This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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This week, we have been looking at deciding on an idea. As part of that process, you need to think about your ideal customer. Who is best suited for this product or service of yours? Sometimes people worry that the market they've chosen is too small. I actually think you should have the opposite worry, that you're trying to reach so many people that your offer isn't specific enough.
Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. The listener who called in today has made a set of flashcards to help pharmacy students memorize generic drug names. But it's having a hard time finding her market. What should she try next?
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Hi Chris, my name is Noor. I've been watching Side Hustle School since late 2017. My Cytosil is Pharmacuse, which is a set of flashcards that use mnemonics and pictures to make it easier to memorize branded generic drug names. I have them up on Etsy for now, just to test the waters. My question for you is how do I find and market to a very specific and small audience?
My product really only is for pharmacy and pharmacy technician students. And it's a lot harder than I thought it would be to find interested people. Do you have any advice? Thank you so much, bye. - All right, thank you so much Noor.
I'm so glad you're out there. Now I actually think this is a really interesting project with some real potential. I really like the targeted focus, in other words. And it reminds me of a story we did long ago. This was episode 137, about a guy named Mike Binkovich, who's actually one of our writers now, but he wasn't at the time.
And in one of his other projects, he created a course on learning anatomy for pre-med students. And it turned into a long-term passive income source where for years, he would earn anywhere between 700 and $1,000 a month without doing a lot. Now, if I recall correctly, that project also featured a lot of mnemonics and pictures, just like Noor's project. Now, of course, in her story, she's not finding initial success. So what we have here is an interesting and presumably helpful product in search of its market.
So let's look at each of those things. First of all, I would get some feedback on the cards themselves. Like let's assume that Noor has some background in this field. That was my sense from listening to the question. Or at least she knows some people in this field.
So I would make sure that this study aid really is helpful to them. Like go and get some real feedback from these pharmacy and pharmacy tech students. You make any changes or tweaks. And once you feel confident in its value, then you focus your time on finding where the target audience might look for study aids. And on that topic, my sense is that she's not looking in the right place.
Because where do pharmacy and pharmacy tech students hang out online? Well, I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing it's not Etsy. And nothing wrong with using Etsy or any other platform to test the waters, just like she said. But if you really want to find these students, I would imagine that there are two sources. Two places where students might be attractive to this particular resource.
The first one is specific forums or resource sites for pharmacists or pharmacy students. I don't know exactly what those are, but in just about every field, there is some sort of forum, some sort of message board. There's usually multiple ones. They might be Facebook groups or Slack groups or independent forums. But there has to be something out there.
That's the first source. The second one is just through general web browsing. Because again, I don't think people go to Etsy and look for something like this. But I would imagine that somebody who was in pharmacy school might search on Google for pharmacy study aid or a generic drug memorization guide, which is exactly what Nora is selling. Now, what comes up when you search for those terms?
That's the kind of research I would do. It is possible to go and look at tools where you see how many people are searching for this particular search phrase. And then of course you look at the results and see, okay, what are the other sites ranking for that? I think that's the path to go down. And Nora needs to be ranking for these terms in search engine results, or at least let's say it would help a lot if she did.
Because over time it could bring her free targeted traffic. Bring her free traffic that is exactly the kind of person that she's trying to reach. And it would be much better for her website to be ranking rather than just an Etsy page or something else on another platform. So those are my suggestions. First, let's make sure the product is solid as judged by the intended audience.
And then look at getting away from other platforms into a more direct source of reaching this audience. [Music]
Thanks again, Nora. Good luck. Let us know what happens. And listeners, if you have a question, it's pretty simple.
Just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. I'll be featuring them throughout the year along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. This has been episode 1,124. I hope you're enjoying our newly remixed format. Do come back tomorrow and make sure you're subscribed.
My name is Chris Guillebeau, and this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
