In my last article, I spoke about how the copywriters first task is understanding his customer deeply before even sitting down to write.
But what if you are just starting out, you are probably not even thinking about your customer yet. You just want to get some money in your pocket, but please be patient.
One of the biggest mistakes most people make when going into business is picking a business that they “like” or hobby or product because they think it is cool.
Those are noble things to go into business for, but that doesn’t mean you are destined to become the next Elon Musk… and matter of fact, if you don’t do your research beforehand you might just be sitting in bankruptcy court for your hobby.
You become obsessed with the product.
Then, when it is finally launched into the marketplace, you are surprised beyond belief because it didn’t sell even a single unit. (well maybe mom bought one because she loves you)
What happened?
They thought about themselves first, and when you do that in business it usually leads directly to a dead end more often than not.
Yea, sometimes you can pick a product and it blows up, but this is mostly an anomaly. Think of fidget spinners.
That product was a craze but after the public got tired of the fad, what happened? Back to trying to pick another PowerBall lottery ticket number (aka new product idea).
If you want sustainable success you must first pick a cash rich hungry mob of buyers, a market flush with not only passionate customers but ones who actually have the expendable cash to purchase.
If your hobby, on the other hand, has a huge mob of hungry buyers then it might just be a home run… something you have passion for AND the numbers scream “Jackpot”.
If you don’t care about financial gain and only want to enjoy your hobby, like I said it’s noble… but why not do something you love and earn a living at the same exact time?
Here are a my Top 5 Money Sucking Research Methods to validate a market is primed for success BEFORE I enter it (and to REALLY understand my customer’s pain points):
- Google Trends: type in your market niche and related keywords to see if it is trending up or down… or seasonal)
- Facebook Groups: search in the niche you plan on entering and check the size and how active those groups are (did you know that you can target these groups in your ads on Facebook?)
- Standard Rate & Data Services (SRDS): check the numbers of a circulation of related niche magazines, newspapers, mailing lists and also how much customers in those markets spend! (expensive subscription but invaluable… or your local library or university may have these for free!)
- Ubersuggest: take the top Keywords of your niche and put them in Ubersuggest (free SEO keyword research web app that shows how much traffic sites get)
- GIN (Google It Now): Search “Top <niche> Forums” or “<Niche> websites> i.e. “Top Dog Owner Forums” or “Dog Owner Websites” (the just start reading posts and articles to see what makes your customers tick or keeps them up at night)
Spend some serious time checking into these before you even think about the product.
Yes, this is contrarian thinking, but it is accurate thinking.
Then (and only then) you ask what the customer niche actually wants to discover their mass desire as a market… then you create all your marketing around that.
True marketers will know that is the main focal point of the classic copywriting and human behavior book “Breakthrough Advertising” by Eugene Swartz
…you never create the desire…
You just have to channel that desire into the solution aka your product.
Good luck, I hope this makes you an even more effective copywriter.
#MarketResearchFirst #NearlyGuaranteeSuccess