Even after understanding the idea validation process in our past post, the question that will still come up is “How do I find customers to validate my idea?”.
In this post we are going to go over the best ways to find customers to validate your idea.
Some of these methods are better than others, but it all depends on what your idea is, where your customers live, and how to best get in front of them.
To begin, you will notice that historically when finding customers during the idea-phase of your business, you will have to choose between spending hundreds of dollars or spending hundreds of hours.
There has never been an in between.
And as someone who has gone through this process multiple times, I have always elected to go with the hundreds of hours choice so as to not spend money prior to validating.
The problem is that if you invalidate your idea, you have just spent hundreds of hours on something that you are not moving forward with.
Something needs to change.
ufoünd
Introducing ufoünd!
This is the first (and in my bias opinion, the best) way for how to find customers to validate your idea.
We have set out to create a vision of a world that exists where you do not need to choose between hundreds of hours or hundreds of dollars.
It is a persona marketplace.
Essentially, we provide you with a user interview in exchange for you providing a user interview to someone else.
Example:
Founder A is building a fitness app targeting gym-goers. Founder A also happens to be a sales executive for a tech company for their day job.
Founder B happens to be an avid gym-goer, which makes them the ICP for Founder A. They would provide Founder A with a user interview.
Founder C is building a CRM for sales managers. Thus, Founder A would fit their ICP and would provide them with a user interview.
In this case we are focused on Founder A where they got an interview from someone (Founder B) and gave one to someone else in return (Founder C).
It is currently free for the first 500 sign ups.
With ufoünd, you do not have to choose between spending hundreds of hours or hundreds of dollars.
LinkedIn has been our #1 most used avenue for how to find customers to validate ideas.
The best process to use for LinkedIn is to use the search function and type out the occupation or job title your ideal customer profile would have.
This works best if you are doing something that is B2B or targeted towards founders/owners.
Once you find someone simply connect with them and add a personalized note.
The reason LinkedIn is so effective is due to the transparency of the platform and the ability to easily narrow down and locate your ideal customer.
Make sure your profile looks up to date and has a profile picture.
You do not need sales navigator but do beware that LinkedIn will cap the number of personalized notes you can send.
Remember, for this to be effective you NEED to reach out to hundreds of people. Volume is what matters and make sure to try different messages to see what converts.
Another platform we have leveraged a lot in the past is Reddit.
Unlike LinkedIn, Reddit is essentially anonymous, but still highly effective.
It allows you to locate the community that your ideal customers live and gives you a way to get in front of them.
There are three ways to use Reddit for this.
One is to create an engaging post yourself around your problem and see the response it receives.
The second is to scroll through the subreddit (community) and find posts that match something you are looking to solve (i.e., someone has a post saying they can’t find any good calorie tracking methods and you are looking to build a solution for that).
You can then comment on those posts to give them advice and then mention that they can DM you if they want more help.
Try to stay away from promoting anything on Reddit, most subreddits do not allow it.
So go at it with a problem-focused mindset, because that is what we are trying to validate anyways.
The third option is to find people who post or comment relevant things around your topic.
You can then DM these ideal customers to ask to hop on a call to talk more about the problem they are experiencing or to talk more about the topic they posted about.
As with LinkedIn, this is a volume game. Make sure to stay active in those communities and message as many people as you can.
Knocking on doors
Let’s take a break from social media.
Afterall, there is still a physical world that exists out there, so let’s take advantage of that too.
This strategy works best if your ideal customer is a homeowner, goes out to certain physical locations (i.e., bars, malls, movies, etc.), or is a retail business owner.
This is the scariest option but this worked wonders for our driveway rental business.
In just a few days we were able to get dozens of data points from conversations we had by knocking on peoples doors.
So, do not discount this avenue as it can really pay off depending on your idea.
Facebook works best for finding groups and communities, much like Reddit.
Simply search up a group name that may be associated with your ideal customer and join the ones you feel are relevant.
You can either post, comment, or direct message here as well.
I have not found too much success in Facebook groups as many of them are not very active, so make sure the ones you join have active participants.
Discord
Discord groups are another alternative you can use.
To find them, you can use a tool called The Hive Index.
X/Twitter
Although I do not have much experience with using Twitter, many people have vouched that this is a great platform to find customers to validate your idea.
You can search up keywords that have to do with your problem space and join conversations, DM people, and post yourself as well.
Cold outreach (I nstantly)
Cold outreach such as cold emailing and cold calling has dropped in popularity over the years.
It is still a viable avenue to use depending on your business.
If you are targeting traditional businesses that work out of an office, cold calling can convert.
You can also use tools like Instantly to help automate your cold emailing.
The process to acquire emails and leads can be cumbersome.
You can pay to use tools like Apollo or sift through Google and obtain emails through company websites.
This worked well for our AI Agency to get our first customers.
Paid Market Research
The final option is if you are someone who does not have the time to spend looking for these customers (unless you use ufoünd of course).
These companies essentially find you ideal customers at a hefty price.
Usually you have to pay around $30 per call with a minimum of $10 ($300+).
Compared to ufoünd which is just $50 for up to 10 calls.
Some of the services in this space are Userinterviews and Usertesting.
In summary, if you are looking to learn how to find customers to validate your idea, there are almost endless options.
It is about figuring out which works best for you.
Who are you targeting? How much time do you want to spend? Which social platforms do you have accounts on and are comfortable using? Are you open to spending money? How much?
Use these questions to help guide you in finding your most effective avenue.
Hope this helps and as always if you liked this you will love our weekly newsletter so sign up!
