Launching a new product, shop or business can be a challenging task... and there is a certain amount of risk involved. And as you know, it doesn't matter how much your product or service helps your target audience, if no one knows about it, you will have a hard time reaching your income goals. So this post will show you how to put your products, services and ventures to the test before launching, to save time, money and frustration.
Starting a new venture will result in some variation of these risk scenarios... Your product or service will either be a huge success or an absolute failure.
The big question is how do you create a plan that reduces or eliminates failure while increasing your chances of reaching your income goals, consistently?
The diagram below shows the basic steps in a testing method you can use to set up a testing system that you can use to analyze data from your cell phone.
Sales success is not as easy as sending out a social media post every now and then, making a cute video or even buying ads, thinking the money will just flow into your bank account.
Here's the Scoop on Running Ads
Sales and marketing success takes a planned, consistent sales approach. That means finding an advertising platform and consistently sticking with it, posting quality content. Relying on ads without understanding how they work can lead to wasting a lot of money.
As a matter of fact, research has shown that up to 60% of marketing budgets are wasted. It's like throwing hard earned money down the drain,
This means that ads are being run on social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. These companies are making money from hopeful business owners and in return, the businesses running ads are not reaching their financial goals. Business owners are running ads without knowing how to use them to their advantage.
Even with a plan, it's hard to know if your ideas will be profitable and worth the time and energy you'll put into them. We'll talk about ways to manage the risk while implementing continuous improvement to reach your personal and financial goals.
While it's risky, starting a business, launching new products and actually making money from any location can be fun, and very rewarding.
I don't know many people who start a business to lose money, but that's the reality for many people who think it's a get rich quick process.
On the flip side of throwing caution to the wind, there are business owners who are paralyzed in fear, who never take action because of the potential for losing time and money on something that never pans out.
How to Make Money Without Losing Your Shirt
When you decide to launch a business, one of your first challenges will be in finding a balance between throwing caution to the wind and taking huge chances, or taking steps to manage potential risks.
Here are several ideas you can use to land somewhere in the middle:
Or you may decide it's not worth it to move ahead. At the same time, if you never launch, you'll never know whether your idea could be the next big thing.
So testing is not about giving up, it's about going back to the drawing board and implementing improvements. The more confident you are in your venture and your ability to achieve success, the better you will be at convincing others to go along with you. But it's hard to have confidence with the uncertainty that goes along with staring something new.
Not All Ideas Are Worth It
The reality is that some ideas are on target and others, not so much. Successful business owners don't just wake up, select a product and start selling without a few hiccups. It's natural and expected that you will fail before achieving your goals.
Test Your Business Ideas
Consistently improve your sales and marketing results and connect with an audience of people who want and need your products.
There will always be something you can change, and those small changes can make a huge difference in the results you obtain when selling. Just keep in mind that failure is a normal part of the process. That's why entrepreneurs are also known as risk takers.
And this is the thing... the only way to know whether your idea is worth pursuing is to get it out there and let potential customers see what it's about.
Research can help you gather strong assumptions about your ability to sell. However, until you receive feedback from the actual people in your audience, your marketing messages may fall on deaf ears.
And in taking a script from the Disney movies I've been watching lately, you may have to kiss a few frogs before you get to Prince Charming. Don't give up, keep testing, learning and improving.
You'll reach your sales and marketing goals when you get your messages in front of the right people, and you're able to motivate them to take the desired action. You do that by regularly testing, learning, improving and communicating with your
Short, 2 - 3 question surveys can help you get the information needed to make decisions.
audience.
Let's say you have a product that seems like a good fit for the people you want to work with. Based on your market research, you think you have something that will really help them.
The big question is... will your audience see it that way? What are the right words, how do you create the right messaging that evokes the emotions that will motivate potential customers to take action? Taking the steps above and building a testing system will give you answers to those questions.
How Setting Up a Testing System Will Help You Reach Your Goals
Is it better to find out your idea doesn't work after you've invested your time, hard earned money and resources? Probably not. Learn your lessons before spending time and energy. Setting up a testing system takes the guesswork out of whether to launch or not.
This is Not a New Concept
Smart companies launch products using data, not hunches, feelings or data that worked for someone else. Testing out ideas before launching is not new. It's a tried and true method used by large and small companies alike. It saves time and money by allowing business owners to show their products to a test market, get feedback and launch using real data from their audience.
While helping you sell more, the data obtained during testing can also help you improve a product or concept to make it better.
And testing is not a one time or one product thing. Testing is a continuous process that gives the gift of unlimited insight and creativity. There are also tools like polls, surveys and quizzes that are regularly used to obtain data.
No one, including major corporations has money to throw away on ideas that don't work.
When you think about major brands, they launch tests in small markets and analyze the data and feedback they receive from potential customers before they roll out their items to major markets. Before spending massive amounts of money and resources on marketing and advertising, these companies are armed with information they can use to make informed decisions.
Market Research Can Only Take You So Far
Market research is an absolute necessity when starting a business. It helps you understand your niche and the challenges they have from a generic perspective.
We know there are people who are looking for products like yours based on research posted in a number of different places. But this data, while insightful can only take us so far.
The reason it's limited is because it's based on the results obtained from a generic sampling of people, from a number of different sources. There's no real time data that tells you what your unique audience will buy.
Your Unique Business... Your Unique Results
Using a generic approach to launching a business can be tricky... For example, what sells to my audience may not sell well when when you place the same products and services in front of your audience.
Testing helps you figure out what products will be the best fit for the people who follow your unique business.
In addition to knowing what products will earn you money, you can also test out different scenarios to see which products, features and options will bring in the most money.
At the same time, testing doesn't mean you won't lose money, it means you won't lose as much money on a product, or service that may or may not work.
Here's Our Solution
If you're on WordPress and you're comfortable setting up sites, there is an affordable solution that will provide everything you need to set up a testing system designed save you time, money and frustration.
This is What You'll Get:
We'll set up your system and train you on how to use the tools to test different scenarios. We'll also show you how to use data to determine whether your idea is (1) something you should more forward with, (2) something that you can tweak to improve, or (3) something that you should scrap and start again.
Knowing what works will get you to the goal of making the kind of money that can make a difference in your life. Knowing doesn't work can help you cross things off your list and lead you to a solution that does work.
If this sounds interesting, just sign up to get immediate access to our testing solutions and see how they work. You can opt out within 30 day if our solutions don't meet your needs.
What Happens When You Find a Feasible Product to Promote?
Once you find an idea that's feasible, you'll have everything you need to build out a WordPress shop. You'll of course want to add (and test) more products to your shop.
You can also duplicate what you learned in your initial test to start a new site that brings in another stream of income.
The bottom line is, you'll have a shopping system on the leading platform for blogs and websites (WordPress), that gives you the confidence you can use to roll out consistently successful ventures.
Split Testing Made Easy
Split test pages on your WordPress website with the tool we use to improve our conversion rates and sales. Made especially for non-techies. To Watch a video that shows how easy it is to set up a quick landing page test, click the button below.
Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel
We're helping creative business owners go from stuck and confused to empowered and thriving one video at a time.