As some of you may know, I am currently working on a big project that is going to require me to build a website and app. Alot of the features will have to be hand coded which means this is going to take some time to complete. Although I cannot share all the details of this project yet, I do want to talk about what I did to decide how it was all going to work and how I am going about marketing it.
In my previous article, I wrote about how to know if your idea is worth pursuing. I discussed why you should focus on marketing, even before your project is complete. This is because you will save alot of time if you know what your potential clients want before you start building a solution. If you don’t ask, you’ll will have to guess what your clients want and you’ll will likely be wrong unless you are very familiar with the industry.
I’ve been doing a little bit of both on this project as I go. Some of the time I spend coding and building, the rest of the time I am sending emails, making phone calls, and DMing potential clients about what I am building and asking for feedback on what would make it more useful to them. I also joined a Facebook group where alot of people that may need my project are. While this Facebook group doesn’t allow you to market anything, getting in there and asking questions has been eye opening.
I’ve also had several conversations over the phone that have helped me discover potential issues and gauge interest. I am still keeping the basic idea the same but some things will have to change as well. This is why it is so important to ask these questions before you get in too deep. The purpose of these conversations isn’t to sell anything, but rather to ask and learn what my potential clients may need.
I’ve noticed that alot of people, including myself love building things more than marketing them. This is why so many people jump from one project to the next but none of them really go anywhere. Focus on the marketing first then you’ll know exactly what to build.
