process
How to Target Early Adopters with Your Next Big Idea
Not to sound bigoted, but let’s just face the facts: some customers are more valuable than others. There! I said it! More specifically, customers who can be classified as “early adopters,” especially in the realm of digital technology, are major players in the success or failure of a 21st century business and/or product. Early adopters are so important because they’re often also your influences; they run blogs, Youtube channels, and everything they say has triple or quadruple-digit retweets on twitter. Get on the good side of an early adopter, and they can bring with them hundreds or thousands of average users. In some writings on the adoption curve and life cycle of new products in our day and age, early adopters are touted as those who can guide a new business across the “chasm.” The chasm is the period of uncertainty where it is uncertain whether a product will make the jump from something a few
people try out to a technology that is adopted and integrated by the majority.
Today, we’re going to talk about how you can help your products and businesses be as attractive to early adopters as possible, and how you can best leverage that attention.
1) Find a genuine need.
Depending on where you’re at, this might be advice coming too late, but the first step to getting your product into
the hands of eager early adopters is to make sure you’re filling a genuine need. People have “cool” ideas all the time, but that doesn’t mean they’re ideas that will come to be known as “needed.” Sometimes, however, your big idea can simply be an improvement of another system (think: Facebook usurping Myspace), however the barrier to entry with these ideas is higher because your product has to be so good it entices people to drop something they’ve grown accustom to.
2) Have a proper incentive system.
Don’t just offer to give people free products, give something above and beyond that. For example, you might take a note from the gaming industry: Often times, these companies will offer their early adopters exclusive titles for their profiles or unique character looks called “skins” that won’t be available ever again after the initial testing or adopting period. Think about what rewards could be relevant to your audience in the same way. Maybe you’re launching a
mobile ecommerce platform and you offer “veteran seller” badges or other marks of credibility to those who sign up and start using your site within the first 3 months, etc.
3) Communication will make or break you.
The world we market in today is one of two-way communication. Social media. You know, that kind of thing. You should be regularly reaching out to and interacting with your potential early adopter audiences through the channels that they use most. Beyond recruitment, this also expands to post-adoption feedback and support. Early adopters will likely be using these channels to either get in touch with you directly or to broadcast their opinions about your product or service. Either way, you should be monitoring social and traditional channels all the time to respond in a
timely, appropriate way.
Once you have all of the above in place you can turn on the traffic tap! And the best place to start sending floods of traffic is using is good old-fashioned media buying.
Why You Should Embrace Your Setbacks
While you are on the road to success and achievement, you are definitely going to have setbacks – some of these may be minor, and some will be major. There is no point in getting upset with these inevitable setbacks as this only makes them appear worse, and this does nothing to increase the likelihood that you’ll be able to overcome them and move forward. In fact, just the opposite happens. if you focus on your setbacks in a negative manner, you will be using up the mental energy that you could be using to move forward towards your goals!
Look at it this way; setbacks can teach you valuable lessons, but this will only happen if you view them positively. You must be aware that setbacks will happen so they won’t sneak up and surprise you. No road traveled is without a few bumps, so accept them, learn from them, and move forward!
Setbacks can show you where the gaps are within your action plan, and they can also highlight issues you may not have been aware of. So by highlighting and fixing these problems, the initial setback can actually make your process much stronger in the long run. When you come across one of these gaps, view it as a lesson and re-evaluate your plan and move forward with confidence.
Setbacks also help you develop and master problem-solving skills. Expertly solving a problem you didn’t expect and didn’t foresee will not only positively affect your process, but it will also raise your confidence level, and develop your mind at the same time.
The benefit of hindsight is great, but in all honesty there is no way to accurately foresee where a problem may appear, so you just have to work your plan, let the process unfold, and let the challenges appear where they will. These challenges will enable you to grow as a person, and will help your process by strengthening your resolve to achieve more than you ever thought possible.
Viewing challenges, problems, issues – whatever you want to call them – with a positive mind can help you view the entire process with a growth-centered mindset. Remember that if you learn from it then it is not a failure and that you have benefited and grown. And often, the lesson is simply that it won’t work the way you initially intended, so all you have to do is find an alternative!
Using setbacks to facilitate growth in your own life is the most positive way you can use the inevitable appearance of said setbacks. And don’t beat yourself up about it; tell yourself that it’s okay to experience this discomfort because it’s a sign that you’re growing and changing internally, and that is always a positive thing.
If you become resentful or demotivated by setbacks, you will use up valuable mental and physical energy that would be best used to motivate you and move you forward. Change what you can, move forward, and delight in the growth you are experiencing!
Embrace problems and grow your business and your mind, and enjoy the process!
Realistic Dreaming
Often when we set goals, we inadvertently set ourselves up for failure before we even begin! Now, does that make sense to you? Of course it doesn’t but in our haste to have it all, many people set goals that have no basis in reality and are quite simply unattainable. And so you are in trouble before you even get off the ground.
Goal-setting is an incredibly important (and useful) part of the process for anyone who wants to achieve more success and have a richer, more fulfilled life. Realistic dreaming is the precursor to effective goal-setting. Let me explain what I mean by this…
The whole reason behind setting a goal is to accomplish something that is bigger, better, or more advanced in some way than what you have now, or where you are in your life at present. The trouble is that if you set a goal that is simply too big, you will know subconsciously, if not consciously, that you are going to struggle and this creates negativity at the onset, because you will likely be in a state of overwhelm before you even begin! A goal that seems unattainable may very well be that so you need to be aware of this.
Or, it may simply be a case of breaking this big goal into smaller interim goals as guideposts along the way. This is a good practice to get into whatever the size of the goal as it gives you a clear roadmap.
Dreaming realistically sets the tone for the big goals. A bigger home, expensive car, personal bests in any area of your life – those are the big goals, the be-all and end-all. The ultimate prize. But instead of only dreaming of the big stuff, allow yourself to have some goals that come after the initial start, but before the ultimate finish as these are the milestones that will keep you embraced in the journey.
So, if you set a goal to lose 100 pounds, and that’s the big, ultimate accomplishment, set smaller milestone for 10 pounds, 20 pounds, 50…you get the idea. Going from zero to 100 seems like it will take a lifetime and can cause you to doubt that it can be achieved. But going from zero to 10, on your way to 100, seems a much more realistic and attainable scenario.
Realistic dreaming isn’t negatively stating to yourself that you “can’t accomplish a goal that big”, or that “you’ll never be able to do that”. Rather, realistic dreaming is starting from the beginning with logical, realistic smaller goals that will help you to take the action you need to take to achieve the big end goal, while enjoying and learning from the process, as well. This will ensure that you are much more likely to stay the course and reach your eventual big goal.
And don’t forget to reward the small goals you reach along the way. Small successes turn into big achievements, so they shouldn’t be downplayed. In fact, just the opposite – even the small successes should be celebrated big time!
Start your goal-setting from the very beginning with realistic dreaming, and you’ll find that you reach your end goals easier, and you enjoy the process that much more.
Learning to Endure
When you are on the goal setting journey, you WILL suffer from the inevitable setbacks. Those setbacks are a normal part of the process of expanding and growing as a person and should be treated as such. Easier said than done, right?! Being able to endure setbacks, and even embrace them as a valuable learning experience, will go a long way towards making the process of achieving your goals faster and easier.
When we deny the setbacks, we are also denying the opportunity to learn from the lessons they have to offer. If we resent these temporary road blocks, we can create our own misery and lose momentum. This often begins with stories in our heads telling ourselves about the way things “should be”. Anybody who sets out to achieve a goal will already have a story and a narrative in their mind describing exactly how they want things to go, and how they feel things should work.
Any setback that you encounter will inevitably challenge this story, so the key is to create a flexible story that can be challenged without falling completely apart. The key is in adjusting your sails so that no matter what is thrown at you, you can come back.
Become stronger and smarter about the process than you were before.
These lessons will also sort the wheat from the chaff and show you your mettle so you’ll learn what you’re made of! You’ll see how quickly you can come back and whether you can come back with enthusiasm and determination. You’ll learn whether the desire for the end goal is strong enough to carry you through the challenges that occur. And remember that everyone has these challenges, and only those who are able to rise above them will succeed.
It’s okay for you to decide that the goal isn’t worth the trouble, but you need to be honest with yourself and absolutely clear that you’re not simply giving up because things got rough! Nothing worth doing ever came easy, and when you consider all the things you’ve done in your life, haven’t the really rewarding things you’ve accomplished all come with a bit of challenge?
Think of the stories you’ll be able to tell about the problems that arose, and how you solved them and rose above them! This can be very motivating and inspirational to those around you, as well, so your journey isn’t really just your own. There is a ripple effect that is important to consider as well. You can become a role model of success for your friends and family to aspire too; how’s that for stroking your ego?!
It is a great thing to set goals and start off on the journey towards their achievement, so long as you’re aware that you’ll need flexibility to endure the hard times, and the motivation and momentum to bounce back and get back on the proverbial horse again!
There is no greater pleasure than achieving a goal, and when the journey there has allowed you to grow as a person, it’s an even sweeter ending. So grit your teeth, knuckle down and keep grinding until you get there, but also allow yourself to enjoy the process and reward yourself when you do overcome these obstacles! Keep hustling!