Ideas are a dime a dozen, but how do you know if you have one that will last? Here are 5 creative ways to validate your new business idea.
5 Creative Ways to Validate a New Business Idea
You spend all this time creating a new product or service – and you can’t wait to release it to the public. “The sales will flood in,” you think. But then, when you finally do release it – the exact opposite happens. You barely get any sales at all. So, what’s the problem? Chances are, you didn’t validate the idea the right way. Because if it had been validated, it would’ve gotten a lot more sales. Today, we’ll give you 5 creative ways to validate a new business idea. That way, the next time you launch a new product, it’ll have a much higher chance of being successful.
1. Have a Customer In Mind
Who is the potential customer your idea will help? What pain points will it help those potential customers solve? In what ways are those potential customers already trying to solve the problem themselves (or with potential competitors)?You should brainstorm the answers to each of these questions. They’ll give you a clear picture of your ideal customer, as well as how you can help them. This will make your validation process a lot easier because you’ll know the people that you need to reach to validate the idea.
2. Research the Competition
What is the competition doing in this market? If there’s no competition at all, it’s a sign that your idea is either super innovative and it’s never been done before (less likely), or an indication that there’s no glaring need for your idea (more likely). So, tread carefully here and be honest with yourself. you do find competition, research their offerings, their prices, their customers, and their content. Ask yourself, “What will make my idea/product stand out from theirs? ”If you can’t think of a way that it will stand out (i.e. a unique selling proposition), then it probably won’t stand out and won’t have much success in the market. So, make sure you don’t skip this one!
3. Create a Landing Page
Your landing page is the webpage you’ll drive people to validate your idea. It doesn’t need to be fancy. In fact, it can simply include a compelling sentence or two about the idea, along with an email opt-in form for people to put their email in.(You can create the opt-in email forms for free with software like MailChimp).Track the amount of people you can drive to the page, as well as the more emails you get. These metrics will tell you whether or not people are actually interested in the idea. Set a goal for each of these metrics beforehand, so you’ll know at what point the validation will have worked.
4.Use Facebook Ads
Once you’ve got your landing page ready, you need to drive traffic to it! And one of the easiest ways to drive targeted traffic to your landing page is through Facebook ads. You don’t need to spend a ton of money on these ads – $20 to $30 a day will do. Your ad can be a video or an image – but keep in mind that video ads have been shown to convert higher than image ads. If you’ve never created a Facebook ad before, you can use this as a simple guide.
5. Sell Before You Create It
You can’t always pre-sell your product – but when you can, it can pay off by not only validating your product before you build it but also by giving you the extra capital you actually get started with production!
Wrapping Up Creative Ways to Validate a New Business Idea…
The biggest mistake prospective entrepreneurs make is that they don’t validate their ideas the right way. And so, they end up wasting their time and money creating a product that their customers don’t want to buy. Instead, it’s better to use the strategies we’ve laid out here to correctly validate your idea before you create it, and ensure that there is an audience that wants to buy it.
