r/thinkbeforeubuild

I see these posts on Reddit so many times, and it hits me because I was in this position as well, so I decided to write an easy guide to myself on what I think I should have done 2 years ago in this situation. Maybe somebody can find some useful info here.

Target audience – Start by being active in places where your target audience hangs out. Write posts, chat with people, and comment. If possible, try to build your own community.

Test the idea with real people – Pick 10-50 people that you chat with or know are your target audience and message them with a small question form to really understand if they struggle with the problem you’re trying to solve and how they solve these issues now.

Build an email list – Create a PDF guide with valuable information to start growing an email list (the sooner, the better; these are leads that you own !!!)

Ads – On the platform where you spend time with your target audience, start running your first ads, especially for the PDF guide to collect emails or bring people directly to the landing page. Start with a small amount like $5-7 per day (long term is the most important), and if it works increase the budget.

Email marketing – Start writing valuable content and sending emails to your list about topics that your business idea focuses on and that your target audience is interested in.

Get reviews – Offer your service to 5-10 people free of charge in exchange for reviews.

Do it again. Repeat and repeat. When your marketing funnel starts working and you feel confident about what you're doing, you can add more information about your product and start presenting more of what you'd like to sell. Also, increase the amount you're spending on ads and focus the ads not just on bringing people to the page, but on bringing them to the right place for sales purposes.

I think the whole point of marketing these days is to build relationships and trust. So it can really take 1-2 months to get your first sales, but creating a marketing funnel that works is something that pays off very well, especially in the future.

That’s why I think it’s better to build the marketing funnel together with the product, because sometimes you can spend 6 months building the product and then try to figure out how to bring people to the website.

PS: Never give up.

Speak soon,
Jan

Hey guys,

I’d like to share something.

I feel like this is a topic we don’t talk about enough, and maybe it’s actually one of the most important parts of business. Target audience.

It recently crossed my mind, how much time do I actually spend working on my target audience compared to building the product?

Let me tell you a quick story.

There are two people. One is allergic to shrimp, and the other one loves shrimp.

They’re both in different places, but the fisherman doesn’t care where they are. Instead, he spends all his time trying to catch the best shrimp.

But he always drives to the same place, where the person with the shrimp allergy is.

It doesn’t matter how good the shrimp are. The person is allergic to shrimp!

I promised myself that I have to spend more time working on my target audience, so I wrote down the top 5 questions to define a target audience:

1. What problem do they have?
2. What do they want to achieve?
3. Where do they spend their time?
4. How old are they, and where do they live?
5. What have they already tried to solve the problem?

Are these the 5 right questions????

Also, imagine that I’m totally new to business (maybe that’s not too hard to imagine) and give me your best advice on how to define a target audience.

Maybe there’s a great app, program, template, or process that you use to create yours?

Thanks for the advice!

Speak soon,

Jan

Hey guys,

I’d like to share something.

When I started my first businesses, I didn’t know anything about marketing. Maybe you feel the same, so don’t worry.

I was so excited to get an idea and build the product, website, and logo. But after I finished, I always asked myself the same questions.

Okay... what now? How am I supposed to bring people to my website?

I created Instagram and Facebook accounts, posted two random posts, and then was surprised that nobody was interested. I felt like I just wasn’t as lucky as other people who somehow went viral.

I’ve tried many different things and read a lot of books about marketing (I can recommend some of them if you’re interested).

And it took me at least two years to finally find something that works for me. I’m still at the beginning of my marketing journey, but I’d like to share it with other people anyway. Maybe it can help.

Two things that really helped me. First, I asked myself what I like to create. I like writing and reading. Then I chose one main platform where I’m the most active. Not just posting, but also commenting, talking to people, and building relationships with my target audience.

This is what my marketing funnel currently looks like:

1. Free PDF guide I created a step-by-step guide showing exactly how I tested my business idea. I use it to generate email leads that I own.
2. One big post every two weeks Every two weeks, I write one bigger post about a topic my target audience is interested in. I use the same post for my blog, LinkedIn newsletter, and email marketing.
3. Reddit posts I post 2–3 times per week in my own Reddit community. Starting your own Reddit community is also an amazing thing to do.
4. Building relationships on Reddit Reddit is my main platform, so I also comment on other posts, participate in other communities, and chat with people. And I enjoy it because it’s a topic I’m interested in, so it feels natural.
5. Reddit ads I currently spend around $10 per day on Reddit ads for my marketing PDF guide..

This is what works for me right now.

I feel like marketing is about finding what works for you, making a simple plan, and doing it consistently. Again and again.

I’m currently getting around 50 website visitors per day. Nothing crazy yet, but it’s going in the right direction.

Right now, I’m mostly focused on building the marketing funnel. I don’t care as much about constantly improving the product or website.

My focus is build the brand, do the marketing, and give away as much valuable information as I can for free.

I’m curious, what does your marketing funnel look like?

Thanks for reading and sharing! 

Speak soon,
Jan

Hey guys,

I’d like to share something.

Today, while I was waiting for my girlfriend to finally choose a croissant in a coffee shop, I read an interesting article about how people are starting to use AI chatbots for search instead of Google, and how more and more website traffic could come from AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, etc.

I never really thought about it, but I already do the same. For example, I asked ChatGPT this morning: Find the 5 best digital marketing companies in Canada.

I feel like this could bring a pretty big change to how people discover businesses. And not just online businesses, but retail stores, restaurants, services, and almost everything else.

I think the biggest change could be in B2B. Entrepreneurs and companies will increasingly use AI to find other businesses, suppliers, agencies, software, and services. I think this could be huge.

I didn’t pay much attention to it before, but I recently noticed something new in my Wix Studio traffic report: traffic from AI.

Right now, it’s still very small compared to Google. The data from the article showed:

Google → 28.12% of total web traffic
AI chatbots → 0.28% of total web traffic

So yes, the difference is still massive.

But I feel like this is definitely something worth paying attention to.

As founders, how do you see this change? And is there anything we should already be doing to get an early advantage?

Looking back, what’s one decision you overthought that ended up not mattering much?

Or the opposite, something you barely thought about that turned out to be really important.

Curious where founders actually end up wasting the most time.

EDIT: why would I not pay you lol I need to pay you to prove the loop works. Think for 1 second pls (and give actual feedback not ragebait)

Problem: Ideas are cheap but finding real starting signals is hard. People waste months building something no one wants & will pay for.

Why this problem: If you're already on the sub you don't need me to tell you the above or how many times you've seen ppl struggle at an idea with no validation, building too fast / much before talking to customers, wasting their runway instead of doing the actual hard yards of validation at the start.

The solution: I (and others) will literally pay you to give feedback on an idea. Caveat being you have to be somewhat qualified to answer the specific idea but keening that open for interpretation for now.

The ICP: Pre-launch, pre waitlist, pre Product Hunt and DEFINITELY pre product.

I'm going to test this idea with this idea. So if you have any thoughts on the above, write some real feedback (not just I would / not use it, willingness to pay, how are you currently solving this problem), message me with a line or two about your experience in this problem space.

All payments via Stripe

Hey guys,

Creating this community was a fantastic decision. We now have almost 800 members!

As a thank you, I’d love to use this post as an opportunity for everyone to share what they’re working on.

What are you building?

Include your website if you have one:)

• What problem are you solving
• What do you need help with

It doesn’t matter whether you only have an idea or already have customers.

Share your project below. Someone in this community might give you helpful feedback, answer your question, or even become your first customer.

I’ll start in the comments!

My first paying customer was actually my competitor.

I had a solution for a problem that they were really struggling with, so they became my customer.

To be honest, I kept in touch with them for a long time. I was active in their community, subscribed to their newsletter, listened to their podcast, etc.

It’s something similar to what Russell Brunson talks about in his books about the Dream 100.

What about you? How did you get your first paying customer?

PS: If you haven’t gotten one yet, keep going. It’s coming!

Speak soon,

Jan

I finally reached my target number of email leads, and I’m getting ready to send my very first email and start my email marketing (yessss!)

My audience is early-stage entrepreneurs who are interested in validating business ideas, finding their first customers, and getting feedback on their projects.

I don’t want to sell them anything.

My main goal is to build trust, make a good first impression, and maybe start a conversation about business.

If you were one of my subscribers, what kind of first email would get your attention and leave a great first impression?

Right now, I have a few ideas:

• A thank you email about reaching this milestone and the story of how I got here.
• An introduction to my project, what Think Before You Build is about, and what subscribers can expect in the future.
• A newsletter style email with a useful lesson or story, similar to the blog posts I publish.

Do any of these ideas make sense? Or is there another type of first email that you think would make a better first impression?

If you're curious and want the bigger picture, my project is called Think Before You Build.

Thank you so much!

Speak soon,

Jan