Startups Stack Exchange Archive

How to market to an industry filled with DIY’ers?

I work in higher education. One of the hallmarks of working here is that we have a lot of freedom to explore new ideas in how we teach. However, this has a downside - if there is a new idea out there, there is inevitably a discussion on how great it would be if we made our own version of it.

I have an idea that I feel has commercial potential. It solves a problem that I face daily, and I feel that others face the same issues. However, I’m not sure how to effectively communicate the value of the idea to the purchasers, who might say “hey, nifty, but we can make our own.”

Realistically, most of the projects along the lines of “we can make our own” are poorly executed and either never work out or don’t do what the commercial versions do. We do purchase commercial things, of course, especially when they are industry standards. How does a startup convince someone in this industry that something is worth paying for?

Answer 13182

  1. Put resources into noteworthy substance. Significant substance is tremendous. Don’t simply make content that discussions about an item or thought. Offer substance that enables clients to make a move. This asset by Home Stratosphere is an ideal case of noteworthy substance. It includes a huge amount of DIY thoughts, as well as it gives instructional exercises and material records that clients can duplicate for simple get to.

Is your substance significant or simply clear? There’s nothing amiss with unmistakable substance that recounts a story, yet the DIY section of the commercial center desires substantial thoughts that incorporate well ordered exhortation.

  1. It’s not about the cash. At the point when advertisers at first get included with DIYers, they have a tendency to accept that cash is the most huge agony point. As it were, they accept individuals handle DIY extends so as to spare cash. This might be a piece of the point, yet it’s not generally the essential objective. As indicated by one review, just 39 percent of individuals do it to for budgetary reasons. Rather, most are inspired by the delight of the hands-on involvement. In case you’re endeavoring to market to this gathering, you have to concentrate on that idea, less the reserve funds.

  2. Use online networking. Online networking is your closest companion. In particular, Pinterest is the place you ought to invest the greater part of your energy. Aficionados of Pinterest are intensely DIY-slanted, and you can create a considerable measure of ROI from an unfaltering sense of duty regarding that site and in addition other online networking.

Related: 3 Brand Experience Strategies to Attract Millennials

On the off chance that you need an extraordinary case of what it would appear that to use Pinterest effectively, look at Ana White’s Pinterest board. White runs a DIY site that has some expertise in carpentry and different activities. In spite of the fact that a lot of her activity originates from blogging locales and different sources, she creates a ton of buzz from Pinterest.

  1. Support content creation. An extraordinary aspect regarding DIY purchasers is that they need activity, as well as need to be a piece of something. You can fulfill both of these inspirations by empowering content creation.

Truth is stranger than fiction, you can really get your clients to produce content for you. There are various successful methodologies - and some will be more helpful for your image than others - however here are a portion of the best.

  1. Dispatch challenges. Challenges can be an extraordinary approach to advance sharing and connect with clients. In the event that you playing off the last tip - empowering content creation - you should seriously think about running a challenge that requests that clients submit content with a specific end goal to win something.

Starbucks did this with the White Cup Contest in 2014. The espresso monster requested that clients doodle on their containers and transfer pictures utilizing a specific hashtag. The organization gathered more than 4,000 passages in three weeks and could actuate clients who had beforehand been lethargic.

Advertising to DIYers.

When you market to DIYers, you need to adopt a one of a kind strategy. Fortunately it’s regularly less demanding to achieve this section of the commercial center than to achieve the individuals who decline to draw in with content.

Answer 13125

I don’t know a solid answer to your question, but if you can show DIY-ers that they can save time and money, that will be pretty convincing. If they could do it themselves cheaper, or faster, or (gulp) cheaper and faster, I wouldn’t expect to make much money off of this.

Answer 13126

You need to figure out and learn to emphasize the benefits you’re offering. People don’t usually buy features or information; rather, they buy benefits, answers, and solutions. In case it applies to you - and it probably does, based on your question - they also buy thrills.

Assuming this is some kind of course aid, consider communicating on two things: that the product benefits them in some way, and that they get to experience rolling out the product in their own way. For the latter purpose, include milestones, checklists, perhaps even alternatives to explore, etc. so they can do it themselves within the framework that you’re putting forward (“have I done it right?”).

Another consideration for you should be finding the right words for all stakeholders. Intuitively, you need to convince several sets of people when selling a product in academia: the actual end-users, i.e. the teachers, but also those who oversee what they do (the department head?), those who pull out the checkbook (the intendant?), and perhaps even the students themselves.


All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.