Massive Marketing Blunder #1: Not Gauging Buyer Demand Before You Record

Before You Fly the Plane,
You’d Better Know Where You’re Going to Land It


As I coach entrepreneurs and leading edge professionals to create their own highly profitable audio products, I’m struck by the fact that, unguided, they tend to make the same mistakes over and over.

And very few of them have to do with the microphone they select, or the software they use to record and edit.

Most of their mistakes have to do with basic marketing. Yup, we’ve now got iMacs and iTunes, MP3s and Podcasting. But if you wanna make money – and who doesn’t – you could be heading for disaster if you bypass Marketing 101.

It seems the Big Blunder many novice producers make is creating a product THEY love, but one their customers could care less about. They’re all excited about their newfound ability to record and distribute their audio at a fraction of what they thought it would cost them. They love how impressed their friends are with how professional they sound.

But they forget one thing.

Recording and distributing your audio assumes you have someone to DISTRIBUTE IT TO.

And many novice info product producers, caught up in the giddiness of their new low-cost computer recording studios, start madly cranking out products that are destined for failure.

Because either they are products nobody wants, or they’re trying to dump a decent product on an underdeveloped distribution channel.

Trying to sell 100 CDs to a mailing list of 65 is a recipe for disaster.

Its like taking off in a plane without knowing where you’re going to set it down. You could be in for a very hard landing.

To take this aviation analogy one-step further, I was intrigued by a recent business report that spoke of the resurgence of Boeing Corporation. Seems Boeing had tried something shocking and audacious.

They had beaten their major competitor, Airbus, to market by offering something their customers wanted very badly: a mid-size jet with a longer range than what’s out there now.

Imagine that: looking at what your customers want before dashing madly off to create it.

Their 787 Dreamliners are selling like hotcakes. And it has nothing to do with how ‘neat’ the technology is, or ‘how much fun’ they’re going to have cranking them out. It has to do with the fact Boeing had the foresight to create something their customers actually wanted, and to ensure it would be worth their while financially before they spent a penny producing them.

Which is a wise course of action for your audio as well.

Sure, you can be blinded by all the fancy new audio possibilities out there. And sure, some of them may make you rich. But in the long run, their success will depend less on glitzy new gadgets and more on good old fashioned business fundamentals.

Make sure the products you create satisfy an urgent desire of your market.

I don’t care how impressed you are by what you’re creating.

If there aren’t a ton of folks out there who are just as impressed as you are . . . impressed enough to buy . . . it doesn’t mean a darn thing.