{"id":3914,"date":"2023-02-18T19:44:04","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T19:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghostcoast.video\/?p=3914"},"modified":"2024-05-23T14:05:55","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T18:05:55","slug":"play-moneyball-with-market-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ghostcoast.video\/blog\/play-moneyball-with-market-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Play Moneyball With Market Research"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you\u2019re too busy to write blog posts, you\u2019re doing a pretty good job! Which is why I\u2019ve spent years creating products, sales letters, funnels, and emails for some of the biggest guys in internet marketing, health and fitness, relationships, and a few other really interesting \u201chidden niches\u201d that are super-weird, that the average person might have never heard of.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Does it pay well? Sure.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Was I booked rock, rock solid? Absolutely.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But this did kind of lead to a cobbler\u2019s shoes situation. I was so busy making cool stuff for other people that I barely had the time to write my own emails, make my own sales letters, share my own knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Yeah, I know, I wasn\u2019t burning to dish the good stuff for free. BAD ME. BAD.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But my plan for this year is to spend a little bit less time with my nose to the grind stone, show a little expertise, and share some war stories from my two years in deep cover.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One of my most interesting stories was a project I didn\u2019t do.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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They Kind Of Depend On You. A Lot.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That\u2019s like, something you\u2019re going to run into a LOT if you\u2019re working with clients. The more \u201cdone for you\u201d a service is, the more clients are going to leave to you, from sales material to the actual production, to traffic. So you get questions about how to make the products, how to present them\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And in some cases, whether to produce them at all. I had a client that was interested in making a course on\u2026 baseball cards. Not like, making them or anything, but in being a collector. He\u2019d had a big collection in the 90\u2019s and cashed out, and hey, why not go with what you know? Now, someone less interested in their customer\u2019s success might have just hired some writers and knocked something together, but me, big old softie that I am\u2026 I decided that I\u2019d look into it before giving him to go-ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I mean, BASEBALL CARDS?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Not to mention that if someone pays you 3 or 4 grand to put something together and it flops\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Well, safe to say they won\u2019t be eager to work with you in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span>Making Those Decisions\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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Now obviously, product creation and promotion is a great way to bring down some stable income, whether it\u2019s a book or a mobile app or a membership website. Whatever method you use to actually publish\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You aren\u2019t going to make a buck unless there\u2019s some actual interest there.\u00a0 The development of digital products requires several steps, not the least of which is determining the demand for that product or service. That\u2019s market research, and while it\u2019s rarely exciting and it\u2019s often dangerous \u2013<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s important, especially if you\u2019re in a \u201cbelow the radar\u201d niche.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Now, the BEST market research is having a list of your own customers and just ASKING them what they want. Basically, your goal is to work in concert with your target audience. Ask them questions about what they\u2019ve got, and what\u2019s missing from their \u201cscene\u201d and what they\u2019d be willing to buy into.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And sometimes you can make a stripped down version of a course and get them to buy in for a reduced price.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This type of market research will help you to determine the demand for the product, as well as to capably target the most favorable geographic areas or venue for sales, and to learn more about the demographic so that your product can be appropriately packaged and marketed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Without actual survey data from people who have a relationship with you, you\u2019re going off what you THINK your customers might want, which is imperfect\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But here\u2019s the thing, that can still be useful. And we can make educated guesses. Here\u2019s one example: finding other products are out there that are close to what you are considering.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span>Sizing Up \u201cThe Competition\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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And I\u2019m not a huge fan of that phrase, because it makes you think about sports. There\u2019s two teams of big guys with hard heads and pissed off faces, smashing into each other again and again for sixty minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Like three hours plus commercials, but you know.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Just because you have competition in the business world doesn\u2019t mean that your product won\u2019t be well-received, that it won\u2019t sell, that you can\u2019t help each other.And it\u2019s not an excuse for you to run away. Just pop into the Kindle store and see how many books are sold on a given topic every month \u2013 most information markets are growing, not shrinking. Part of your market research is to analyze their entire web presence \u2013 is it just a product? Is it promoted on Facebook, banner ads, YouTube? How are people coming into the door and what can YOU do to get to the same point? You\u2019re looking at:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n