicitation.

Conclusion: Marketing Automation + Ethical Outreach = Success

For WayTik, using marketing automation tools like Hunter.io has been a critical part of our growth strategy, allowing us to connect with potential partners at scale while maintaining compliance with data protection laws. By using verified data sources, staying GDPR-compliant, and automating routine tasks, we’ve been able to build meaningful relationships with local businesses in Barcelona and beyond.

If you’re in the tech or app space and want to scale your outreach efforts, adopting marketing automation and ethical email collection techniques can help you stay ahead of the curve.

Feel free to share your thoughts or ask any questions in the comments below. We’re always happy to share our learnings!

In today’s digital-first world, connection is key. At WayTik, we’re constantly exploring innovative ways to grow and engage our community. One of the most effective ways to do this is by running Minimum Remarkable Experiments (MREs)—small, focused experiments that test ideas quickly and without spending money. Here’s an idea we’d love to try in the next two weeks.

The Experiment: Building a Group Chat for Maximum Reach

The concept is simple: create a group chat and invite a handful of friends to join. Then, challenge each participant to add their own friends. The goal? See how many people we can reach organically through this web of connections.

But that’s not all. Once the group chat has grown, we’ll use it to invite everyone to a community event hosted by WayTik. It’s the perfect opportunity to turn digital connections into real-world engagement.

The Steps to Success

1. Create the Group Chat: Set up a chat on a popular platform like WhatsApp, Telegram, or Messenger. Name it something intriguing and welcoming, like “WayTik Connection Challenge.”
2. Invite Friends: Start with 10-15 friends who are likely to engage and participate.
3. Encourage Growth: Ask each member to add 2-3 of their friends. Frame it as a fun challenge—“Let’s see how big we can grow this!”
4. Engage the Group: Share interesting content, ask questions, and keep the conversation lively to maintain interest.
5. Extend the Invite: After two weeks, invite the group members to a WayTik-hosted event—either in-person or virtual.

The One Metric That Matters

The success of this experiment hinges on group engagement and event attendance. Specifically, we’ll track:

• Group Growth: How many people join the chat within two weeks?
• Event RSVPs: How many group members RSVP to the event?
• Event Attendance: How many actually show up?

The primary metric will be event attendance, as it demonstrates the true impact of our efforts to build community and engagement.

What We’ll Learn

This experiment is about more than just numbers—it’s about understanding how people connect and engage. Here’s what we hope to learn:

If the Experiment Succeeds

• Validate Organic Growth: We’ll confirm that group chat networks are a viable way to build awareness and community without spending money.
• Plan Future Events: Success could pave the way for recurring events driven by organic group engagement.
• Enhance Outreach Strategies: This method could inform how we approach marketing and outreach going forward.

If the Experiment Fails

• Identify Barriers: We’ll analyze why growth or attendance fell short—lack of interest, poor messaging, or platform choice.
• Reframe the Strategy: Adjust the approach, such as targeting a different audience, refining the message, or choosing a different medium.
• Learn and Iterate: Every failure offers insights to improve. We’ll refine the process and try again.

Why It Matters

At its core, this experiment is about building something remarkable from the simplest of tools. By leveraging the power of personal connections, we can create meaningful engagement without the need for expensive ads or promotions. It’s proof that great ideas don’t require big budgets—just creativity, strategy, and the willingness to experiment.

What’s Next?

As we gear up for this challenge, we’re excited to see how far this small spark can spread. If you’re part of the WayTik community, keep an eye out for updates on this experiment—and maybe even an invitation to the group chat!

Stay tuned, stay connected, and let’s see what we can achieve together!