Before you go all in on your business idea and launch your company, it’s important to make sure there’s a market for your product or service. Starting a business requires a lot of time, money, and effort. You don’t want all your hard work to be wasted on an idea that’s not viable. Here are some tips on how to test-market a business idea so you can figure out if it’s worth pursuing.
3 Ways to Test-Market a Business Idea
Run a Focus Group
Focus groups are a great way to connect with your target customers and get their opinion on your products. Focus groups can be conducted in person if you’re planning to start a local small business. However, if you want feedback from a wider range of potential customers, you can run a focus group on Zoom so people outside your area can participate.
Social media sites like Reddit and Craigslist are great places to recruit participants. You can also use consumer research platforms like User Interviews and Respondent to find participants. You’ll usually get more sign-ups if you offer a small incentive like a $25 gift card.
Before the focus group, you may want to arrange a pre-screening interview with each participant to make sure they’re one of your target customers. You should also write down a list of questions you want to ask, such as:
- Would you buy this product or service?
- How much would you pay for it?
- What would you change about this product?
The responses you get will help you validate your business idea and tweak your offering to make it more appealing to customers. However, you may have to conduct a few focus groups to get enough data to determine if your product is viable.
Create a Landing Page
A great way to test-market your business idea is to create a landing page for your product or service. If lots of people sign up to get notified when your company launches, you’ll know there’s genuine interest in your idea.
Your landing page should explain what your product or service is and why your target audience needs it. Incorporating multimedia elements like videos on your landing page can also increase engagement and conversions. Make sure you include several CTA buttons throughout the page so you can collect potential customers’ contact information.
Some entrepreneurs even pre-sell their products and use the capital raised to produce them. You can easily do this by launching a campaign on a crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo.
Market the Product on Social Media
Creating social media profiles for your business is also a good way to test-market your business idea. You’ll be able to see how many people are curious about your offering by how many followers and likes you get.
You can also use social media ads to promote your landing page and see how many click-throughs they generate. If lots of people interact with your ad, you’ll know you’re onto something and should continue developing your business idea.
How do you test-market a business idea? Let us know in the comments section below!
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Vicky Monroe is a freelance personal finance and lifestyle writer. When she’s not busy writing about her favorite money saving hacks or tinkering with her budget spreadsheets, she likes to travel, garden, and cook healthy vegetarian meals.