How to user test for 40+ year olds?
most of our end-customers are in the US, where we are not located and they are mostly 40+ year-old homeowners. How do we find them and conduct user research without being an annoyance to them?
most of our end-customers are in the US, where we are not located and they are mostly 40+ year-old homeowners. How do we find them and conduct user research without being an annoyance to them?
I'd take a step back and ask a bunch of "why" questions. If you are targeting US homeowners 40+, and you aren't in the US, you are instantly starting at a big disadvantage. So you may want to question lots of your assumptions about this project.
Here's why: As a 40+ US homeowner myself, if I were working on such a project, I could simply walk over to my neighbors' houses and ask them for feedback. That feedback would be hugely valuable, I wouldn't have to pay any money for it, and wouldn't have to figure out how to set up an ad campaign to reach them. My first several hundred customers could probably be acquired just by bravely knocking on doors.
Also: The 40+ US homeowner market is one of the most expensive demographics to acquire via any advertising platform.
Thank you, Chris.
Let me explain a bit about the 'startup realities' to give more context. We are selling from vast amount of handmade or hand-knotted carpets and rugs from south asian region to the US and other western markets where we can not be physically present all the time as it's operations-intensive industry unlike an 'app' or a 'digital game'. I totally agree about the disadvantages you shared but we are pretty ok with digital ad campaigns for reaching out to consumers in eastern and western states of US for selling the carpets. I was not sure about reaching out to the same demographics for user-research and surveys, for example, because even in my late 30's, surveys don't excite me. We of course, don't want to sound or seem scammy or spammy hence a bit cautious approach.
As to your last line, if, and I agree, online ad platforms are less effective to acquire the demographics we want to reach out, what mediums and channels would you say would be more effective? We have visited few exhibitions and wanted to take part in few, though being an online platform, I am not sure if it would make sense for us considering we will have more than 20,000 inventory pieces by the end of year.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Ah, this changes my answer completely. I was assuming you were working on a digital product.
Physical goods have a major advantage over digital, in that people are used to paying money for them. So if you're selling a rug for $100, spending $10-20 to acquire that customer is not a big deal. In the digital world this would be a nonstarter for many services.
So, my new answer is: Start with Facebook and Google ads.
Your product definitely sounds appealing. As a 40+ US Homeowner this is something I would buy. :-)
Sell to US retailers like furniture stores and home goods stores.
Pureberner, I am afraid the stores make it difficult for more people to enjoy handmade carpets and they have to resort to machine-made and inferior products which we are trying to discourage and give a promise of direct-to-consumer prices which were not possible at this scale before. This is the only way to make those rugs attractive for a larger population.
Is there a subgroup where you can find organisations to target or is it literally all over 40 homeowners?
You could try Facebook ads which would give you the market and targeting but I can't think of a good way to word the ad without sounding scammy.
You could also just pay a market research company to provide you with people.
Please see my above comment https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/d25debe77d?commentId=-L6uAiD8G2qDME4HUMdl for more context. Market research companies or already-available research is pretty scattered or very expensive for a young startup. Online surveys and research can be difficult in the sense of being overbearing in nature. We were thinking of giving away discount coupons at our ecommerce platform as a way to target people to take part in our surveys and research but would like some insights if this will work without damaging brand?