“Early adopters” are the crème de la crème of customers, the “know-no-fears” types, as we call them here at StartupNation. These people crave goods and services that push the envelope, whether it’s some new tech device, the latest shoe style or a trip to a vacation destination that’s still unknown to the outside world at large. And they want to be the first to get them.
If you manage to land these influential customers and please them, you can kick your startup’s marketing and sales efforts into overdrive. That’s because early adopters tend to be very opinionated and outspoken, willing to spread positive word-of-mouth far and wide if they’re pleased and impressed – or, just as easily, to damn what they don’t like to anyone who will listen.
Here are some ways to engage and enthrall early adopters.
Go after the right kind of early adopters
Know-no-fear early adopters come in grades, at least as far as your business is concerned. You don’t just want people who eagerly glom on to the latest fashion statement or cell-phone feature – you’re after customers who seek out innovation and then effectively influence other people to want the same things they do.
Linkedin, for example, is a networking website for professionals and creative people that’s fueled by the interest and attention of early adopters – but not just any early adopters. The Palo Alto, Calif., company tries to be sure it entices particular kinds of know-no-fear customers whose presence will attract others, including venture capitalists, purchasing managers, and executive and managerial recruiters.
“We have made the site ‘introduction-only’ access to venture capitalists – they pick their own gatekeepers,” says Konstantin Guericke, co-founder of Linkedin. “People can find you by using our network, but they only get access to you through the same screening processes that venture capitalists use in ‘real’ life.”
Latch onto customers who accept a free trial
You definitely want experimentally minded customers to give your product or service a try. So create easy ways for them to do it – then quickly home in on those who take you up on it.
“It’s a good indicator of a future good customer,” says Bob Compton, founder and CEO of Vontoo.com, a Memphis-based startup that provides a “permission-based” voice-mail messaging system, mainly to business customers. “It’s a telltale sign that they’re interested in and willing to take action immediately – they don’t have to study the proposition much before they adopt it.”
Land organizations that have an early-adopter mentality
In the business-to-business arena, you may be frustrated by identifying early adopters within companies who enthusiastically embrace your products and services, only to see them engulfed by a corporate bureaucracy that doesn’t see things their way.
Instead, some entrepreneurs suggest, focus on companies that have integrated an early-adopter mentality across the board. Michael Aiken, for one, decided that meant targeting BMW – rather than, say GM – as a sponsor for an innovative live tour of pop and jazz musicians he was putting together in mid-2006. BMW already had proven itself as a marketing innovator with its online short films, while GM’s marketing was struggling across the board.
“BMW is always looking for the next great idea, whereas a company like GM is really entrenched,” says Aiken, founder and managing director of New York City-based Spring LLC. “You can go into a GM and there will always be a couple of people who get it, but moving GM as an organization is impossible.”
Find free courses, mentorship, networking and grants created just for small businesses.
Provide early adopters with a “backstage pass”
Know-no-fears prospects not only are thrilled by the fact that they discover a cool business before other people, but that their attention and opinions about the company are highly valued. One way to create that feeling for these customers is to make them members of some sort of insiders’ club that tells them – and everyone else – how important they are to your startup.
That’s what Vyatta Inc. did as founders tried to create interest in its networking products. These were based on an “open-source” model similar to what Linux did with operating software, with which public users help shape the product on an ongoing basis.
The San Mateo, Calif., company created what it called the Vyatta Secret Society as a way for hackers, users and developers in Silicon Valley to get together over a beer and discuss Vyatta’s technology and its progress. Then Vyatta created a mailing list for the Secret Society to keep it going and growing as an interest generator for its products.
“This effectively puts a face on the company that isn’t just a slick, polished marketing phase and presents some vulnerability that is appealing to early adopters,” says Dave Roberts, Vyatta’s vice president of strategy and marketing. “When the company is later successful, they want to be able to point back and say, ‘I knew these guys when they were just two people in a garage.’”
Give early adopters a financial incentive
If gaining the attention and loyalty of early adopters truly is important to giving your startup some altitude, consider luring them with cold, hard cash: It’s still the universal language and speaks to potential customers no matter what level of sophistication and enthusiasm they have!
SmileBox Inc. began offering $150 a month to what it calls “go-to moms” who are early adopters of the latest scrapbooking products and services, and have influence on their friends and acquaintances. These people “self-select” online and then the Redmond, Wash., “memory-making” innovator pays them the fee in exchange for generating a short monthly report about how they’ve spread the word about SmileBox to other moms at school, school sports events and in the supermarket.
“We went this route rather than compensate early adopters in a multi-level marketing arrangement that would only sound bad to their friends,” says founder and CEO Andrew Wright. “With our approach, it’s not a huge amount of money, but it does help you create some dedicated little evangelists out there for the brand.”
Everyone wants know-no-fears, early adopters to champion their products and services. If you work for their attention and loyalty, you will be rewarded.
