How To TEST ANY BUSINESS OR PRODUCT IDEA With REAL Customers → 3 Simple Steps

Summary

Rick Kettner's video outlines a three-step process to test business ideas with real customers. It emphasizes creating a simple website, gathering early reactions to refine messaging, and testing the idea with real customers using marketing channels like Facebook ads. The goal is to reduce risk, learn, and improve the odds of success without significant time, energy, or money.

Takeaways

• 😀 The video presents a three-step process for testing a business idea without significant investment of time, energy, or money.
• 🛠️ The process is applicable even before the product or service is fully developed, allowing for early feedback and improvement of the idea.
• 🔔 Subscribing to the channel and turning on notifications is recommended for viewers interested in business growth strategies.
• 🌐 Step one involves creating a simple website to bring the business idea to life using website builders like Wix or Squarespace.
• 🎭 The website should be designed as if the business is fully operational, with call-to-action buttons leading to a page indicating the product's unavailability but offering an email sign-up for updates.
• 🤔 The purpose of the website is to gauge genuine reactions and refine the communication of the business idea to potential customers.
• 📝 Step two focuses on gathering early reactions to improve messaging, which involves refining the website based on feedback from family, friends, and potential customers.
• 🗣️ Techniques from 'Sprint' by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky are suggested for conducting one-on-one interviews to gather genuine reactions without guiding the respondents.
• 📈 Step three is about testing the business idea with real customers using paid marketing channels like Facebook or Google ads to attract potential customers.
• 📊 Key metrics to track in step three include ad views, clicks, website visits, time spent on the site, and call-to-action button clicks.
• 🔄 The process encourages iterative improvement, with the potential to pivot the product or service based on the feedback and traction received.
• 📈 The video emphasizes the importance of early marketing and customer feedback in reducing risk and improving the chances of business success.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the video?

The main purpose of the video is to explain a simple three-step process for testing a business idea with real-world customers without spending a lot of time, energy, or money.

What is the first step in the three-step process?

The first step is to bring your idea to life with a simple website using tools like Wix or Squarespace. The website should portray the idea as if it already exists, even though the product or service is not yet available.

Why is it important to create a simple marketing website?

Creating a simple marketing website is important because it allows you to get genuine reactions from people, iterate and improve upon your idea, and enhance your ability to communicate your idea with potential customers, all without having to fully build out the product or service.

What should you do if a customer clicks on a call-to-action button on the website?

If a customer clicks on a call-to-action button on the website, they should be taken to another page that explains the product or service is not currently available and offers a form for them to enter their email address to be notified when it becomes available.

What is the second step in the three-step process?

The second step is to gather early reactions to improve your messaging. This involves showing the website to family, friends, and early potential customers to get their genuine feedback and refine how you communicate your idea.

What is the goal of the casual one-on-one interviews mentioned in step two?

The goal of the casual one-on-one interviews is to understand how well people understand the website and identify any points of confusion. This helps improve both the website's messaging and the product idea itself.

What book is recommended for gathering early reactions and building prototypes?

The book 'Sprint' by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky is recommended for gathering early reactions and building prototypes.

What is the third step in the three-step process?

The third step is to test your business idea with real customers. This involves using simple marketing channels like Facebook or Google ads to attract potential customers to the website and track their interactions.

What metrics should you track in step three?

In step three, you should track metrics such as the number of people who view your ad, click your ad, visit the website, how long they spend on the website, and how many people click the call-to-action buttons.

What should you do if you don't get a lot of early traction from real customers?

If you don't get a lot of early traction, it indicates that you might need to adjust your product or service, learn more about potential customer interests, and pivot your idea to better serve the target audience.

Outlines

00:00

🛠️ Introduction to Testing a Business Idea

Rick Kettner introduces a three-step process for testing a business idea without significant investment. The method is applicable even before the product or service is fully developed, allowing for early feedback and improved chances of success. The speaker encourages viewers to subscribe for more business growth tips and to turn on notifications for updates. The importance of testing is emphasized as a means to gather early feedback and focus on marketing to reduce risk and enhance the business idea. The video promises a high-level overview followed by more detailed individual videos for each step.

05:03

🌐 Creating a Simple Website to Bring Ideas to Life

The first step involves creating a simple website to represent the business idea without the need for coding knowledge, using website builders like Wix or Squarespace. The website should present the business as if it's fully operational to elicit genuine reactions from potential customers. Call-to-action buttons like 'Buy Now' or 'Sign Up' lead to a page explaining unavailability and offer an email sign-up form for updates. The goal is to communicate the idea effectively and gather reactions to refine the concept and messaging before the actual product or service is available.

10:04

🤔 Gathering Early Reactions to Refine Messaging

The second step focuses on refining the business messaging through one-on-one interviews with family, friends, and early potential customers. Borrowing concepts from 'Sprint' by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, the approach involves open-ended questions and observing genuine reactions without guiding the conversation. The aim is to identify confusion points and areas of improvement for the website and the product or service itself. This iterative process helps in enhancing communication and the product concept before full development.

📊 Testing Business Ideas with Real Customers

The third step transitions to testing the business idea with real customers who have no personal connection to the business. Using paid marketing channels like Facebook or Google ads to attract potential customers, the focus is on observing how they interact with the website. Metrics such as ad views, clicks, website visits, time spent, and call-to-action button clicks are tracked to gauge interest. The expectation is not for immediate purchases but for indications of genuine interest, which can inform further improvements and marketing strategies.

🔄 Adjusting and Pivoting Based on Early Traction

The final part of the script discusses the importance of adjusting and pivoting the product or service based on the traction received during the testing phase. If initial results are not promising, it indicates a need to adapt and learn more about customer interests. The process aims to build momentum, improve advertising, and refine the product or service offering. The video concludes with a recap of the three steps, a call for likes and subscriptions, and an invitation for viewers to share their thoughts and questions in the comments.

Keywords

💡Business Idea

A 'business idea' is a concept or plan for a new business venture. In the video, the theme revolves around testing this concept to ensure its viability before investing significant resources. The script emphasizes the importance of early feedback to refine and improve the business idea, which is central to the video's message of reducing risk and enhancing the chances of success.

💡Real-World Customers

'Real-world customers' refers to actual potential consumers who might use a product or service. The script discusses the importance of getting feedback from these customers to validate the business idea. It suggests that understanding their reactions and interests is crucial for the business's success, as it provides insights into how the market perceives the proposed offering.

💡Feedback

Feedback in this context is the response or opinion from individuals about a business idea or product. The video stresses the need to gather feedback early in the process to make informed adjustments. It is a key component of the testing process described, allowing for the iteration and improvement of the business idea based on actual customer reactions.

💡Marketing Website

A 'marketing website' is a platform used to promote a business, product, or service. The script explains that creating a simple website is one of the initial steps to bring a business idea to life. It serves as a tool to communicate the offering and gather genuine reactions from potential customers, even before the actual product or service exists.

💡Call to Action (CTA)

A 'call to action' (CTA) is a prompt on a website designed to guide visitors towards a specific response, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service. In the script, CTAs like 'Buy Now' or 'Sign Up' are used to gauge interest, even though the product or service is not yet available, by directing interested customers to a notification form.

💡Messaging

Messaging in the context of the video refers to the communication strategy used to convey the value and purpose of a product or service. The script highlights the importance of refining messaging based on early reactions to ensure clarity and effectiveness in communicating the business idea to potential customers.

💡Risk Reduction

'Risk reduction' is the process of minimizing potential losses or failures in a business venture. The video outlines a three-step process aimed at reducing risk by testing the business idea with real customers and gathering feedback, which helps in making informed decisions and adjustments before full-scale implementation.

💡Iterate

To 'iterate' means to repeat a process with the aim of improving or refining it. In the script, iteration is a key part of the process where the business idea is continuously improved based on feedback and testing, ensuring that the final product or service is well-aligned with customer needs and expectations.

💡Prototype

A 'prototype' is an early sample or model of a product or service that is used to test concepts and gather user feedback. The video mentions the use of a marketing website as a form of a prototype to simulate the business idea and understand how real customers might interact with it.

💡Conversion Rate

The 'conversion rate' is a metric that measures the effectiveness of a marketing campaign by calculating the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase. The script discusses the expectation of a low conversion rate during initial testing, emphasizing that the focus should be on gathering interest and understanding customer behavior.

💡Paid Marketing

'Paid marketing' refers to advertising strategies that involve spending money to promote a product or service, such as through social media platforms or search engines. The video suggests using paid marketing channels like Facebook or Google ads to attract real customers to the website for testing the business idea.

Highlights

Learn a simple three-step process to test a business idea with real-world customers without spending a lot of time, energy, or money.

Gather early feedback to improve your business idea and increase your odds for success.

Subscribe to the channel on YouTube and turn on notifications for more tips on building and growing your business.

Step 1: Bring your idea to life with a simple website using tools like Wix or Squarespace.

Create a marketing website that portrays your business as if it already exists to get genuine reactions from potential customers.

Use call-to-action buttons like Buy Now, Sign Up, or Register without worrying about fulfilling the product yet.

Step 2: Gather early reactions to improve your messaging by showing the website to family, friends, and potential customers.

Conduct one-on-one interviews to get genuine reactions and identify moments of confusion on the website.

Use open-ended questions to understand how well people grasp the idea and improve both the product and its communication.

Borrow concepts from 'Sprint' by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky to gather early feedback effectively.

Step 3: Test your business idea with real customers using simple marketing channels like Facebook or Google ads.

Track metrics like ad views, clicks, website visits, and call-to-action button clicks to gauge interest.

Adjust your product or service based on feedback and test again to find traction.

Recap: Bring your idea to life with a simple website, gather early reactions to improve messaging, and test with real customers.

Like the video and subscribe to the channel for more business-building tips, and leave comments with questions or feedback.

Transcripts

- Hey, it's Rick Kettner here.

And in this video, we're gonna go

through a simple three-step process that you can use

to test a business idea with real-world customers

without spending a lot of time, energy,

or money in the process.

In fact, this is a system that you can use,

even if you have yet to build out your product

or your service.

That way, you can gather early feedback

and actually improve your idea

and improve your odds for success.

Now, if you're interested in learning more

about how to build and grow your business,

I recommend that you subscribe

to the channel here on YouTube,

and that you turn on notifications

so that you don't miss out on future videos.

But with that said, let's dive into it.

And before I actually get into the three steps,

I wanna talk a little bit about why testing is so important

because this isn't just about figuring out

if you have a good idea or a bad idea.

As I kind of alluded to earlier,

the idea here is really to figure out

how to improve your business idea.

So you wanna gather feedback as early as possible.

You wanna start focusing on marketing as early as possible.

So that's kind of the theme here.

You're looking for opportunities to reduce risk, learn more,

and at the end of the day, improve your odds for success.

So I'm gonna cover these three steps

quite quickly in this video.

I plan on following up with individual videos

focused on each of the steps to give you more information

on how to actually execute the strategy.

But here in this video, I wanna focus on just providing you

with a high level look at how this process works,

so that you can get a sense

for how and why you should pursue this with your business.

Step number one is to bring your idea to life

with a simple website.

Now, you don't need to know anything about HTML or coding,

or anything like this to make this happen.

You can use a simple online website visual builder like Wix,

or Squarespace, or one of the many different options

that exist out there.

But the reason why this is so important

is it's one of the easiest, fastest,

and least expensive ways to bring your idea to life

so that you can get genuine reactions from people,

you can iterate and improve upon your idea,

and you can actually improve your ability

to communicate your idea with potential customers,

all of which helps move your business forward.

So that's the premise here.

Now, what we don't wanna do

is build some kind of a Kickstarter campaign,

or a blog describing what we intend to build,

or what we're setting out to create.

The idea here is we wanna make a simple marketing website,

as if the business is 100% real,

and it already exists today.

That's what I meant by this is one of the fastest ways

to bring your idea to life,

we wanna make a website that portrays the idea

as if it already exists, as if it's something

that customers can take advantage of right now.

And whether it's a product or a service,

whatever the case may be,

you don't actually have to worry

about fulfilling the product yet

because what we're gonna do

is we're gonna have simple call to action buttons

on the website, traditional buttons you've seen

on millions of websites like Buy Now, Sign Up,

Register, Learn More, whatever is appropriate

for your specific business idea.

And when customers click one of these buttons,

will simply take them to another page

that explains that sorry,

this product or service is not currently available,

you can have a little form available

for them to enter their email address

if they wanna be notified when it is available.

But you don't actually have to worry

about customers clicking through and buying

because at this point in time,

you won't be accepting credit card payments,

you won't be claiming

to be able to sell something you don't have.

The main idea here is to simply communicate

what it is that you're intending to sell, who it's for,

and why people should be interested in buying it

so that you can get reactions

and actually see how people respond to the idea.

So step number two, is to gather early reactions

to improve your messaging.

This is really important because as entrepreneurs,

while we may have a clear idea

of what we're setting out to create,

who it's for, and why it may be valuable to people,

there's typically a pretty big gap between that

and our ability to actually communicate that effectively

to potential customers.

So you should fully expect that your very first attempt

to create this marketing website

is gonna have some pretty severe shortcomings

in terms of articulating what it is

in a way that customers get it

and they really understand what it is that you're offering.

So step number two is about refining your messaging,

talking with family, friends,

maybe some early potential customers,

if you have a close relationship with them,

you wanna show them the website

and you want to get their genuine reaction.

And you want to see what they understand,

where potential confusion might be,

any feedback or ideas they might have

about the product or service itself.

So you're in step two, our primary goal

is to improve the website,

to improve our ability to communicate the idea.

But a valuable byproduct of this whole process

is you might get some interesting feedback and ideas

on how you can actually improve the idea

of the product or the service itself,

so that you can improve it even before you built it.

So you're already finding ways

to take everything to the next level

without having to spend a small fortune

building the first version of the product,

or coding out the service or whatever it might be,

that you're setting out to create.

So you're improving both the product

and the way that you describe it to people.

And the way that you conduct these interviews,

these casual one on one interviews

with family, friends, and potential customers

is really important because as I'm sure you can assume

or imagine, most people, if they know you closely,

are pretty hesitant to give you honest

and critical feedback.

And so what we're gonna be doing

when we go into this in a little bit more details,

we're gonna be borrowing some ideas

from "Sprint" by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky.

This is a fantastic book

when it comes to building prototypes,

and gathering early reactions,

and making sure that your startup or your new business

is moving in the right direction.

So what we're gonna do

is take some of the concepts from the book.

And just to give you kind of a quick look at how this works,

you're gonna sit in on one-on-one

simple interviews with people,

you're gonna show them your website on a tablet or a laptop.

And you're simply gonna ask them open-ended questions

to get a sense of what they're experiencing.

You're not gonna guide them, you're not gonna step in

and tell them where to look,

or why they should be interested in your product or service,

you're not gonna give them

some sort of in-person sales pitch.

You're simply gonna show them the website

and ask questions like, what do you think of this?

Who do you think it's for?

What do you think it does?

What on the page stands out to you most?

You're not asking for feedback,

you're not asking for what they would do

to improve the idea,

you simply wanna get their genuine reaction in the moment.

And everything you say,

should be geared around getting more information from them,

as opposed to trying to guide them through it

or to explain why they should be interested

in the product or service, or who it's for,

maybe if they're family or friends

and maybe they're not particularly interested.

But rather than trying to explain why you're creating this

and who's gonna benefit from it,

you simply wanna get their genuine reaction.

And what you wanna be watching for here

is any moments of confusion,

any points where they're either they don't get it,

they don't know where to look,

they don't understand what it's all about.

They're scrolling around the page,

and they can't make sense of it.

Anything like that, instead of stepping in

to try to solve it for them, you wanna simply take notes,

because at the end of the day,

this step is all about actually improving the website.

And as the title suggests,

it's gathering early reactions to improve your messaging,

not to try to sell the person in the moment

but just to improve your website for the next person,

so that slowly, not only do you refine the way

that you communicate about your product,

but as I mentioned earlier,

you might actually improve the product itself.

So the website might actually end up

unofficially talking about version 2.0,

or 3.0 of the product as it changes in your mind,

and as you actually improve the idea

and your ability to communicate it.

When we're done with step number two,

once we've improved the website

and we're talking about the product,

and communicating it better,

then we're gonna move on to step number three,

and that is to test your business idea with real customers.

So this is a very different step than the last one.

Here we're communicating with people that don't know you,

they're not invested in your success at all.

All they care about is whether or not

the product or the service creates value for them.

And another big difference between this and the last step

is instead of sitting down in one-on-one

casual interviews with family and friends,

we're gonna be attracting real genuine customers online

using simple marketing channels

like Facebook, or Google ads.

And this doesn't have to cost a lot, you can spend $100,

you can spend $200.

We'll talk about this more in the follow up video.

But you're simply gonna find ways

to attract initial, real-potential customers to the website

using paid marketing with an inexpensive campaign.

And you're gonna see how these people react to the website.

So of course, in this situation,

the website really has to stand on its own

because you're not there in person.

You can't step in even if you wanted to,

and people need to understand

what it is that you're offering, who it's for,

and why they should care about it,

why or how it creates value for them.

So that is the focus here.

And what we wanna track in step number three

are things like how many people view your ad,

how many people click your ad,

how many people visit the website,

how long they spend on the website,

and then of course, how many people

click your call to action buttons.

So whether it's a physical product,

and the button says Buy Now,

or it's an online service, and it says Sign Up or Register.

You wanna see how many people visit the site,

browse around for a little while,

and then actually click one of these call to action buttons

because all that gives you a sense

of the kind of interest you can expect.

Now, most people out there

are not willing to make a purchase

on their very first interaction

with a new business or brand.

When people click a Facebook ad for the first time,

very, very few of them click through

and are immediately ready to click the Buy Now button

or the Sign Up button,

and immediately pull out their credit card

expecting to be able to buy the product or service.

So you shouldn't expect a really high conversion rate here.

And by conversion rate, I mean,

people clicking through your ad, visiting the website,

and then immediately clicking to buy.

That's just not a very realistic scenario.

But what you should expect to see

is at least some people willing to click through,

some people willing

to spend a decent amount of time on your website.

And finally, some portion of those people

willing to click through

on one of your call to action buttons

to demonstrate genuine interest in your product or service.

And if you have any momentum at all,

then of course, you can improve your ability to create ads,

improve your advertising budget,

continue to improve your landing page,

build out your product or service,

and eventually add additional products and services

so that you can create even more value

for potential customers and thus be able to spend even more

to advertise and attract new customers.

And if for whatever reason,

you don't get a lot of early traction,

well, that gives you some more important information,

which means you probably need to adjust

your product or service, adapt, learn some more

about what potential customers are interested in,

and pivot your product to serve that audience.

And eventually, ideally, you'll see some traction

and then you can start to ratchet things up.

But that's the process.

Let me quickly recap the three steps here.

Number one, bring your idea to life with a simple website.

Number two, gather early reactions

to improve your messaging.

And number three, test your business idea

with real customers.

So that's it for the process.

If you enjoyed the video, or if you got anything out of it,

please click the like button here on YouTube

to let me know, it also helps promote the content out

to a larger audience here on YouTube.

And of course, if you wanna learn more

about how to build and grow your business,

I recommend that you subscribe to the channel

here on YouTube and that you turn on notifications

so that you don't miss out on future videos.

And if you have any questions,

or thoughts, or comments on this approach,

definitely let me know down in the comment section below.

Thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next video.