Contents
This is the fourth (and last) article of our comprehensive series about the concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
In our previous three articles, we talked about what an MVP is, why you need it, and discussed how to create it.
We concluded that building an MVP enables your business to understand the market better and identify the proper acquisition channels for product validation. Then, you can perform tests, collect user input, and change the development process based on the results.
In this article, with examples from the software industry we want to give you a piece of advice on the best practices that come after creating a digital product. Whether you’re building an app, a SaaS, or some online platform, there’s still a long way to go.
Curious to learn what the next steps are? Let’s dive in.
1. Identify the best acquisition channels for your MVP.
An MVP marketing plan is a strategy that covers your MVP’s marketing from the ground up, including pre-launch and post-launch activities. It generally involves establishing marketing goals and channels and summarizing what has to be done in each field. Then, following competition research, you can complete your marketing strategy by developing strategies and tactics for each channel. Customer acquisition channels are the sources through which you bring in customers.
Here we highlight the most adequate, tried-and-tested acquisition channels for an MVP in the software industry.
Launch sites
You can use many platforms to get more audience in the beginning and adopt early users who are eager to give you feedback. We suggest that you try the following sites as proven to be workable and reliable for us:
- Product Hunt—Product Hunt is a site where you can promote your new digital products to an audience actively seeking new and exciting things to try. It has a large base of early adopters you can leverage to promote and validate your product.
- BetaList—BetaList is a network of makers and early adopters who share and discuss their products. Many entrepreneurs witnessed high numbers of unique visits, subscriptions, and conversions from creating a startup profile on BetaList.
- HackerNews—Getting your website or article to the front page of Hacker News is a fantastic source of quick traffic. You can check out some best practices to find a way to get to the front page, be seen by a large audience, and therefore get comments on your offering.
Communities and groups
There are many communities on the internet that are dedicated to discovering and validating new products. They can provide you with a precise target audience and ask for feedback transparently and directly.
You can go to Facebook to find some of these groups. SaaS Growth Hacks, SaaS Revolutionaires, are only some groups where you can post your product and ask for advice. There you’ll find many experienced marketers who can give you feedback and early adopters who can try out your product.
Reddit is also a great spot to get feedback on your new product. This place is home to one of the most vibrant, clever, eccentric, and hilarious communities online, numbering millions of visitors each month. And the best thing is that those people are very passionate and eager to help.
Here are some of the most popular subreddits for this purpose:
Social media
When designing the MVP marketing strategy, you need to conduct customer research and create a user persona based on your research. It’s also wise to check what channels your competitors use and take advantage of their best practices. Audience demographics are also crucial for social media. For example, if your target audience is business professionals, you should explore LinkedIn.
Try paid ads too. Social media algorithms allow you to promote and test the interest and marketability of your idea, even with a small budget. In addition, social media ads are a great way to find out what audience resonates with your messaging and validate whether you’ve chosen the right target audience.
Direct reach out to relevant people & personal connections
You can ask for feedback from individuals relevant in the industry by reaching out to them on LinkedIn or Twitter. Of course, it would be even better if they were influencers or famous names in the industry, then they could give you a shoutout and boost your credibility.
Don’t forget to ask your friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances for feedback, too, even if they don’t fit your target group precisely. It’s always good to get an opinion from someone completely unfamiliar with your product because they might notice something you didn’t.
Our own MVP validation path
To bring it even closer to you, we give you a practical example of one of our digital products from the software industry. Zero to Users uses a data-driven approach to uncover the key to global corporate success, and it began as an MVP. Soon after its launch, the service has already received attention from Indie Hackers, YCombinator, and StackedMarketer.
In the first two months, Zero to Users had 2,000 subscribers. The service now has 7,000 subscribers, and the concept was confirmed by a single blog post on Indie Hackers. Product Hunt, Twitter, and email were some of our main acquisition channels. You can find out how our process went here.
2. Collect feedback
After you launch your MVP to the market, the next stage is to begin gathering data. This step is very important since consumer decisions will determine whether the product’s future is bright or bleak. When you release the MVP, you’ll learn exactly how the features you thought were a vital function work, and you’ll discover why a person bought or didn’t buy the MVP.
3. Finalize your product
Building an MVP is an iterative process of developing a basic product for users to try. First, you need to identify and prioritize features, presenting them to potential users who will input how well the product works. Does it solve their problem? What’s missing? Is the layout user-friendly?
Furthermore, MVPs also assist in highlighting those things that are optional and that the consumer does not require, at least in the beginning.
Sum-up
Following the creation of the MVP, product development may benefit from extensive testing and analytics. Keep track of the KPIs that matter most to you, and keep each iteration focused on what you’ve discovered. The most crucial thing is to figure out which solutions worked and build your product in the appropriate direction.
Other parts:
- Minimum Viable Product (Part 1): What is it, and why do you need it?
- Minimum Viable Product (Part 2): Read before you start building it
- Minimum Viable Product (Part 3): How to build it and what mistakes to avoid?
- Minimum Viable Product (Part 4): What to do after? THIS PART