Day 6: Survey Potential Customers

It’s day 6. You have about 24 days left until launch, depending on the launch date you set as part of the last action plan. Today we’re going to start talking to potential customers.

Action Item #1: Survey Potential Customers

Your first action item for today is to ask your potential customers exactly what they want.

I want you to put together a brief, simple survey to see which of your ideas is most desirable.

For example, when I started working on this 30-day challenge, I surveyed the readers of The Sparkline to find out which kind of challenge people would be most excited about.

I suggest having between 2 and 7 total options for people to vote on. Use a survey tool like Wufoo or Survey Monkey.

Even if you already have a favorite product idea, I recommend doing this survey to confirm. You might save yourself from putting effort into a product that isn’t as popular as you had hoped.

Note: I recommend also collecting first names and email addresses in your survey, so you can contact people during your product launch. I didn’t collect them, because these people were mostly already on our mailing list.

If you have a blog, write a blog post like my example. This is the first step in building buzz about your upcoming product.

If you don’t have a blog, you’re going to have to look harder for potential customers.

You could post to Facebook or Twitter if you have accounts there. You could ask friends with blogs to help out by sharing with their audiences. Or, you may have to email people you know directly, who you think are in your target audience.

The goal is to get enough people to complete the survey to give you data to act on. I’d aim for at least 100 responses, but do the best you can.

Action Item #2: Talk Directly to Customers

In addition to your survey, you should also talk to a handful of potential customers directly to gather some details about specifically what they would want to see in a product.

You can do this after you get survey results, to focus on the most popular choice.

The goal here is to talk to 3-5 people in your target audience (people who completed the survey would be a good start). Schedule 20-minute Skype calls to ask them about their history with your chosen topic, what they’ve struggled with, how they think your product could help, what format they prefer, and other open-ended questions.

Questions or comments about this lesson? Leave a comment on this post. If you’re a Fizzle member, join the discussion in the forum for this challenge.