I’m trying to sell various goodies related to Seinfeld TV show. Is there a demand for this?
Goal: 10 sales in one month.
Main Assumption
Seinfeld fans are buying Seinfeld-related t-shirts because they loved the tv show.
Shall I try to rebuild my website and drive traffic to it or try to find a marketplace that already has the audience I’m looking for? How to test it? Check keyword searches on google:
It seems that there is a very low number of searches on this and a very high competition. So, trying to build my website and drive traffic to it would be very costly.
What about researching where similar products are sold? Check Etsy and see how much similar stuff is sold.
OK, we are getting somewhere. It’s a bit weird because there are very low searches on google but somehow this marketplace has very high sales. There must be something here. Let’s check the searches on Etsy and get a more in-depth look.
Well, this is even worse: From 2,293,532 there are 2,335 sales which means almost a 0,2% conversion rate. How so? It seems that people are not looking specifically for anything Seinfeld related they just buy because of other reasons.
But still… didn’t get an answer to our question: “Is this something people need?” It seems that we can not get an answer to this quantitatively.
Let’s start finding people.
Starting with screening people in relevant communities by asking questions that pass the Mom test (Customer interviews with honest feedback)
(Almost proven) Facts:
Seinfeld fans do not seem to be super interested in buying related goodies.
Insights:
Seinfeld fans are more likely to be gifted by their non-Seinfeld fan friends. ODD!!! It seems that the main challenge is finding the right target audience.
Is it die-hard fans or friends of die-hard fans who might buy these?
Let’s start talking with people.
I run ads on Reddit and FB with a survey where I screen people to interview them. I’m offering them a gift in return if they are a fit for interviewing.
So here’s the ad that I’m running for recruiting additional people for interviewing:
The goal with this is to shoot 2 rabbits at the same time (this is a weird saying in my country, I love rabbits!), in the sense that with one rabbit I get people for interviews, and with another one I get sales.
Let’s see some of the results of our survey:
Got views but just a few people start it. Why?
Let’s optimize it:
remove the welcome screen (less friction)
move the asking for the email to the bottom of the survey.
Remove the text “Just a 10-15 minute chat” it might confuse them thinking that they might immediately have to chat with me for 10-15 minutes
Nice to have: On the thank you page, let’s add a small note about what I’m working on (the shop) maybe someone buys something.
Voila! Things got much better:
Some useful insights learned so far:
60% of people didn’t buy or receive something
75% of people who didn’t buy said that they didn’t because they couldn’t find anything cool
Out of those mugs and t-shirts were the most popular
There is a 50/50 balance between people who bought for themselves and being gifted
Occasions were mostly Christmas and birthdays
The above insights led us to try a new hypothesis, more exactly to create a funny personalized gift generator.
Results so far:
Not there yet, but we’re heading in the right direction…
Leave a Reply