I am worried that I am building a product for a less ideal audience

Should I follow the money or follow where I am creating most value at?

Isn’t this the same thing? People giving you money is demonstrating value! The ones not giving you money are not getting any value from your offer.

If your goal is revenue then I’d suggest you focus on the segment that’s actually paying you. I’d probably rip out / dial down everything they’re not using currently and figure out what they’re missing.

HTH

I think you should see this from another perspective.

Are you really providing those people the most value? Or are they just very open in regards to user feedback?

Have you already spoken to the "buying" target group, why they are buying?

You have found a market where your product fits. I would double down on it. What you are looking at is called the Customer Segmentation Pivot. Don't fight the momentum and think that you know better than the market.

I'd say I am somewhere where you are but not really. I just built a product that is so niche that I am having trouble reaching the audience. I know they exist, but it's just hard to get them here. Any tips?

This is indeed an interesting problem. Ideally, you'd have a tiered pricing model with different price points by expanding the features as it goes up tier by tier.

However, from what you said, customers with 💰 only require basic features.

So here are a few other ways to charge by providing more value:

• by visits
• to remove footer links
• to remove advertisements

All platforms and application that charge started charging no money.

If you can handle resources that will keep you alive for quite some time, it will worth giving free service for now and charge later when they know the real value of what they will be paying for.

But remember to always make part of the service free, creating different categories of subscriptions including free is the thing I see in most of the apps and platforms.

If you only want to focus on one niche, talk to people from both customer segments.

• What value are they getting from the product?
• What's stopping those who like the product but aren't customers from buying it?
• What do they use the product for?

In talking to your different customers, you'll see if there's any overlap in the things they like about your product and the value they get from your product.

If there's overlap, then maybe with slight positioning tweaks, you can serve booth customer segments. If there's no overlap, then you'll be able to use your customer interviews to decide which segment to focus on.

You can follow both. Package your solution for these different buyer groups.
Take slack as an example; it is used by various groups of people in different industries.
Look at: https://slack.com/solutions, for inspiration.
Create a copy that highlights the value it offers for these different packages. It can help you charge differently based on the value it provides for these other groups.

Can you do both? It's hard to do both because it can muddy your marketing message.

But if following the money helps you stay in business so that you can help other audiences that really value it, then it may be worth it.

It's not too uncommon to find "general" tools that serve multiple audiences.

In general, I think it's usually better to follow the money. Usually better to exist than not exist, unless following the money creates a business you don't like.

Good luck!

I think it's a bit harsh to call it a less ideal audience. If these people find it useful, then why not? Maybe you could use that money to invest in growing and find other customers too?