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Accidentally uncovering a clearer target audience

Hey fellow indie hackers!

I've taken a bit of time over the past couple months to relaunch my web accessibility product, Page Speaker.

TL;DR is at the bottom.

  • As I was talking to my initial customers I began to learn that almost every single one of them were web agencies. Interestingly, I mostly learned this by mistake (in other words, in talking to them, it wasn't my objective to find out who they were exactly - it's just something I began to pick up on).

  • I wasn't targeting web agencies, by any capacity. But it makes perfect sense agencies would find the product especially useful, because of some of its uniquely appealing features, such as being able to license multiple websites under the same plan. The thought of selling to agencies didn't cross my mind at first though.

  • When I first launched, the product was a one-time payment and purchasers kept it for life. But you guys have convinced me to switch to a more sustainable SaaS model with recurring payments 🙃. I definitely should have done this from the beginning - but I was still just validating the idea. (Old users will still keep their lifetime deals of course.)

  • I think the most impactful change will be that instead of web agencies searching in the dark for a product like Page Speaker, I'm going to actively be searching for them.

  • And I suppose it just boils down to the cliché early-stage tip of "talking to your customers" - but also looking for traits they have in common so that you can establish a more concrete niche and narrow your target audience.

Best of luck to you all!

TL;DR

  • Charge for recurring plans from the beginning, even if the product has little to no upkeep/maintenance/server costs.

  • Talk to customers, and try to find out if many have some sort of key trait in common that is related to their desire for the product (even if the solution they extrapolate from the product is unintended).

  • Then I guess the next step would just be re-targeting that same niche of trait-sharing customers and continuing to serve their more specific needs better than anyone else can. I'll have to let you know how it goes!

P.S. - If anyone knows of any online web agency communities or related resources, I'd love to hear about them - I'm trying to learn more about this industry and how I can better serve it. Thanks!

  1. 1

    Awesome! I also have a product targeted at web agencies (http://scopeconcierge.com/ helps agencies quickly scope and price your digital projects).

    I have a ton of communities I’ve uncovered. Shoot a DM and maybe we can help eachother out!

    1. 1

      That's awesome! I'm only just getting started in this space, but it would be great if we could help each other out. Email sent :)

  2. 1

    Hey even if you didn't start out targeting them at least you caught the trend and are shifting focus, better late than never and not really all that late anyway.

    1. 1

      Yeah, for sure. I was so close to not catching on to the trend either, which was my motivation for sharing this (people's target audience might be hiding right under their nose - they just have to ask questions).

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