Testing a New Idea or a Product? Test it On the Landing Page

If you have clicked on the link to this blog, then it looks like you already have a hypothesis or a solution to a problem or an idea. You could also be a step ahead and started building a product after understanding your ideal customer pain points.

Wait...

Isn't it better to first determine the demand of the product or a solution from its possible customers? You need to acquire data, and so you need a way to do it. Apart from interviewing your customers, setting up a landing page can really help  validating your idea or the product.

Rather than rushing down the dead path of building a product or business around an unproven concept, only to know later that you spent time and energy building a product that no one wants, it is always better to determine the demand of what you're building.

Let us see how we can go about testing and determining the demand of your product or idea using a landing page. Trust us, building a landing page would require a lot less effort than starting a business!

“Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple”. - Steve Jobs

Is your Idea simple enough?

Every entrepreneur has an idea for a business but to have a clear understanding of what exactly you're offering, is something that is most required before launching a product. Say, you are going to meet your dream investor, how would you describe the entire idea of your business in  30 seconds?

Ensure that you are clear on all these points:

- What problem are you solving?

• What are the benefits of your idea or products?
• How does it work?

Now, build a Landing Page

If you are clear about your idea, it is now time to create your viable product. To start, create a couple of landing pages so that you can test your sales funnel without building your actual product, and install google analytics to monitor traffic and button clicks.

First landing page: On this page, describe your product as if it’s already available, with all the basic details of how it works, the features you’ll be offering, and provide a CTA leading to a product or pricing page. Do remember to simplify the description of your idea.

Second Landing Page: On this page, give specific details about what a user is about to buy. If you have a physical product, include all the specifications of the product, the colors that are available and how it is going to be shipped.

Third page: Let’s call it a pre-launch page. Write a short message explaining that the product is almost ready to give the users an opportunity to enter their email to find out more about the features and other benefits it offers.

By doing this, you are gauging the user interest as and when they move through the stages of your website, eventually resulting in a purchase decision on one of the landing pages.

“We recommend using a landing page builder like Lander App to create the pages as the A/B testing, analytics, and working forms are integrated in the same”

Now Drive the Traffic to Test

Once these three pages are up, drive traffic to see if your customers actually want to buy. Spend a little amount to run paid ads, either Facebook Ads or Google AdWords. But do remember, with AdWords you can target users with an 'intent to buy' as they focus on long tail keywords. This helps to narrow in on users with higher purchase intent rather than users searching for generic information.

Irrespective of the traffic source that you decide to use, leave your campaigns to run long enough, maybe, a couple weeks depending on the size of the audience you're targeting.

Focus on the results

If no one is buying, work on refining your landing page copy, reconsider your traffic sources, reconsider the design or the worth your product and its USP Because if people are on buying your product, there has to be something you are missing out on.

Measure success to determine if your product idea is strong

Track and measure the conversion rate of CTA and other inbound parameters, and understand how and from where your conversions arrived.

In case, you do not get results from relevant traffic, think if what you have is a real product or business idea in the first place.

Conclusion: Simplify the idea, make landing pages according to your sales funnel, drive traffic, learn if your customers are willing to buy the product. If your conversion rates are low, consider re-positioning your product or pivoting some aspects of your business. And if people do show interest in buying your product or idea, then you’ve tested your hypothesis and the unknown waters of the market. And you have the first proof of a brilliant product!