If you’ve decided to move forward with a new product or business idea, you know there’s one step you absolutely can’t skip: market research.
Market research is a way to gauge interest in your ideas and determine what products and services fare best with your target audience.
The best way to go about it is simply to ask people how they feel, and in the digital age, this can be done through online surveys, forum posts, and social media outreach efforts.
In addition to popular social media sites where you can connect with large numbers of people, several platforms like Helpfull and FeedbackJack are specifically designed to help entrepreneurs, marketers, designers, product owners, and researchers get feedback from potential customers and fellow creators.
Here are our top 10 places to get feedback on your product or business idea.
1. Facebook
Facebook is the classic hub of social media activity. You probably already know it as a place to stay in touch with old friends, but with so many users, it can also be a perfect site to validate your business idea and receive quick responses.
You can post a survey on your page asking for feedback from your friends, or you can search for Facebook groups in your niche to reach your audience more directly and request their thoughts.
There are also some Facebook groups set up specifically for creators, inventors, and entrepreneurs to do market research.
- Kickstarter | Crowdfunding | Indiegogo
- Entrepreneurs and Business Owners Community
- International Investors
- Startup’s | Investors | Entrepreneurs | Mentors | Founders & CEO
- Small business owners/entrepreneurs
2. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a popular social media site specifically geared toward helping professionals level up in their careers, and it’s a perfect place to get feedback on your ideas for businesses or products!
If you have a lot of existing connections, you can make a post requesting input from them, or you can join a group set up for that purpose.
This is another great place to share links to surveys you’ve put together for market research.
- Crowdfunding – Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and more
- INVESTOR NETWORK Investors Startup Finance VC Private Equity Angel Funding Venture Capital Startups
- Entrepreneur – Startup Business Ideas
- Startups 2022 🟥 Entrepreneur • Founder • Mentor • Accelerator • Seed Funding • Venture Capital • AI
3. Reddit
Reddit is a major forum website with a user base in the millions and forums dedicated to just about everything you can imagine.
Set up a free account, search for relevant forums, and make a few posts or comments outlining your idea and asking for feedback.
For example, if you want to do market research for a physical product, you can search for forums that are likely to be frequented by people who might use your product and leave comments on a few popular posts explaining what you’re doing.
Links are allowed, so creating a survey you can link to in your post or comment might be a good idea.
- Entrepreneur
- Entrepreneur Ride Along
- The community for ventures designed to scale rapidly | Read our rules before posting
- Advanced Entrepreneur
4. Twitter
Twitter is another popular social media site where you’re likely to receive a variety of opinions when doing market research for a new product.
It’s especially effective if you already have an established following, but if you know how to interact with tags and popular accounts, you can make it work even if you’re brand new.
You can post links or create simple surveys asking for general feedback on your idea.
5. Feedback Jack
FeedbackJack is an awesome place to get feedback on a crowdfunding campaign.
The platform allows you to submit elements of your campaign such as images, logos, titles, and business decisions. Everyone from inventors and entrepreneurs to artists and authors can get a lot of mileage out of it.
Respondents can vote for their preferences and indicate their demographics to give you a feel for who your audience is and what they want.
If you need quick, actionable, and honest feedback, setting up a profile on FeedbackJack is an easy first step.
6. PickFu
PickFu is a paid polling platform that allows creators to do market research for Kickstarter campaigns and other crowdfunding projects.
If you’re running a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign, for example, you can create a PickFu survey to send to the demographics of your choice and receive specific feedback on your campaign almost instantly.
7. Google Consumer Surveys
Google Consumer Surveys is a Google-run platform that allows users to create custom surveys to be dispersed around the web.
You can specify the demographics you are targeting and the questions you want to ask them, and Google Consumers Surveys will generate a report of the data for you based on the responses.
Because Google has such a wide sphere of influence, the Consumer Surveys tool is a great way to reach a large audience and gauge interest in your idea.
8. Growth Mentor
If you’re looking for personalized advice from a professional who has been in the same position as you, Growth Mentor might be able to help.
Growth Mentor is a platform that will match you up with a mentor to validate your startup idea. All of the mentors are experienced startup founders themselves who can help you navigate the business world.
Although Growth Mentor won’t allow you to create surveys that give you a full picture of what your target audience expects, one-on-one feedback from an experienced professional can be just as valuable when it comes to validating your startup.
9. GrowthHackers
The GrowthHackers community is a platform where marketers and entrepreneurs can connect to share best practices for growing a business.
You can use the community forums to share your business ideas and receive feedback, and since most users have probably been in the same position as you at one time or another, they’re likely to have some sage advice for you.
Growth Hackers is especially geared toward marketing practices, so if you have an idea for an app that you believe could be a great marketing tool, this might be the perfect place to validate your app idea and get feedback.
10. InventHelp
If you’re an inventor ready to make your product idea profitable, you may want to turn to InventHelp.
InventHelp is a well-established company dedicated to providing inventors with the resources they need to thrive.
Validating new product ideas and carrying out market research are some of the many services they provide to independent inventors.
Conclusion
When it comes to validating products and business ideas, one thing is for sure: you can never do too much market research.
The more insight you have into what your target audience wants, the better you’ll be able to tailor your business model and marketing strategies.
We suggest using a few of these tools to help you generate a robust library of feedback to guide you.
If you reach out to as many people as possible, you’re sure to receive valuable feedback that could change the way you’ve been looking at your business idea.
You might find out that people are totally uninterested in your products or services, or that you need to revamp them in some essential ways to meet demands you didn’t even anticipate.
Then again, you might discover that a lot of people are excited about the solutions you offer, and your business has very high potential.
In any case, keep in mind that all feedback is good feedback, and we’re always happy to help you find it!
