How To Validate Ideas: Avoid This Costly Mistake

Avoid This Costly Mistake

Have you ever had an idea so exciting that you couldn’t wait to get started working on it? Maybe it’s the kind of idea that keeps you up late at night, and has you jumping out of bed early in the morning.

I’m sure you know the feeling. But hold up for a second, because this is the place where you could make a costly mistake.

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And here’s that mistake: just because YOU think it’s a great idea doesn’t mean your market will think it’s a great idea.

You are not your market. You might be thinking your idea is the greatest thing since sliced bread. You might be thinking this is the business, product, content or advertising business that’s going to make you rich. But if the reality is that your market is just “meh” about your idea, then it’s never going to get off the ground.

Point: don’t depend entirely on your “gut” to make business decisions. Instead, do your research and make decisions based on data.

Which brings us to the next tip…

5 Marketplaces to Research Ideas

One good way to get a feel for what your market wants is to find out what they are already buying. If you see that people in your niche are snapping up a product similar to the one you’re thinking of creating, then there’s a good chance they’ll buy your product too.

Here are 5 marketplaces you can search to research your ideas:

Look for bestsellers in each marketplace, as well as multiple products that are similar. Both of these factors are evidence that a particular product is popular.

Use Google

Another way to find out what people are buying is to run a Google search for your niche keywords (such as “golfing” or “weight loss”). Then check out these two key areas:

  • Search results. Check out what the biggest websites in your niche are selling. See if these results are similar to what you found when you searched the online marketplaces.
  • Sponsored ads. Check out what sort of ads other marketers are paying to place alongside Google’s regular search results. Even better is if you can check out these ads over time. If someone is willing to pay money to place an ad week after week, that’s a sign that their product or service is selling.

Here’s the next validation idea…

Survey Your Market

The idea here is to ask your market if they’d be interested in the product, service or overall business idea that you’re thinking about creating. You might also get some information about how much people are willing to pay for this product or service.

But this method comes with a warning tag: what people say they’ll do and what they’ll actually do are two different things. People may even believe what they’re saying, but when it comes time to act (pull out their credit card), they hesitate.

Here’s the point: do not rely on this method in isolation to validate an idea. Instead, use it as one step in gathering information and getting a better insight to what your prospects want and what they’re thinking.

Talk to Experts

Another way to validate an idea is to talk to trusted experts in your niche. For example, if you have a mentor, then run your idea by him or her. If the mentor or other expert has a lot of experience in the niche, he may have already tested this particular idea. He may also be able to give you additional ideas for features, benefits, positioning the offer and so on.

TIP: If an expert tells you the idea will fail because he tried something similar and it failed, then inquire a little further. See if you can figure out WHY it failed. If you can figure out the reason, you might be able to launch something similar with success.

Here’s another way to validate an idea…

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Produce a “Lite” Product

Instead of launching your entire business or creating a full-featured product, simply create a lite version instead. This is sometimes called an MVP (minimum viable product). If your market likes the lite version, then you’ll know it’s a worth investment to develop the full product.

For example, if you’re developing an app, then develop a “lite” version first with minimal features.

Related to this…

Keep Reading: How To Validate Ideas: Create a Related Lead Magnet

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