About finding a hungry market first (a LONG message!)
by
Dear Greg,
Thank you very much for sharing your interesting product idea with us!
Both Jimmy, Mel and Taylor have given you some good advice.
FIND THE MARKET FIRST
Taylor is totally correct, it’s imperative to FIND THE MARKET FIRST – if you want to make things as easy for you as possible.
If you don’t find the market first, you’ll just make it much harder for yourself to succeed. It’ll usually take more time to find a real winner, and it’ll cost you much more money.
So you need to find a HUNGRY market.
How do you find such a hungry market?
WAYS TO FIND THE MARKET FIRST
There are several ways to find the market first. Let me describe a few.
WHO ELSE IS DOING IT?
One way is to look a the marketplace and see if anybody else is already doing what you would like to do. If you notice the same ads and salesletters being repeated over and over for a long time, it CAN be an indication that there is an active market for that particular product. But you always have to TEST the market first if you want to be sure.
This is a good and proven way to go. And this is what Bill Myers is constantly doing, as Taylor says.
FIRST MARKETER IN A NICHE MARKET
But when we’re talking about niche markets it’s not always possible to find other marketers doing precisely what you are planning to do. Maybe you’re the first person to seriously considering marketing that particular product.
For instance the famous direct marketer Jeff Paul – to my best knowledge - hadn’t much competition in his niche (financial planning) when he first created a course on marketing for financial planners.
And so far as I remember Bill Myers was the first to publish a newsletter on catching all kinds of tv-signals when he started out.
In this case - where we’re talking about niche markets - you should always make some TESTS before you move ahead and begin to create a major product. I can’t repeat this often enough!
HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW THE MARKET?
If you know that niche market really well, you usually know what problems, wishes and longings that market has. And then you also usually have an idea what kind of information your market is willing to pay for.
That’s one reason it’s a good idea to create your products for a market you know well. There are other important reason, too, but this reason alone, shows why it’s usually much better to create your products for a market you really know well.
ANY MAGAZINES, EZINES ETC?
Another indication that there is a market for your product, is if any magazines and ezines are published on your subject.
Again, if we’re talking about niche markets, you may be the first marketer to see a potential market for your product.
An example of this is Sonya Myers (Bill Myers’ wife) who couldn’t find any magazines dealing with how women can use guns. There was a lot of magazines about men and guns. But she just couldn’t find any magazines on women and guns.
Consequently she decided to publish a newsletter, which she called – yes you guessed it – “Women And Guns”. And it did only cost Sonya about $300 to launch and market the first edition of her newsletter.
This newsletter soon became so popular that it became a magazine.
Sonya had stumbled on a real winner – even though she didn’t have any competitors at first.
But remember again, that it’s usually much easier to find the market first, and THEN – only then – create the product they want to buy.
ASK THE PEOPLE IN THE MARKETPLACE
Another way to find the market (for your particular product) first, is to do what Ben Suarez is always doing whenever he tries to find a good, new product. You know, Ben Suarez is one of today’s most successful direct marketers. The rumor says that he is a billionaire several times over. So obviously he must do something right.
What Ben is doing, is that he picks about 12 potential products. These 12 products are grouped in three or four categories. Then Ben’s staff calls some people who’re chosen at random. They politely ask these people which of these products they would like to get for free, if they could. And they promise these people that they will get a free copy of the product that get most votes (and consequently is created), if they happen to vote for that product.
I’ve myself used this method when I was trying to find a good subject on which to create a book (on danish). I just found about 30-40 random people in the phonebook and called these people. I found the product most of the people would prefer to get. And what really surprised me was that the product that got most votes was another product that I had expected.
That’s another way to go.
BECOME AWARE TO THE MARKET
One extremely important way to find the market (for your particular product) first, is to become aware of what’s going on in the marketplace.
And due to the Internet, this is very easy.
Take a close look at all the discussion boards where people discuss the subject you’re planning to create a product on.
But whatever you choose to do, Greg, make some TESTS FIRST!
So the question is…
HOW DO YOU MAKE A TEST PRODUCT?
There are many ways to make a test product.
For instance you can create an audio-tape.
Just sit down in a quiet place with a cassette-recorder and talk about your subject into the microphone. Of course you need to know what you’re going to say. But if you do this, you’ll then have a quick product you can test-sell to the potential market.
If you find it difficult to just sit down a talk into that microphone, you can have a friend interviewing you.
You can also write a short report (5-10 pages).
Just remember, always to give your potential customers value for their money – even though it’s just a test product.
DID YOU FIND THE MARKET, THEN?
When we’re talking about the importance of finding the market first, it’s also extremely important to find out if your market CAN ACTUALLY AFFORD TO BUY YOUR PRODUCT.
One thing is if they WANT to buy your product.
It’s a totally different question, if they’re ACTUALLY ABLE TO BUY YOUR PRODUCT.
And I think this is an important question to ask yourself, Greg – AND your market – before you move ahead a try to create that product. Particularly when we’re talking about young people, many of which are still students or are just finished with school.
If they can’t afford your product, you don’t have a good chance to being able to sell your product.
Again, you need to really get an insider knowledge of your market. You need to be aware of what’s happening in the market.
Ask yourself: “What do these people already buy now? Do they buy products that cost about the same as the product I want to create?”
If they don’t, you would do wise to think twice before you go ahead and try to create that product.
TAKE THAT FIRST STEP!
Finally, I would like to say that it’s extremely important to take that first step and start creating your product – as soon as you’ve found your market.
I remember that master marketer Terry Dean once said something helpful: “Go out there and make some mistakes!”
You see, one of the worst enemies we have a product developers is PROCRASTINATION. You know, a lot of people talk and talk about creating information products. The problem is that they never actually take that first step and begin creating their product.
One important reason for this is that we often are so afraid of making mistakes.
And if you take a look at all the many self-help books that try to teach you how to succeed in life, you’ll notice that most of them is actually trying to show people the solution to procrastination.
Why?
The answer, again, is that procrastination is so widespread!
Most people know what it means to procrastinate.
The solution, I think, is to look fear right in it’s eyes and say to it: “Okay, you may make me tremble by fear. But I will do it anyway. No matter what I feel, I am going to do it anyway.”
Don’t wait until your feelings of fear has disappeared!
Just move ahead even though you still feel the fear!
If you try to eliminate your fear before you move ahead, you may never get started, Greg.
But if you look the fear right into it’s eyes and move ahead anyway, you’ll win over the fear.
So JUST DO IT! as the Nike says.
But of course you should always try to give yourself less reason to fear, by TESTING everything first.
TEST, TEST, TEST – as the experts say!
CONGRATULATIONS!
So congratulations with getting this idea! This idea is the first step towards accomplishing your goal. And as they say in China: “A trip of thousand miles begin with the first step.”
This is the case in Direct Marketing and the information business too!
If you take a look around on the Internet, you’ll constantly see that a lot of marketers just sell the same stuff as everybody else. They never seems to get any further. They never create their own information products. They just resell the products created by others.