Michele Attias Life Coach

Why Researching before Launch Is Your Only Option

Picture the scene.

You’ve created your product and hired a professional to ensure its functionality. 

All which sucked £20,000 out of your carefully measured budget.

You've spent days writing the content copy which will be sitting proudly on your website landing page. You've advertised on every Social Media Platform.

Result? 

The product launches, and Nothing.

Let's be clear, no calls, e-mails or enquiries.

You continue to insist the product is great and you communicate it’s value via Twitter, Facebook and all the other myriad of groups you belong to. You focus on the problem being social media, the website, the state of the economy and even the political situation as it stands.

You hand out your remaining £1,000 to Google Ad words to work their magic and you wait for a further 72 hours, and nothing happens.

This is when the lightbulb moment of insight descends cascading down like a waterfall awakened by nature.

The Insight? 

You beleive clients shouldn't be able to live one more day without your product or service.

The problem is, no one else shares your view.

This is where in depth Market research before creating a product is a must. In reality, research is seen by many, especially creative Entrepreneurs as a dirty word. Research in its simple connotation has us visualising geeks, endless figures, equations, university professors and lets face it.

Boredom.

This no longer needs to be the case as the internet is a huge platform to research in a fun, exciting way through social media groups where your ideal client hangs out.

Research your customer market well by finding out what they love, the language they use, what they look like, what they value and respect.

This is about getting into their Psyche, live and breathe the client and hang out where they do.

Social Media groups are great platforms for this, network with them.

I'm not advocating or extending to stalking behaviour.  This is about familiarising yourself with who you're servin

Think about battle and war. Yes, it’s as strategic as this.

Before Army's went to war, they had to research who they were battling against, so they knew which strategy to use.  They needed to enter the enemy’s psyche and once they became familiar with this, they were able to create a plan around it. The process works similarly in business, even though the aim is to attract and engage clients not eliminate them, but you get my drift.

In 'The 33 Strategies of War', by Robert Greene (great book), in the chapter on Communication Strategies, he states,

Communication is a kind of war. It's field of battle is the resistant and defensive minds of the people you want to influence. The goal is to penetrate their defenses and occupy their minds. Learn to infiltrate your ideas behind enemy lines, sending messages through little details. Luring people into coming to the conclusions you desire and into thinking they've gotten there by themselves.

Before even creating a product, think about where your ideal customer hangs out. 

Make sure you ask the following questions:

  • What do they value?
  • What are they struggling with?
  • What would they like more of?
  • What are they passionate/excited about?
  • What have they tried so far that hasn’t been successful?
  • What are they willing to invest in?

Platforms such as SurveyMonkey and Mintel are also great places to start doing research:

  • Mintel - Mintel Reports provides robust insight and recommendations based on in-depth market study.
  • SurveyMonkey - SurveyMonkey Audience has millions of people ready to take your surveys, this platform allow you to launch your projects and start seeing responses.

In these platforms you can ask the following questions:

  • Who are your competitors now?
  • What makes them faster, more convenient, or cheaper?
  • What’s your competitive advantage?
  • How can you make your product or service better?

Essentially, this generation has become  the Generation where the quick fix is the norm. Immediate gratification and a fast and effective answer to problems must ensue. If you can’t provide it, clients will go elsewhere, it’s as simple as that. This is why good effective research can save your hard earned cash.

Good, solid market research is invaluable before you rush to create the product or service no one wants or needs.

What has been your experience when creating or launching your products or services?

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Self Development