There are plenty of startup ideas today. The thing is, they're mostly a dime a dozen. The critical thing to remember is that validating such ideas will allow you to determine whether or not they will thrive in the respective market you're looking to serve. Validating your idea will be critical. You can utilize visual content since it can be a compelling and cost-effective way to do the job.
In this guide, we will discuss how visual content can be helpful in the eight creative ways that will allow you to validate your startup.
Let's delve into the details and show some examples of how these ways can work, especially when using visual content.
Defining the target audience
First, define your target audience. In fact, it's no accident that this is the first step in validating your startup idea. Think of it as an engine to a car. Without defining your target audience, you won't be able to move forward with validating your idea.
After you've defined your target audience, you want to see who inside or outside of your network can match the demographics you are after. If there are any existing or past clients, go after them or talk to people online and offline.
It is also wise to harness the power of social listening. That's where you can listen to podcasts, read blogs related to your industry and niche, and engage in similar social communities.
It would be best to look for any painful language or challenges they're facing. They should also mention any solutions that they have tried but failed to solve the problem.
Once you've gathered all this data, you can include it in your presentation and provide as many visual examples as possible. These could be stats, graphics, or something else that will support your research. And remember, deep research can certainly go a long way.
Identify the Problem You Intend To Solve
Take a moment to forget about your startup idea. Think about the problem that you want to solve. Find the fire before you fill up the bucket.
In other words, what problem would you solve, and what kind of idea would you create as the solution itself?
Then, come back to your idea and determine whether that is similar to what you came up with hypothetically.
Another thing you want to do is ask yourself questions such as:
- Would you use the products yourself?
- Can you find an audience member with the problem you want to solve?
- Does your product or service solve the problem?
From there, you can utilize storytelling through visual means like video, storyboards, and animations, to name a few. If you're using videos, ensure that your visuals stick to a 16:9 aspect ratio to enhance the overall presentation and viewer experience.
If it aligns with the solution and your target audience's desired results, then you're good to go.
Create Visual Examples of Prototypes
There's no doubt that people who may be interested in your product would like to see an example. That's where visual examples of prototypes can come into play. They want to know the product's appearance, how it functions, and more.
Provide mock-ups, wireframes, and different types of prototype versions that you can show to investors and people in your market who might be inclined to purchase a product service you want to offer.
Validating the concept of your product and service will be critical. It will determine whether or not it's worth a consumer's money by easing the consumer decision process.
Visual Content for Value Proposition Testing
Perhaps one of the critical parts of the validation process is testing your value proposition, especially with visual content.
At this stage, you want to look at what makes the offer special and how it can resonate with your audience. You should also do a checklist that includes determining whether or not the message is clear and easy to understand so it can resonate with your customers easily. You can follow that up by describing your strongest selling points that will get people to buy on the spot.
One of the best ways to test your value proposition visually is by offering before-and-after comparisons, explainer videos on how to use the product, testimonials from your test market, and other approaches to message testing.
Your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with Visual Examples
Now we get to the fun stuff. Your minimal viable product (MVP) will be crucial, as you can get customer feedback along with additional validation from the market as a whole. You want to use product screenshots and demonstration videos that show your MVP in action. An MVP demonstration can also be done in person.
One such example is Airbnb. When Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia struggled to keep up with the rent in their apartment in San Francisco, they decided to rent it out for people visiting the city to earn extra cash.
All they did was take pictures of their apartment, place them up on a website, and then they had to pay for gas. They wanted to stay for the entire conference. Their apartment was the minimum viable product. From there, Airbnb started to take off because of a particular problem, and they saw the MVP right before their face.
Crowdsourcing Feedback on Visual-based Platforms
There are plenty of visual platforms in the digital age where you can get feedback on your startup idea. They are Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok - all of them can be pretty powerful in terms of the broad reach you can get for displaying your startup idea. We get it: You might not have a number of followers to start out with, and that's okay.
To start, you can post your best photos and videos that highlight your ideas' best selling points. As you build your social media presence, you must begin connecting with people related to your niche. You can follow people who might be interested but don't expect everyone you follow to follow you back. Yes, we know that it can be painful, but it's the nature of the business sometimes.
Branding with Visual Tools
Every startup wants to build a memorable brand. Whenever someone sees your logo or hears your name, they think of the one thing that is synonymous with your brand - your product or service. You may use a logo maker to create one that effectively reflects your brand and product.
When putting something together, you can use tools such as Picsart's color picker. Picking the right colors for your brand can be quite a challenge, but you'll have the tools you need to play around with different color schemes before deciding on one that will fit your brand accordingly.
Keep in mind that many startups fail because of this shocking reason (despite having a great idea). It’s because they didn’t have a clear and solid idea of who they are in terms of their brand’s values, beliefs, and other elements of their identity.
Watch Trends and Adjust Accordingly
So, you surpassed the point where your startup is validated and is now becoming profitable. Just because this is happening doesn't mean it's a set-and-forget-it thing. What may be validated today may not be tomorrow.
That's where you need to look for any potential trend changes and stay in the loop regarding any changes that may be occurring. It also helps you continue to engage with your market, the community that's in line with your niche experts, and more. The more informed you are, the better prepared you will be for any necessary shifts in the market.
In terms of visual content, you want to look for any statistics that you can put together in graphs. Having all this data at hand can help you determine whether your business idea is still valid or if you are ready to pivot.
Conclusion
Even though this is a guide of eight creative ways to help you validate your startup idea, we think of it as a step-by-step guide you can follow for every idea you want to put together and see if it's viable enough. Of course, using visual examples in each of these steps will be essential to ensure that validating your idea is more than possible.
