Knowing what stage the product or service is at in the market and adapting sales strategies to the characteristics of that customer group is essential for achieving long-term sustainable growth.
In today's article, we discuss the importance of those known as early adopters or pioneering users during the early stages of a startup.
Who are early adopters?
Early adopters of a product or service are those who become consumers of it as soon as the first benefits of it begin to become visible. Early adopters represent 13.5% of the market, compared to 2.5% represented by innovators, and the main difference with the latter is that early adopters seek to solve a real problem, for which they have not yet found any solution among those existing in the market that would satisfy them sufficiently.
Along these lines, another of the main characteristics of early adopters, also shared by the group of innovators, is the fact that they are not faithful to any specific brand or product, although they are committed to being on the hunt for new releases that occur in the market, without being influenced by any of the options present in the market.
Purchasing power is another of the characteristics that defines the group of early adopters, since they generally tend to purchase products or services at a higher price than consumers do in later stages.
Thus, early adopters must not only be aware of the existence of a problem or need and be dissatisfied with existing solutions, they must also have the necessary budget for the acquisition of the new solution.
How can a startup find the first early adopters?
Since, at the point where early adopters enter, the traction in the market of the new product or service is minimal and the company does not have enough data to define its buyer persona or verify the product/market fit of the solution, the implementation of large scale marketing campaigns is costly and inefficient, since there is really no information on the specific needs and characteristics of the target segment to which the solution should be addressed.
Along the same lines, options such as posting announcements in forums and communities in the sector, specifically designed for this purpose, or being present at events that revolve around the needs covered by the new product or service, either as speakers or as sponsors or sponsors, are more effective in finding the first early adopters for a newly created startup.
Buying databases or investing in cold calling strategies are common tools used by entrepreneurs in order to find the first early adopters.
It should be noted that in companies with B2B business models, the difficulties in obtaining early adopters tend to be greater, since the risk involved for a business to acquire a product that does not add value to its production chain or contribute to the satisfaction of the end customer, is also greater.
At these stages, Intelectium recommends that startups set a maximum limit of capital to invest in marketing and advertising actions: the risk that the initial hypotheses will not be fulfilled and the startup will be forced to iterate until they find out who their target audience really is.
How important are early adopters in the future success of a startup?
Early adopters represent the turning point for the new product or service to become a mass product, since the feedback they provide helps the company to make the necessary changes to gain acceptance in the market, their opinions, although with certain caveats (they are usually insensitive to the different limitations that the first version of the product may have) are extrapolable to those of the rest of the target audience.
Although it is true that it may be difficult to find them at first, once early adopters approve the product, they tend to become evangelists of the product, through word of mouth, posts on social networks, articles on blogs, etc.
In addition, given the importance that the solution offered to the market is not based solely and exclusively on a specific need of the founding team or its environment, early adopters help to validate that, in fact, there is a real need in the market, yet to be solved and to discover the ideal growth channel for the company.
