There are many ways to validate your business idea. For one, for every time and in every industry, find potential buyers and your products catering to that niche.
This article covers the basics for any new launch or existing product. This will give you confidence and clarity on what you need to do or at least the steps you should consider. Following are some of the most common methods to find the right people, processes and research for the product validation. You can choose any of these steps and begin from any point, wherever you think your product needs to begin.
1. Visualization
There are numerous things in the market that may fascinate us or even give us ideas for something similar or something new in contrast to what we see around. But this is not always feasible. We need to validate each idea before we waste our time, energy and money on it. If you have validated your product, you have a higher chance of success with the product, the rest of the marketing, sales page, etc. The whole product execution of course will also play a vital role in the progression of the product.
2. Accept advice
A mistake we commonly make is to keep our ideas to ourselves. The whole philosophy given by renowned entrepreneurs over sharing ideas is based on the fact that the more an idea is shared or talked about the more it gets fine tuned and clarified. So it is good to share and discuss your ideas with friends and family or even strangers. The other concern about sharing ideas is that entrepreneurs believe it is a commitment or they are concerned that their listeners will steal their idea. An original idea if will flourish from the mind of the keeper, so openly discuss it, share and accept opinions so that in the end all you have to work at is the construed concept.
3. Research your market
Market surveys require sharing the details of your idea. Determine the needs and wants of the consumer. It may sound cliché but it is the most vital part in the production. Products or services of any business are all dependent on fulfilling those needs. Many market analysts explain that this survey helps a great deal gathering data and market analysis aiding the entrepreneurs in decision making for the prices, comparisons, competitors and many other aspects for product design and sale.
4. Check for similar products
People often think there should be no competitors and that their product should be completely unique. It can be great to have a completely unique product but there are benefits to having good competition as well. A competitor has already completed market surveys and validated the product or service, all done for you. Additionally, now you know there is demand for the product in the market place and you can conjecture what needs to be altered in your product to make it better than the one that already exists. So enjoy the benefit and produce a better version.
5. Start small
You must have seen small home businesses trying to sell from a stall, at an exhibition or out of their cars or trucks for the trial of their products before actually taking the next big step in production or securing a location. For example take GODIVA chocolate, the world famous chocolate makers started from their home ages ago before they became the giants they are today. Check food truck owners they tried their speciality first before ending up investing in a restaurant. These little examples are eye openers and help us to test our product’s potential before we go too far with them. Down the road you will have enough feedback, data and opportunities to win over competition, revamp your product and you will have clear idea of what people desire.
6. Select your target market
Targeting your market is one the important steps in characterizing your product. The good news is that creating a survey for your target market has now become easy and affordable. You need to first outline the demographics and psychographics of your potential market to know where your produt will be advancing. Once the survey is completed and you know the “where,” “what,” and “when,” you are on track toward implementation and development of the right product. Also setting the target audience will help in designing, packaging and making a marketing campaign.
7. Presell your product
Test your product. HOW?! There are many examples of products first launched on social platforms before going ground or even before having the actual product in hand. The internet is a valuable resource for us to check, track and have live feedback within a matter of a moment’s time. Have your product test starting from your own contact list, to find out what people think or how they react to your product. In a way this point takes you to the third point where we started the market survey, the needs and the requirements. Go easy with your very own social media and you will end up with a great decision.
8. Heard of crowdfunding?
The name says it all. It is about collecting funds over the internet. The money is actually collected in small amounts from a large group of people. Over the past few years it has been a successful practice in the recession period, but now you can use it in the process of validating your product. There are already sites which support crowd funding campaigns like 1000 Angels, Indiegogo and Kickstarter to name a few. It is a friendly and trust worthy way to collect money for your product instead of running after investors. The crowdfunding sites will require a bit of time and work but it is all worth it in the end.
9. Make a landing page
The Landing page is the face of your product. There should be AIDA (Attention Interest Desire Action) triggers on your landing page. It should be able to grab the attention and then to engage the visitor. Of course only those visitors will come who are actually looking for the product solution you are providing, so the interest is more automatically there. The desire will be created by the planning and the content and the friendliness of the website page. Last but not the least is the call to action. Track your visitors by apps and software available on the internet to have the best solutions to your validation.
10. Test all you have
It is not that easy to validate your product but these steps will help you. The 50% of the hard work you put into these steps will give you an honest and clear picture of what direction you are heading with the product. There’s no 100% guarantee even after all this effort if the product will be a success but at least you will not be wasting money and a lot of time.
Wishing you all the very best in business idea validation.
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