Market Research Series: The Pat Flynn Way (Part 3: Flight Planning)
Based on Pat Flynn Book, Will It Fly? How to Test Your Next Business Idea So you Don’t Waste Your Time and Money
Part 3: Flight Planning
Goal: To learn everything you need to know about your target audience and where to find them
Market Map
What it is? Research to define the places, people and products that already serve your market
Why is it important? This is to give you a ‘bird’s eye view’ of the environment you want to enter
How does it work?
To create market map, you are going to find the 3P’s within your market
- Places
- People
- Products
Pat Flynn’s Tip: Using a spreadsheet, create 3 sub sheets and rename each sheet as Places, People and Products
A. Places
These are websites where your target audience resides or hang out. These are:
- Blog
- Forums
- Social Media Groups (Facebook and Linkedin)
Pat Flynn’s Tip: To search places in Google, type in the search bar
blog: keyword
forum: keyword
Copy in the spreadsheet the URL of websites related to your keyword.
B. People
These are the authorities who are already dominating your target audience. This is to determine what’s working and what’s not.
In the People sheet, construct the list of influencers including their name, website, and any special notes about them. You can found them on:
- Social Media Platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram LinkedIn , Periscope)
- Podcast (iTunes)
- Using search tool like Buzzsumo
C. Products
You’re going to find the top products, services, and books that are being offered to your audience. You can find them, of course, at Amazon.com.
Pat Flynn’s Tip: Using the product reviews, you can learn more about what your target audience is looking for and what makes them buy a product or service.
The Customer P. L. A. N.
What it is? Use this exercise to define your customer avatar or customer profile.
Why is it important? This is to learn more about your target audience, what solutions they are looking for, the language they used to describe their problem, the needs to satisfy and stories they can relate.
How it works?
On a separate spreadsheet, create 4 sub sheets and name them as follows.
- Problems.
- Language
- Anecdotes
- Needs
A. Problems
Look for problems that you can provide solutions either thru
- One on One Real Time Conversation
- Surveys (What’s your #1 biggest challenge related to [topic]?)
- Paid Traffic (Facebook advertising)
Pat Flynn’s Tip: Discover stories behind stories. Always dig deeper by asking follow up questions like, “how come?” or, “why do you feel that way,”
B. Language
When you can learn the language of your audience, you can more easily make a connection with them, and ultimately they begin to trust you more.
To narrow down our search, we’ll be looking into the three most useful kinds of words and phrases you could collect at this point:
- Questions
- Complaints
- Keywords
You can find them thru Forums, FAQs, Amazon Reviews, Google Related Searches.
Pat Flynn’s Tip: Use the following keywords in the search engine that begins with
“why is it”
“when can I”
“what are the”
“what is the”
“how come I”
“need help”
“please help”
“I need”
“help with”
C. Anecdotes
An anecdote is a short, interesting story, and they’re some of the most powerful tools you can use in your business.
You can find them on:
- Forums sites
- Audio Podcast Interview
D. Needs
A need is what you believe your customers require to solve a problem, and the product or business becomes the mechanism to fulfill that requirement.
In Needs Sheets, create two colums. One for Problem and One for Needs to solve the problem.
Elixers
These will each become a potential solution you can test and run through the customer validation method.
Create a new column for beside your P. L. A. N. and name Elixers or the solution for every problem.
Final Exercise
Step 1: Eliminate all but one row and one solution on your matrix.
Step 2: Sit on that idea for a day.
Step 3: Conduct a second mind mapping exercise with your new target solution as the focal point.
Step 4: One page, one paragraph, one sentence.
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You may also check for:
Market Research Series: The Pat Flynn Way (Part 1: Mission Design)
Market Research Series: The Pat Flynn Way (Part 2: Development Lab)
Market Research Series: The Pat Flynn Way (Part 3: Flight Planning)
Market Research Series: The Pat Flynn Way (Part 4: Flight Simulator)
