Create a simple product for your breakeven ad

You’re still determining if you’ll break even on your next ad campaign, jeopardizing your business!

Marketing your startup is hard. Hard. And time-consuming too. You’re an engineer, not a marketer, so you must drag yourself out of technical mode and write content daily. But how do you write something that people will want to read? Do you share your idea? How can you make your unfamiliar product understandable to anyone without being able to show them a working product?

By following the easy process of creating a simple product for your breakeven ad, you can efficiently work out all the possible combinations to determine whether or not your campaign will pay off (and then some!)

Product

The first thing to consider is if the product will be physical or digital. A physical product could be anything from a tangible good such as a t-shirt or a children’s toy, to something intangible, like an ebook or an online course.

If your product is digital, you’ll want to decide if it will be downloadable or come in the form of an access code. A downloadable product can be purchased on a website and downloaded to a computer or mobile device for use. On the other hand, an access code is for a digital product that requires a login and password to purchase and use. This might include software, online courses, computer programs, and games.

When you decide on what type of product, you’ll have more control over your business’s value. When you create and sell a product, you have more control over pricing and branding, which ultimately results in higher profits.

Problem

When you’re creating a product, make sure it’s something that your target audience will find valuable and helpful. A great way to do that is to figure out their problems—what makes their lives difficult or uncomfortable. This is where you dig into your research and talk to people in-depth about their problems. Collecting data like this will be the most invaluable part of your project, so don’t rush through it! After talking with enough people, you’ll start noticing patterns emerge: the same issues are recurring. Once you pinpoint the problem, you can start thinking about how to solve it.

In this case, the business owner has chosen a problem that affects many people: trouble remembering to get items from the store at specific times during the week (so they run out of milk, for example). Now she has to think about how she might be able to solve that problem for them—this is where it gets fun! She could create digital shopping lists that automatically update themselves when they run out of stuff, or maybe an app that reminds her when she needs to buy things weekly.

Create

You can write down several possible products your company can create by brainstorming ideas. Although it is tempting to go forward with the first idea you come up with, don’t jump the gun. Make sure you write down every idea that comes to mind and choose the one that seems best for your company.

Brainstorming ideas is a significant step in the process of forming your business. You may have an excellent idea for a product or service, but if you don’t write it down or think about it, your idea won’t ever see the light of day.

During this phase of product creation, you will need to ensure that you are creating a marketable product with a large market. If you fail to do this, your product will never see the light of day, and your business will fail before it even starts.

Creating a product may seem like an easy thing to do, but it is not as simple as one might think. Many steps are involved in creating and marketing a new product or service. If even one thing is missing, the whole project could collapse like a house of cards.

Publish

As you build your product, you simultaneously create your sales page. This is the place where customers will decide to buy or move on. While there are many nuances to creating a great sales page, a good rule of thumb is to keep it simple, straightforward, and short. One of the most common mistakes for first-timers is creating pages that are too long and trying to cover too much information. 

Instead, keep things as simple as possible. Focus on the key features that will motivate people to buy from you. List them in bullet points at the top of the page, with pictures or videos if you can. If your product needs some background explanation, include a brief description below the list of features.

Sometimes founders will start by writing about their company history, background story, or previous successes. While this can be interesting and helpful in some ways, it’s not necessary for the customer who has already decided to purchase from your page.

Market

Usually, you’ll have a whole bunch of things to do before the sales page goes live. But once it’s up, you can start marketing your product!

Just like you did with creating the sales page, you’ll want to ensure that your product is as simple as possible. For example, if you have a service and not a physical product, you will want to provide an example list of what your clients will get when they sign up for your service. Suppose your service has multiple parts or works in various ways. In that case, you’ll want to explain what’s involved and perhaps even provide an example of all the different parts working together.

If your product is physical (like an ebook or a CD), you might want to create a short video or audio recording that shows how it’s used. This will help people fully grasp what they’re going to be able to do with it.

If it’s appropriate for your target audience, consider creating a free preview of some kind—this could be as simple as a chapter from the beginning of your book or an audio file that introduces people to the concepts and principles behind your product. You could also offer a sample course or membership level at no cost.

Create your breakeven ad

If you can create a simple product that solves your problem, you have just started your first breakeven ad. Remember, creating your ad is only the beginning. The biggest challenge lies in marketing and selling it. There will be more on this later. Contact us to know more like this!