“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.