Stop guessing and start knowing!
Unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way. Whenever I had a new idea or concept, I used to ask friends, acquaintances & colleagues – would my product work? Do you need this (or are you willing to pay) for my “thing”?
And here’s what I learnt – it doesn’t matter what your “thing” is, unless you’re talking to the right person, at the right time, with the right offer – your wasting your time.
Of course, you’ll get feedback. Just none of it helpful. I was told the color of my shirt should be darker, on my sales page, I shouldn’t have a video of my house in the background etc. etc.
What’s my market research process?
I got this idea from Tim Ferris. He’s an American author, entrepreneur and lifestyle guru who rose to fame with books like “Tools of the Titans” and “Four Hour Body”.
For his first book – he had the original title “Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit”. His publisher didn’t like it, but he stuck with it because it was polarizing.
Unfortunately, Wal-Mart vetoed the idea and he had to go back to the drawing board. Tim decided to use data instead.
He had 6 titles that everyone could live with. He then created a series of Google Ads (this was around 2006, Facebook didn’t become popular until late 2009)
One week and $200 later, he had the perfect title – The Four Hour Work Week.
(source video: http://vimeo.com/3934635)
Steps in marketing research
All products have 3 core pillars:
- What is it? And more importantly, what problem does it solve? (This describes what your product is)
- The audience – who is it for?
- The price point – how much is it?
Price is actually far less important than the first two. That’s because if you don’t know what it is and who its for, then cost is irrelevant – no one wants even if its free!
Step #1 – Write a great headline
Using Eugene Schwartz’s 5 levels of awareness method, you want to describe what problem do you solve? How does it help? What happens if they don’t buy/use your product / service
Step #2 – Creating a simple landing page
This doesn’t have to be a monster, a single page is fine. The content on the page is less important, you just want a way to capture their email details
Step #3 – Test & Tracking
This seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how often people forget. Whatever tracking tool you’re using (Google Analytics, Facebook pixel etc.) make sure its working and capturing events.
Step #4 – run a $10 a day Facebook ad campaign
You don’t want to spend a fortune – remember, this is market research not product development.
Step #5 – Done is better than perfect
I know its tempting, but resist. You want to make that page look awesome! You want to tweak the right colors and correct fonts. I’m wasting my time telling you that isn’t important. Instead, I want to know – when will you go live? Set yourself some clear boundaries. It doesn’t matter if you say today / tomorrow / Friday at 4:00pm. Regardless, stick to your commitments. (And if you don’t perhaps you might want to run an Accountability Process on yourself. Its quick, easy and I show you how on my personal site)
Step #6 – how did you go?
From start to finish, this should take no longer than a week. What are the results?
Market research can be a daunting, time sucking process and it is easy for many business owners to put the task off. Use my 6 steps to help you get clear, actionable feedback from your client prospects.
These six steps are designed to make sure that you get quality information while also staying organized in the process. If this sounds like a great idea, reach out today. We want to partner with you and provide top-notch marketing services that will support all of your goals as an entrepreneur or small business owner. What other aspects do you need in order for us to create a stellar digital marketing strategy?