So that you need to discover a new product concept to promote on-line? Nicely, chances are high you typed one thing like “new product concepts” or “good product concepts” into Google, hoping you’d discover the reply.
Nothing improper with that.
Nevertheless, the issue is you’re looking (and discovering) the very same factor as everybody else. These “new” concepts actually turn out to be what everybody’s already doing and promoting.
We’re not going to record out a bunch of product concepts right here—that’d defeat the aim of you discovering what your buyer wants.
As an alternative, we’re going to indicate you methods to provide you with new product concepts (that don’t suck) you possibly can promote on-line. Your brand-new concepts could be impressed by merchandise that exist, however you’ll be empowered with creativity and freedom to make them your personal.
Bear in mind good ol’ Henry Ford? There’s a quote attributed to him that goes like this: “If I had requested folks what they needed, they might have mentioned quicker horses.”
This text will make it easier to give your prospects what they want as a substitute of simply quicker horses.
What Makes a Product Thought “Good”?
First, let’s assist differentiate the great product concepts from the unhealthy ones. Right here’s a couple of tell-tale indicators of every:
Indicators of a Good Product Thought
- Addresses a Want: Good product concepts remedy issues. These may be big issues (like Elon Musk battling local weather change) or minor issues (like assuaging somebody’s physique odor). Don’t got down to discover a product. First, discover the issue. Subsequent, discover (or construct) the proper product to resolve it.
- Offers Strong USP: Your product wants a distinctive promoting proposition (USP) that makes it higher than another product in the marketplace. That USP might be associated to options, pricing, scalability, and even pace of supply. product might be precisely what’s in the marketplace, however possibly your manufacturing is extra scalable, so you possibly can drive down costs for patrons? That’s a brand new product concept.
- Has Revenue Potential: One of the best concept is only a notion except you may make a plan to (1) create it and (2) make it worthwhile. Which means you’ll want to think about bills, pricing, provide and demand, the scale of your addressable market, and present competitors.
Can Be Simply Communicated: You’ll probably have to safe funding from lenders or buyers. In case your concept’s too complicated, you’ll wrestle to get financing. Plus, your prospects will face a barrier to entry. - Makes You Joyful: Don’t begin promoting a product you don’t care about—that’s a recipe for a sleazy MLM. You need to be in a position (and excited) to connect your identify and picture subsequent to your product. That’s an indication you’re pleased with it.
- Is Value Paying for: There are many merchandise on the market that make you suppose, “Oh, cool!” Nevertheless, you don’t need to simply impress passing-by prospects—you need them to open their wallets. Guarantee your product is price paying for and never only a enjoyable idea.
Pink Flags of a Dangerous Product Thought
- Provides No Identifiable USP: Your prospects ought to be capable to establish your USP. If they’ll’t determine what makes your product totally different from the remaining, then it’s probably insufficient.
- Confuses Prospects: If it’s a must to persuade prospects it’s a superb product, it’s most likely not. Your product ought to be capable to market itself and not using a 60-minute infomercial.
- There’s No Demand: Some issues aren’t price fixing. You’ll have to validate your product concept to make sure your goal market doesn’t simply suppose it’s a good suggestion, however they’re prepared to spend their hard-earned cash to purchase it.
- It Already Exists: Do your analysis. There are various entrepreneurs on the market, so guarantee your new product concept doesn’t exist already. If it does (or did), study extra about it. How’s it doing? Why did it fail (or succeed)? How are you going to do it higher?
Write these concepts down, and share them with somebody you belief. If you happen to provide you with a product concept you’re in love with, you’ll probably see all the great and not one of the unhealthy. It’s pure. Nevertheless, when you give your concept an goal look-through, you can uncover deadly flaws earlier than it’s too late.
Don’t Skip: Ecommerce Enterprise Concepts That Yield Highly effective Outcomes
How you can Discover Your New Product Thought
Now that you recognize what you’re searching for, it’s time to begin looking. If inspiration comes from mountain meditation or lengthy hikes within the wilderness, go get after it. But when these product-finding strategies allow you to down, listed below are some locations to begin:
1. Ask Your Prospects
This method goes in opposition to Henry Ford’s well-known quote, however your prospects virtually (virtually) at all times know greatest. Begin there.
When you’ve got prospects, ship out surveys or conduct interviews to determine their issues. If you happen to don’t have prospects but, establish your goal market and begin there.
You can even discover a subreddit you’re fascinated about and open up conversations there. For instance, when you’re into mountaineering and need to discover a product concept that solves hikers’ wants, you would possibly be a part of the r/Mountain climbing, r/Backpacking, or r/Ultralight subreddits. Browse the conversations there, probe into complaints, or simply flat out ask folks what they need.
You can begin by asking what’s difficult them or what they want mounted. Dig deeper and ask what they suppose may remedy it. They may not at all times know the reply to the second query, and that’s OK—that’s in the end your job to determine.
When you establish an issue, begin figuring out your prospects’ willingness to pay to repair it. If it’s nothing (or not quite a bit), it’s most likely not a problem price fixing.
If the issue is price fixing, begin pondering of a product. Don’t fear about perfecting the design and all of the parts simply but. After getting a prototype or a draft, ask your prospects if they might be fascinated about one thing like this. If the reply is “sure,” then you recognize you’re heading in the right direction.
2. Spot What’s Sizzling
Search for what’s trending on ecommerce websites or social media platforms. What’s doing effectively? Why? Are you able to replicate it and make one thing higher?
For instance, if everyone seems to be raving about on-line studying, is there a course you possibly can create to resolve a necessity? If a course already exists, are you able to make one which’s higher or extra inexpensive?
Bear in mind, fads come and go. If you happen to bounce right into a development early, you possibly can capitalize on the second and get out earlier than it cools off. If you happen to be a part of too late, you would possibly find yourself investing in a product with shortly diminishing demand.
A method to make sure you keep on monitor is recognizing wants throughout the tendencies. For some time, air fryers have been a sizzling matter throughout the information and social media feeds. Nevertheless, they didn’t remedy any determined wants—they simply gave folks new healthy-ish methods to prepare dinner meals. After some time, the hype petered out, and now there’s a bunch sitting unused in shopper’s closets.
3. Don’t Be Afraid to Steal
“Good designers copy, nice designers steal.” These well-known phrases spoken by painter Pablo Picasso apply to rather more than design. You don’t want a completely authentic concept—you simply want to repeat, steal, and iterate to make the following smartest thing.
Even smarty-pants Elon Musk didn’t do something exceptionally revolutionary—he simply took a preferred mannequin of automobiles (which have been round for over a century) and made them electrical, highly effective, horny, and unique. OK, he did greater than that, however you get the concept.
Or check out Jibbitz. Jibbitz capitalized on Croc’s recognition (nonetheless don’t perceive why folks put on these sneakers) by creating charms to let wearers personalize their footwear. Jibbitz primarily piggybacked on one other model’s success to hit it huge, and Crocs ended up shopping for the tiny startup for $10 million.
You can additionally take into consideration all of right this moment’s social media apps. Bear in mind when Instagram stole Snapchat’s mannequin and added Tales to their platform? After which each different social media platform did the identical factor?
Or keep in mind when Fowl and Lime began littering each metropolis within the US with electrical scooters? A few months later, Uber, Lyft, and a number of other different manufacturers have been already on the scene.
You don’t have to provide you with one thing brand-new. Borrow, steal, and Frankenstein your personal product concept—simply ensure it has a USP that beats out the competitors.
4. Consider Upsells and Cross-Sells
If you happen to’re already promoting items, you don’t essentially want an out-of-the-box product. A carefully associated product has the potential to succeed, and it additionally may enhance your current merchandise gross sales.
For instance, when you promote sneakers, you can increase into shoelaces or socks. If you happen to promote on-line programs, you can increase into e-books or in-person lessons.
When you’re enthusiastic about it, take a look at methods you can enhance your current product. Are there less complicated, cheaper or extra sturdy, pricey variations you can present? For instance, you will discover about 3 totally different fashions of each new soccer footwear: budget-friendly, middle-of-the-road, and premium.
Are you able to do the identical factor along with your merchandise? If you happen to promote a web based course, you can have a condensed cheaper model or a extra complete costly model.
5. Discover Your Personal Issues
You (sure, you) are a shopper, too. What issues do you will have? Is there a day-to-day concern you want you can remedy? There’s a superb probability your private persona belongs in a distinct segment market—if you will discover an issue you need to remedy, there could be different people (hopefully a number of them) with the identical concern.
Don’t fear—we’ll get into validating your concept later to make sure it has legs to face on. However don’t low cost your issues. This technique doesn’t take lengthy processes or intensive analysis. Simply take into consideration what actually bothers you and the way you want you can remedy it.
Take Airbnb, for instance. Founders Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky struggled to pay lease, in order that they determined to lease out airbeds on their living-room flooring to convention attendees in San Francisco. The subsequent day, the pair created an internet site—6 days later, they’d 3 tenants sleeping on their flooring.
Codeacademy began as a Columbia College programming membership. Co-founder Zach Sim struggled to study new coding expertise on his personal, so programming native (and cofounder) Ryan Bubinski used Sims as a guinea pig to create a self-paced studying expertise that grew to become Codeacademy.
Don’t overlook your personal issues. Create an answer that’s price paying for, and also you’ll probably discover different prospects identical to you.
Validate. Validate. Validate.
Have an concept for a product? Unbelievable! Don’t do something with it but.
Hear us out.
Earlier than you go off to the races or begin digging down deep into rabbit holes, validate your product concept. You don’t need to dedicate any time or cash (or worse—get personally hooked up) to an concept that’s going to crash and burn.
Whereas we will preserve asking theoretical questions and taking part in with concepts, sustainable companies are solely constructed when cash modifications palms. If it’s going to reach the long-term, it must move a stress check. Right here’s methods to do it:
Smoke Check With a Touchdown Web page
Construct a touchdown web page that highlights the advantages (and pricing) of your product. Drive visitors to the web page with natural (social media and e mail) and paid (PPC advertisements) methods, after which see what your prospects do.
Do they click on the “buy now” button, or do they go away with out taking motion? Set a click-through fee aim for what you need the web page to realize. If it hits that aim, then you possibly can really feel assured in really creating and scaling the product. If not, you then would possibly need to rethink your concept.
This smoke check helps you discover out if individuals are actually prepared to purchase your product. Buddies, households, and colleagues would possibly say your concept is nice, however an actual viewers with actual cash provides you with the chilly, exhausting fact.
The entire course of to your smoke testing touchdown web page ought to solely take a couple of days. Don’t spend an excessive amount of time making a flowery touchdown web page—preserve it minimal with the fundamentals.
At foundr, we’ve launched plenty of on-line programs, and we make it a observe to validate each one earlier than we put within the money and time to make it a actuality.
Flesh Out Your Whole Technique
GTM. Manufacturing. Delivery. Financing. All of it. Work out the logistics of how your new product concept goes to return to fruition. Do all of this analysis earlier than you begin constructing prototypes and web sites.
You would possibly discover a logistical part that shuts down the entire product concept, so do your due diligence:
- Sourcing Your Product: How are you going to construct or purchase your product? Do you have the funds for and assets? If it’s one thing like a web based course or e-book, do you will have the talents and bandwidth to convey it to fruition? If not, are you able to rent somebody?
- Go-to-Market (GTM) Plan: How do you intend to launch and market your product? What worth does it should be to beat out opponents, attract prospects, and make it easier to earn a revenue? What channels will you should use to achieve your viewers?
- Delivery: How will you get your bodily or digital product from you to your prospects? Will or not it’s by e mail or the publish workplace? Will they want a login, or will or not it’s a downloadable product?
- Financing: The place are you going to search out the cash to make this occur? Do you will have a wealthy uncle, or will you should ask a financial institution for a mortgage?
It’s quite a bit to consider. We all know. But it’s essential you consider all of this stuff earlier than pursuing a brand new product.
One of the best concept may verify all of your containers, however when you don’t have the cash, time, or means to make it occur, it’s not going to be a good suggestion.
Hold Studying: What Can I Promote On-line to Make Cash?
New Product Concepts FAQs
What elements ought to I take into account when evaluating a brand new product concept?
At first, your product should remedy a necessity. The subsequent step is framing the product for a selected buyer group. That is known as a singular promoting place. You additionally want to judge if prospects can pay to your product at a worthwhile price. Lastly, guarantee your product aligns with your online business’s mission, imaginative and prescient, and model.
How can I shield my new product concept from being copied by opponents?
This may be tough. Getting a patent on an concept is the best solution to shield your product. You too can trademark the identify of the product and imagery. Sadly, these protections are costly. So do not spend an excessive amount of time worrying about folks stealing your concept. As an alternative, make investments your capital in making a product that solves a singular downside in comparison with opponents in your area.
How a lot does it price to provide you with a brand new product concept?
Nothing. Concepts are free. And when you do sufficient analysis or can establish issues, you are one step forward of the competitors. However when you’re trying to implement an concept, the associated fee can vary wherever from $2K to $20K, relying on the product or trade.
Make Your New Product Thought Come to Life
New product concepts are nice and all, however they solely stay in your mind and on the again of a used serviette till you launch them to the world.
Sound intimidating? It may be. Nicely, with out the correct mentors and processes, that’s.
Allow us to assist stroll you thru your complete product improvement course of. Sourcing specialist, Kian Golzari, will share his confirmed blueprint that can take you from “questioning what to promote”, to having your personal distinctive product manufactured, shipped, and making gross sales quicker whereas avoiding pricey errors.
