Casual market research on Discord and idea/sales pitching on Omegle

[Aard]

I've been practicing casual market research and idea/sales pitching by engaging with random people on Omegle and Discord.
For Discord I basically just pick the most mainstream and busiest server with the demographic I want to target and start cold messaging them (privately) about specific issues they may have encountered lately. No one told me to F*ck off so far, response rates are quite high (around 30% I'd say). For me this was an exceptional way to start learning how to properly frame questions in order to uproot the most insights out of an answer, and adjust in real time with a virtually unlimited supply of people at reach.
I also tried to practice market research on Omegle, but this didn't yield results as good as on Discord. I think this is due to the nature of the conversation being held: on Discord there is no hurry, you can keep tabs on people and reply to them later (that happened often), which is not the case with Omegle. So for that website I mostly focused on idea and sales pitching, which turned out to be much more appropriate. The main reason being that Omegle is real life at a smaller scale to some extent :

• people have their agenda (horny dudes) and don't give two shits about you : they can hit "Exit" and never see you again in a matter of milliseconds
• therefore, it sets the bar high for you to retain their attention in the best way possible: that's how I shortened my pitch from 10 lines to 4 lines of text to make it much more efficient (the goal being to lower the instant disconnection rate as much as possible)
• anonymity makes people bluntly honest: they either disconnect, tell you to F*ck off or reply "no", on which they can elaborate if you ask them
• if they elaborate, they will freely speak their mind and simply give you their feedback, which is awesome:
  • it helps tackling any blindspot in your strategy that was obvious for anyone else
  • sometimes, they deliver their answer in such an interesting manner that it forces you to reconsider what you're doing with your idea
  • however, it can impede the creative process because people tend to be shortsighted and just tell you "yeah it's cool", so don't entirely rely on it if you firmly believe in your idea; it's all about balance

So far, harnessing the power of conversation through these platforms helped me a great deal (and for free!). If you think about it, the possibilities are endless and it voids all excuses to not start anything (even something dumb) more than ever.
Any thoughts on this ? Has anyone else tried it before ?

Edit: typo

 

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[Canadoz]

What idea are you trying to research?

 

[Aard]

What idea are you trying to research?

Entertainment website ideas, SaaS for common pain points people encounter, taking an existing idea everyone knows about and having people criticize it, etc.

 

[Knugs]

I've been practicing casual market research and idea/sales pitching by engaging with random people on Omegle and Discord.
For Discord I basically just pick the most mainstream and busiest server with the demographic I want to target and start cold messaging them (privately) about specific issues they may have encountered lately. No one told me to F*ck off so far, response rates are quite high (around 30% I'd say). For me this was an exceptional way to start learning how to properly frame questions in order to uproot the most insights out of an answer, and adjust in real time with a virtually unlimited supply of people at reach.
I also tried to practice market research on Omegle, but this didn't yield results as good as on Discord. I think this is due to the nature of the conversation being held: on Discord there is no hurry, you can keep tabs on people and reply to them later (that happened often), which is not the case with Omegle. So for that website I mostly focused on idea and sales pitching, which turned out to be much more appropriate. The main reason being that Omegle is real life at a smaller scale to some extent :

• people have their agenda (horny dudes) and don't give two shits about you : they can hit "Exit" and never see you again in a matter of milliseconds
• therefore, it sets the bar high for you to retain their attention in the best way possible: that's how I shortened my pitch from 10 lines to 4 lines of text to make it much more efficient (the goal being to lower the instant disconnection rate as much as possible)
• anonymity makes people bluntly honest: they either disconnect, tell you to F*ck off or reply "no", on which they can elaborate if you ask them
• if they elaborate, they will freely speak their mind and simply give you their feedback, which is awesome:
  • it helps tackling any blindspot in your strategy that was obvious for anyone else
  • sometimes, they deliver their answer in such an interesting manner that it forces you to reconsider what you're doing with your idea
  • however, it can impede the creative process because people tend to be shortsighted and just tell you "yeah it's cool", so don't entirely rely on it if you firmly believe in your idea; it's all about balance

So far, harnessing the power of conversation through these platforms helped me a great deal (and for free!). If you think about it, the possibilities are endless and it voids all excuses to not start anything (even something dumb) more than ever.
Any thoughts on this ? Has anyone else tried it before ?

Edit: typo

I really like your approach because you are validating your concept/idea by engaging directly with the customers. At the same time you are validating and improving your sales approach. Instead, far too many entrepreneurs start building their product/service first and then try to sell something that has actually no demand.

I'm just imagining how fun sales would be on discord and teamspeak. You never know what awaits you when you enter a group. Hopping from anime role play servers to hacker groups, gamers, gurus, fanatics, ISIS etcetc. You never know.

 

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[Canadoz]

I really like your approach because you are validating your concept/idea by engaging directly with the customers. At the same time you are validating and improving your sales approach. Instead, far too many entrepreneurs start building their product/service first and then try to sell something that has actually no demand.

I'm just imagining how fun sales would be on discord and teamspeak. You never know what awaits you when you enter a group. Hopping from anime role play servers to hacker groups, gamers, gurus, fanatics, ISIS etcetc. You never know.

One could argue its one of the purest approaches...It is my belief you're not going to get honest answers in a contrived atmosphere such as a small conference room in a Hilton Hotel. People lie to market researchers because they want to look good in front of the interviewer or they want to (consciously or subconsciously) please them.

One of the most laser-like targeted political campaigns in recent history was that of the Pro-Brexit campaign in the UK. The chief architect of this campaign, Dominic Cummings, actually visited lots of pubs across the UK interviewing people informally about their feeling about the European Union. He collated all answers, and used the information to craft highly targeted messages. These were used in print, TV, radio campaigns but also social media. His campaign won. It pays to speak to ordinary people in ordinary environments. You will find out exactly what they are thinking.

Trailer from the excellent film. The film perfectly depicts how unconventional market research actually works.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5S1EMmCWAE