Using Landing Page To Validate Product or Startup Idea
Being an entrepreneur is not a piece of cake. It takes a certain bit of hard work and vision to make it a success. Irrespective of how much the idea of being your own boss and building your own empire might fascinate you, there is too much involved in the entire process to learn and grasp. Although there are a lot of guides online to help you start, most of them are not too practical. All you see these days is the pompous smile of a company’s founder, dishing out advice and sharing how their company made millions and reached that kind of stardom.
There have been countless businesses that have succeeded merely by using landing pages to validate their product/startup idea. If you are one such entrepreneur but have no idea where to begin, do not fret! We share with you some practical ways using which you can use your landing pages to validate your product or startup idea. Let us check them out!
1. Make Your Idea More Comprehensible
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”
– Hans Hofmann
Truer words were never said. In order to sell your idea to potential customers, the first thing you need to do is ensure that your idea is as simplified as possible. Having a thorough understanding of your idea is always good, but that does not necessarily need to be a part of the idea you convey to your target audience.
The easiest way to simplify your idea is to try out an elevator pitch and consider, “Can you share your idea with a potential consumer or an influential investor in 20 seconds?” If not, then you need to simplify it further. Remember that a good idea should contain three vital elements – the problem you intend to solve with it, its benefits, and precisely how it works.
Therefore, you should try the elevator pitch exercise a couple of times in order to eliminate any jargon or “unnecessary” words you might have used to relate your idea. You can also ask yourself if a layperson who knows nothing about your field will understand the idea if you share it with him/her. This is a pretty good litmus test to understand exactly how simplified and easy to understand your idea is.
2. Create A Landing Page.
The next step is to create and build a good landing page. Once the idea has been clarified, you can begin creating your product. To this end, you would need to create some landing pages as well as install Google Analytics to monitor button clicks and traffic.
Strategy 1: Landing page that you create, start with a description of your product, portraying it as if it can already be accessed or bought. Outline all the details regarding its features and how it works. Then end the description with a neat Call To Action (CTA) that leads the consumers to the pricing or product page. On this page, also use the simplified idea description you came up with as the headline.
Strategy 2: Landing page that you create should be more specific, and share more concrete details and info about precisely what kind of a product the consumers will be purchasing. If your product is physical, you could also mention some product specifications, shipping details, and/or the colors the product will be available in. Amazon is an excellent example of that.
Strategy 3: Landing page would essentially be like a pre-launch page that will display a short message with a description of the product that is not entirely ready. This page will allow the visitors to get to know your product better and enter their email for an alert once the product is good to go.
These three landing page examples are a great way to gauge user interest in your product before you put in some significant investment in the entire thing. These diverse landing pages will also ultimately result in a buying decision as the users will be well-informed about your product in advance.
3. Get Good Traffic To It And Run Some Tests.
The final and most important step is to get traffic to your landing pages, you can share with community via twitter, facebook or newsletter/email. The best thing about this entire process is that up until now, you have spent absolutely nothing. This is why you can now consider spending a bit of money on paid ad campaigns. Google AdWords and Facebook Ads are two great avenues you can consider exploring to this end. Google AdWords is more thorough than the latter, and you can target customers with an intent to purchase.
If you do decide to choose AdWords, you must use long-tail keywords as this will narrow in on all those users who intend to buy rather than simply look for general information. Facebook Ads are also suitable, but they focus on users only based on the demographics. Still, you can target the followers of similar pages and use the function of a “narrow audience” until you have a good enough audience.
And That’s About It!
Remember that although these steps are pretty easy and straightforward, it is crucial to really understand your target audience and what consumers today are looking for. Adapting your product or idea to make it more customer-centric is key to making your product/startup idea a success. In addition to that, by following these easy steps, it will become easier for you to simplify your idea, build landing pages and a sales funnel as well as drive traffic to those pages in no time. All these things will also allow you to analyze consumer interest and whether or not people are actually interested in buying your product.
If you observe low conversion rates, you will probably need to consider rebranding your product or focusing on some vital part of your idea that you missed out on. But if your conversion rates glow, kudos! You have actually tested the hypothesis and made it work. Spread the word and help others use landing pages to validate their product/startup idea!
