Like any good idea you need to validate it before putting all your energy and effort into it. 

It would be silly not to.

Why waste time on something that won't work.

The results were encouraging but did not fully determine whether this endeavour would solve a problem for enough people.

Watch the video for a full breakdown of the data which gives us the evidence to make a sensible decision.  (You wouldn't use guess work when you have data would you?)

Validating the service

Between Mid July and end of August 2019 we were  targeting 500 sign-ups as our main metric of how much demand there is for this service. 

But how committed are they going to be? How much help do they need? Will they want to pay for a service like this? This all affects what level of service we can provide

We had 2000 landing page views and then 170 sign ups for our 6 week email series.  This was from from targeting 4500 targets on Linkedin, 2000 newsletter readers  and a bit of Twitter work.

Other validation metrics

The second metric is our six-week email series.  We can see the open rates, we can see whether people read the email or simply closed it, and we can see what links people have clicked on. All of this information will help us draw a good picture of how interesting people think the service is, and how determined they are to use it to solve their problem.

Calls to action

Within the email series are some Calls To Action (CTA's)  that will also help us gain more information on how committed readers are to starting their own business.

The first of those CTAs is a survey. About 10% filled in the survey.

The second is a webinar. We had 13 sign ups for the first webinar and 6 attended. 

Conclusion

We contacted 6500 targets in a 6 week period. 

Visits to the landing page were high. There is interest.

The sign up rate to the 6 week email series is good.

Open rates are pretty good. 

There are 170 people who want help but commitment to progress and learn more is low.  We need to know why.

If we can x10 the number of targets who get to our landing page this could be a good business. 

Way forward

Validation phase 2 starts end of Sept and runs until end of Nov.

We need to get our landing page in front of x10 the number of targets.  We will do this by creating a  social media strategy.

We need to engage with the 170 sign ups in a more meaningful way. We will assess what each is struggling with and create content around this followed up by 121 coaching sessions. This will have two effects..

1) We find out from the member what they actually want and create a service tailored to more people like them

2) We delight them by providing tailored support and they tell others. 

Thank for reading!

Have you joined up to our  "6 Week Welcome Email Series" yet? This takes you incrementally through setting a vision and generating ideas. Click the button below.

Mark Shayler and Daniel O'Connor are hosting a webinar on how to validate your ideas. We will take you through it, help you validate ideas and have a Q&A.  More info and register below.