Finding customers for your Web 2.0 project
When you have finally built the next best thing in Web 2.0-land and are looking for more customers, visitors, subscribers,… maybe this approach can help you.
You have probably built your project with a specific audience in mind (if for some unexplainable reason you did not, take time to think of that now and evaluate if everything still aligns!). Now use the web to get lists of that target groups’ contact details.
Let’s say your customers are small businesses. Try looking for lists of their certifications: they always like to mention their contact details (just like you need to do yourself). Or if you are looking for people that like to travel, use social networking sites to pull out lists of people that indicated they like visiting specific countries.
The concept is: there are lists of contact details for almost everything. Think about where your prospects gather. The only thing you need to do afterwards is go through them and contact them. As personal as possible. It doesn’t harm to get a good copywriter (Dutch) to create an attractive e-mail or letter of course.
Even with an average success rate of 5%, that can be more rewarding than “lazy” alternatives like Google Adwords because you are 100% certain the people you contact are your audience.
Let’s just hope they take the bait!
Tags: small business, social networking


18. September 2008 at 17:44
Thanks very much for linking to my blog post:)
One thought I would add to this discussion is “find the market before you start writing code”. Making sure there really is a market for the idea – unless youre inventing a totally market – will cut down on that shelfware you’ve got on your development machine.
No one likes to create apps that no one wants to buy/use:)
Mark
18. September 2008 at 17:51
This post is indeed ment to be read when your project is already live and you’re looking for ways to reach more people.
I’m going to write a prequel to this about creating a great idea! ;)