If you want to assess the strength of your product or platform, you need to conduct customer interviews.
Successful customer interviews can determine whether your product ideas are fit for the market—or better off as just ideas.
But finding users to interview isn’t always easy. If your product is in a niche market or is truly one of a kind, you may face some challenges finding information about your potential user base.
So, what are some of the best ways to find customers to interview for your SaaS product?
Read on to learn about the most effective methods you can start using today.
Establish your target demographic
The first thing to consider when searching for candidates for customer interviews is your target demographic. Your product is designed to solve a specific problem for a specific audience. Who stands to benefit from your product, and how? Where do they like to hang out or socialize online and offline? The answers to these questions will determine where to start looking.
Let’s look at an example.
Suppose your service is a new application for finding highly qualified dog walkers. In this case, the specific problem you’re trying to solve is connecting dog owners with qualified and reliable dog walkers. Your target demographic is dog owners, making places like pet stores, parks, and online pet forums a goldmine for potential customers.
Reach out with cold emails
After doing your due diligence, you finally understand your target demographic. Your next steps are to capture their contact information and use an effective outreach strategy. Let’s take a look at how to implement each.
The easiest way to obtain contact information is to ask for it in exchange for something of value. Going back to our dog walker example, we know our strongest client prospects are in pet stores, parks, and pet-focused online forums. For pet store and park prospects we can offer them early access to our product in exchange for their name and email information. On the online forums, we can ask if members would like to participate in a product interview.
Once you’ve collected contact information from your prospects it’s time to focus on your email outreach strategy. Email outreach is by far one of the most effective tools for establishing a relationship between your company and potential customers. Unless your potential clients are already familiar with your brand, any form of email contact will be considered cold emails.
Cold emails should be used to establish a relationship, not sell your product or service. A key component of persuasive marketing is understanding that people do not like to be sold to. For that reason, it’s very important not to approach your email outreach like a business meeting. Treat it like a conversation starter instead.
How to personalize your cold email outreach
To build trust between you and a potential customer, you have to personalize your cold email outreach. For example, suppose one of your target demographics is a business. It’s in your best interest to learn everything you can about the business, tailoring your email toward personal aspects of the business.
In addition, it’s important not to talk too much about yourself or your company in the body of your first email. People are naturally skeptical of strangers in their inboxes and too much irrelevant information can be a big turn-off. Make the email about them and their potential needs while being very clear about your intentions.
Developing an email script
With the concept of cold email outreach squared away, let’s talk about email scripting. An email script is a template or formula that acts as an outline for relaying and asking for information. For customer interviews, your email script is how you’ll be asking for participation. Your script is the first thing potential customers will see, so it’s essential to get this right.
Here are the most important things your script needs to include:
- An enticing subject line
- Friendly, readable body copy
- A direct request for the interview, along with the clear purpose of the interview
- The specific amount of time you are requesting for the interview
- A simple and easy way of connecting for the interview (e.g., a Zoom or Google Hangout link)
If you are regularly getting responses from your email outreach, then it’s a good indication that your scripts are working. Lack of response may indicate your script needs some changes or to be redone altogether.
Boost participation with incentives
If you’re having trouble garnering participation for your customer interviews, it may be a smart idea to offer additional incentives.
Without incentives, customer interviews are considered a courtesy. A potential client may not be willing to give their time away for free. Leading with a reward, such as a free item or gift card, is a great way to change their minds.
How to find customers to interview: The bottom line
Customer interviews are an integral part of launching a SaaS product. When done properly, they reveal vital information about the target demographic of your product or platform and determine how their needs are met.
To find customers for interviews, establish your target demographic, find out where they hang out, and get their attention. Cold emails are the most tried-and-true approach for garnering attention on the internet. Use cold email outreach with powerful email scripts to establish rapport with potential customers. Be genuine and direct in your approach and you’ll be well on your way to a great product launch.
Are you interested in developing a customer acquisition strategy for your product or startup? VeryCreatives is here to help. Book a call with us today!
