31–40 of 60 posts
http://www.strategicmessaging.com/marketing-communication-es... is on marcom essentials vs. nice-to-haves.
http://www.strategicmessaging.com/marketing-in-stealth-mode/... is specifically on stealth-mode marketing (not quite an oxymoron).
And http://www.strategicmessaging.com/strategy-for-it-vendors-a-... is the strategy (not just marketing) worksheet that a whole lot of tech companies have relied on.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Until you talk to other people, you're rolling the dice. Trust your gut and go ask a bunch of people if they have the same need (and if it's going to be a paid thing, whether or not they'd pony up for it if it existed). If the answers come back positive, high five yourself and go make it!
What if a competitor has already validated the market for me? For example, they exist and have existed for a few years, but still don't service my need. Is it valid to assume I can attack their market share?
No matter how certain you are talk with your customers!
1. Figure out your market before you build anything. Talk to them, get to know them, figure out what they need. 2. Ask them for an intent to purchase or to reserve a spot in line or whatever. 3. Build landing pages and advertise them so that you can validate your ability to acquire customers before building anything. 4. Create a human machine that looks/feels like the real machine you are going to build later. 5. Sel…
Serious question regarding #1: What if I am the market because I am addressing a need I have that others have not addressed? Is the question then whether others have the same general needs? Do I get to walk around thinking I have instant validation, or am I rolling the dice on the likelihood that others have the same problem?
That last part is critical. Human psychology is a funny thing. Two people might experience the same pain point, but articulate two wildly different needs. Or they might have tangential pain points, nominally clustered around the same topic. And sometimes, one user's problem is another user's solution. All of these things can happen.
It is totally valid and worthwhile to start with a pain point you have. A lot of startups began that way. But never assume you (n=1) stand in for an entire market. You can't use personal anecdote or self-insight as a proxy for market validation. Not even Steve Jobs got to do that, despite popular misconceptions.
Insight can be a path to validation. A shortcut starting point. But treat it like a hypothesis, not a foregone conclusion. Hypotheses should be tested.
But once you've defined the technical aspects of your product-market fit, write a story. The story of why you are doing what you're doing (not how, or where or when.. but why). This story must be true and it should resonate with you so you don't get sick of re-telling it a million time in a million different ways.
Then build that story into your product and find the most frictionless ways of enabling your users to spread that story for you through your product. Finally identify any and all channels where this story might garner a captive audience and go and share that story yourself.
I've seen people combine offers with quirky / creative content, which is leveraged via paid StumbledUpon, Twitter and FB advertising to generate brand impressions and traffic.
I've also seen sponsored YouTube content work quite well for startup brands.
Obviously SEO and PPC / displayed are more acquisition channels - but dependent on the goals, these represent good channels for quality / qualified traffic.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What if a competitor has already validated the market for me? For example, they exist and have existed for a few years, but still don't service my need. Is it valid to assume I can attack their market share?
Why are you resistant to doing the market valuation? It is cheap and beneficial. No matter hire certain you are it will validate and refine your offering. You get to learn the market size, the price point and create reasonable estimates for adoption all while collecting free feedback on features. No matter how certain you are talk with your customers!
I talk to people, but I need to talk to more.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What if a competitor has already validated the market for me? For example, they exist and have existed for a few years, but still don't service my need. Is it valid to assume I can attack their market share?
I know that as engineers we'd like to avoid talking to strangers as much as possible, but there's simply nothing better than speaking with your potential customers. Having a competitor is a good sign, but how do you know they're profitable? How do you know they're solving the problem well enough that they're even worth imitating? How do you know they're not frustrating the hell out of their users? If you speak to pot…
I write about this kind of thing quite a bit. http://www.strategicmessaging.com/marketing-communication-es... is on marcom essentials vs. nice-to-haves. http://www.strategicmessaging.com/marketing-in-stealth-mode/... is specifically on stealth-mode marketing (not quite an oxymoron). And http://www.strategicmessaging.com/strategy-for-it-vendors-a-... is the strategy (not just marketing) worksheet that a whole lot of t…
You're better focusing on building relationships with influencers in your industry, guest posting on their blogs and asking them for feedback to help build a good product. This in turn will encourage links anyway and make the SEO come naturally.