What tools do you use for validating ideas?
I think it's useful if we share some details about the process we follow for testing out ideas for products. I'm new to this approach, and trying to find ways to make it more efficient.
I'm assuming you follow a landing-page approach. If not, please specify what other tools/process you use.
- Landing page. Do you write your own HTML (which template), or do you use a GUI tool (which tool)?
- Capture user data (Typeform, your own server, something else)
- Payment (Stripe, PayPal, etc.)
- Marketing (Adwords, Facebook ads, reddit, cold email, ...)
- Other tools?
Wow - big question :)
1 - Landing page I usually use WordPress and can make it look as custom as I want, here are some examples:
I use WordPress for speed, takes me between 2 and 8 hours to have a landing page with analytics and lead capture. Most of the time is figuring out the content
2 - For capturing data/marketing automation I use Mautic. It is free and open source (self hosted on vultr). One of the reasons for using Mautic is I dislike having my client/users data on 3rd party servers. Being open source also allows me the freedom to make changes if they are business critical.
3 - Stripe and Coinbase (hate paypal). I use coinbase to provide cryptocurrency payments.
4 - Depends on the project, test multiple channels and choose not just based on conversion, but look into retention as well. You may have a high converting channel which also has high churn.
5 - Other tools:
https://youtu.be/34va4ObGSVY
https://youtu.be/2pyahZSYSrc
...
1 - I've used Webflow and Landen.co so far. Landen (and similar tools) is definitely faster.
2 - Typeflow. The free plan has many limitations. So I'll probably serve the landing page on Netlify and use their form handling.
3 - PayPal. Stripe is not supported in my country.
4 - Facebook ads and Adwords. I'll definitely stop using Facebook ads - it hasn't worked at all for me. Still looking for better ways for reaching the target market. Definitely the hardest part and most time-consuming part for me.
5. Google Analytics, Crisp, Zapier, Google Sheets, https://www.domcomp.com/ to find cheaper price for domain
Ask people (IRL), especially the people that you want to help with your product or service.