Market Growth
Photo by Isaac Smith
3 Essentials for Market Growth
By Robin Anderson
Many startup founders are busy building their MVP, trying to get it ready for concept testing or initial trial runs with early adopter customers. While the MVP is in the development process stage, use this time to start laying the foundation for your marketing. For those that simply don’t know where to start - this blog is here to help. We’ll map the three actions you need to take to build the foundation for market growth in a quick and affordable way.
3 Essentials for Market Growth
Conduct the necessary customer research to define your target customer persona
Determined where your product fits in the marketplace
Create a messaging framework for all your communications needs.
Once you complete these three things, you will have the tools to create a marketing strategy and begin building an effective marketing plan to grow your business.
Essentials Defined
Persona - Begin to map your primary persona: who they are, what they do, why they do it, along with understanding their biggest challenges. Make sure you are talking to the right customer
Product/Market fit - Knowing your persona helps to fully understand your product/market fit. A problem only becomes a business when your solution fixes a problem that people will pay for. Research the market to find your niche to target.
Messaging - Start building your messaging framework. It will serve as the foundation for all of your communications needs. This messaging will be used for everything - your website, pitch deck, social media, pr, and more. Keep in mind this will likely evolve as you learn more about your customers and market. Messaging is what will give prospects a reason to buy your product.
“We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.”
Persona
A persona is a semi-fictional character that describes your target customer. Sometimes called a user, marketing or buyer persona. There may be a primary and a secondary personas within a single category, sometimes even more. Once you gain momentum for this primary audience you can roll out your product to the next one.
Why is identifying a persona important?
Doing so allows your team to understand the whole customer (and prospects), which will help you to tailor your messaging in ways that will make sense to them. In addition, having a deeper understanding of your customer needs and behavior will help you make decisions about product design and marketing, resulting in a better solution.
Characteristics of identifying your primary persona
Who are they:
Age
Gender
Occupation
Education
Any other demographic information
What they do and why
Where do they live and where do they go online
What motivates them
What are their goals
Buying patterns
Behaviors
Pain points
For business-focused products also look at
What skills are required to do your job
What is the size of your company
What is your biggest challenge
Motivators include why does your persona watch, play or do what they do? Does your product solve their problems, save them time, help them with what they need to get done?
To begin the process of researching your persona, start with making a list of customers to interview or survey. Next, interview 20+ people who are prospects or reside within your personal network. Search your Google Analytics to gain insights as to where your visitors are located. Take a look at social media, and do some social listening with regard to keywords and hashtags. And lastly, think about how your persona will be used for everything you do from marketing to developing your product.
“It’s not about the personas. It’s about doing the research to understand your users.”
Product/Market Fit
Product/market fit means having a presence in a thriving market with a product that can satisfy that market.
Why is Product/Market Fit Important?
Once you have achieved product/market fit, it tells you if you have solved a real problem for a big enough market segment where you could realistically keep building your product, translating to market acceptance. This translate into demand for your product. startup, Don’t disappoint, plan to provide customer support. The benefit is enabling your customers to provide good reviews and actionable, insightful feedback that you can then use to improve your product.
How to Determine Your Product/Market Fit
Research the market to see what products/solutions may already exist. Use this to evaluate the competition. Also take a look at industry trends for your niche. You have already mapped your persona, now it’s time to talk to them. Use this to create a better user experience, get valuable insights, and build community. Measure the product/market fit (more on that noted below).
Why it is important to focus on one Market Segment
Teams are aligned so staying on course and correcting direction is easier
Best product built for the customer - specific needs and wants satisfied
Lower risk of expansion - success in one market segment can then be copied to new ones
Marketing is more effective - clear messaging
Measure your Product/Market Fit
To determine if you have reached product/market fit, ask yourself: What does your prospect have, feel, do in their average day and their status before and after they use your product? If you reach 40% response rate, you have achieved product/market fit. Next ask your customer: How would you feel if you could no longer use your product? Incorporate those answers into your marketing messaging to help communicate the benefits of your product.
“Things you don’t need to launch your product: a great name, a one-word domain, a beautiful logo, an ever better website, brilliant copy, perfect code, custom illustrations, shiny buttons, optimized CSS. Things you do need: a product that solves a problem for someone. That’s it.”
Messaging
Messaging Framework
A messaging framework provides you with consistent communications across all touchpoints with who you are, what you do, why customers should buy from you, and what makes you different from the competition.
Why is a Messaging Framework Important?
It serves as the foundation for all of your communications needs. This messaging will be used for everything - your website, pitch deck, social media, pr, and more. Having a messaging framework will give you the ability to concisely communicate what your company does, what it’s about, and why it’s different than the competition. It also enables your employees to share the same message - everyone is on the same page. And it gives your prospects the reason they need to buy your product.
How to Build a Messaging Framework
Identify your persona
List their primary problem
State how your product solves their problem
Include how your solution is better than the competition
Highlight your strengths for success
Start building your messaging framework with your value proposition. A value proposition is a statement that answers the ‘why’ someone should do business with you. It should convince a potential customer WHY your service or product will be of more value to them than similar offerings from your competition.
Elements of a Value Proposition
What are the benefits of your product?
What makes those benefits valuable to your customers?
What problem does your product solve for those customers?
Why are you better than the competition?
Additional communications to create, all based on your value proposition:
Elevator Pitch
(50-100 words)
The purpose of an Elevator Pitch is to describe what you do in 30-60 seconds. Do not include industry jargon or acronyms. Include who you are, what you do, and why.
Tagline
(10 words or less)
The purpose of a Tagline is to describe your primary business benefit in a few short words. Keep it simple. Keep it relevant.
Product Positioning
(3-5 Sentences)
The purpose of a Product Positioning statement is to describe what your product does and how it works. It centers around your key benefits that address customer pain points while including your unique differentiation from your competition. The emphasis is to connect with your customer on an emotional level.
“Your marketing message is often the first communication between you and a potential customer, which is why it’s so important to nail it. It’s your chance to define who you are and what you do.”
Now that you know who you are targeting, your fit in the marketplace, and how to communicate, you can begin building your marketing strategy with confidence.
Need help getting started with one or all three of these essentials? Contact us, for a free 30-minute consultation!
FunFact Friday
Uber’s co-founders started testing their product/market fit by offering free rides from technology events and conferences in San Francisco. Their personal experiences with taxi’s revealed that the system was expensive with an out-of-date business model. With Uber, users simply had to use an app to place a ride request - the business conducted all through an app on their phone. Once they started gaining momentum, Uber offered 50% discounts to new riders. The key to growth was the ability for customers to place a ride request, track the arrival along with the trip, and pay the fare via an app - translating into customer convenience and success for Uber.