TLDR:
- Understand the target demographic you’re trying to target from top to bottom
- Create an offer that your target demographic literally cannot resist
- Generate hype around what you’re building through the channels relevant to your target demographic
- Create your presence even before you go live with what you build. Join relevant online communities to have a thorough understanding of what reels them in hook, line, and sinker.
The importance of knowing how to sell your creation
For most of you, the aptitude of building something from start to finish probably comes more naturally compared to selling in the same manner.
Perhaps you might have been a “door-to-door salesman” growing up selling chocolate or ran your own lemonade stand in the neighborhood, though you most likely didn’t have a sales strategy in mind.
But now, if you want to build something with the intent to occupy space in a particular domain, it’s pertinent to know how to sell beforehand, and we’ll go through some of the basic principles of learning how to sell before building.
1. Profiling Your Target Customer Demographic
- Create detailed customer personas relevant to the demographic you’re trying to target taking into account tastes, preferences, and pain points.
- It would help if you also looked to analyze iconic advertising campaigns targeting your customer demographic to develop a further understanding of what really clicks at an emotional level for them. It is obviously also a bonus if these campaigns are also related to the product you’re trying to
2. Your Offer
- Create an offer that after conducting all the relevant research you strongly believe would entice a good portion of the target demographic. It should be an offer that convinces them it is a necessity or something that can enhance the quality of their life.
3. Building Hype
- One of the best ways to maximize the volume of demand generated is hyping whatever it is you’re building through the proper channels, such as social media.
- Whatever social media platform(s) it is you’re using, generate content that aligns with the format of the platform for the best possible output of engagement.
- It would also help to build relationships with segments of the target demographic interested in what you’re building with frequent direct communication prior to launch.
4. Building Your Customer Base
- After having that target demographic in mind, begin building your customer base.
- A perfect route to take would be online communities, particularly those that are relatively niche such as subreddits or subforums that are more similar to what you’re building if not identical.
- By being active in online communities, you’ll be able to establish relationships with other people a part of the community, bounce off ideas of what you have in mind for building, and receive feedback straight from the source.
Remember that unlike having your own lemonade stand in the neighborhood, the zest that comes from selling the lemonade stand you’re now trying to build is understanding what your target demographic cares about the most, and how you can push it to them the quickest afterwards.