Cold calling or cold emailing?

[Kerwin]

The promoters of the gaming and sporting events run the live streams. Which means you will need to negotiate with the promoters of each live music event and probably the musicians themselves. Unlikely to be cheap.

Fair point. I'll just continue playing around with some basic web dev and if it doesn't work out I haven't lost anything.

 

[A.C Consultant]

Thank you. No I haven't done that yet but I can work towards that. I was going to offer a free trial and as a reward for testing they would get free access to the site for life. Honestly I'm not too sure how to go about finding willing testers.

I would offer a free trial as a reward, portraying your potential service as valuable, like providing 12 months at half price. Psychologically, offering something for free indefinitely could be perceived as low-value, even if it’s only for those who have tested your service. To find potential testers, I recommend tapping into your wider circle of connections—those who know you but won’t hesitate to offer constructive criticism. For instance, family members or close colleagues might avoid giving feedback that could challenge your service, making acquaintances from networking events, with whom you've had meaningful interactions, better candidates for honest feedback.

 

[Kerwin]

I would offer a free trial as a reward, portraying your potential service as valuable, like providing 12 months at half price. Psychologically, offering something for free indefinitely could be perceived as low-value, even if it’s only for those who have tested your service. To find potential testers, I recommend tapping into your wider circle of connections—those who know you but won’t hesitate to offer constructive criticism. For instance, family members or close colleagues might avoid giving feedback that could challenge your service, making acquaintances from networking events, with whom you've had meaningful interactions, better candidates for honest feedback.

Thank you for the reply. I had considered something similar when my I actually had something to show of my product. At the moment it would be pointless as there is very little in terms of features. My main problem is coming up with a list of record labels and musicians I would like to invite to test out the platform. Luckily I have a cousin who is a musician and has been in the business for for more than a couple of decades so I might reach out to him for some expert advice.

 

[Office Mover]

You could try Facebook. Look for pages relating to what you are offering. You may have to join some FB 'groups'
To answer you question on emails/phone, I'd say use both. Also its getting more difficult to get phone numbers nowadays!

 

[A.C Consultant]

Thank you for the reply. I had considered something similar when my I actually had something to show of my product. At the moment it would be pointless as there is very little in terms of features. My main problem is coming up with a list of record labels and musicians I would like to invite to test out the platform. Luckily I have a cousin who is a musician and has been in the business for for more than a couple of decades so I might reach out to him for some expert advice.

Kerwin, thank you for sharing your insights. People don't buy features; they seek solutions that alleviate their pain points. Many business owners, excited about their ideas, believe they need a fully developed product from the start. This can lead to procrastination or, worse, wasting money, time, and effort on something that isn't marketable. In reality, having only 10-15% of your final product is sufficient to test the market. Leveraging your existing network is an excellent strategy. I also recommend identifying potential contacts on LinkedIn through common connections for introductions. Cold emails and calls often fall short due to a lack of trust and familiarity.

 

[Cymark]

I have been working on a business idea for a while but now I'm ready to find out which businesses are interested in it. The main question is which is more effective: email or phone? I guess I could do both but don't want to come across as spammy.

Also finding businesses is going to be hard because they tend to be micro-entities so don't immediately spring to mind.

What would you do?

As you're targeting companies, some of the restrictive GDPR regulations are avoided. The key element with both options - cold calls or cold emailing - is legitimate interest.
If you don't have that, you can't send a cold email. Bear in mind that legitimate interest could come from lots of sources : They are in an industry you have a product for, they have bought off you before, they joined your blog. Can you realistically stand up in a meeting and say 'I called / emailed you because . . . . ' if your just fishing then use google ad's.
That being said. Try to build up a legitimate interest subscriber list. Relevant trade directories, or call the company, get the persons name - "say you didn't want to pester, BUT you were just going to email them an update . . ."
Personally, I use the telephone (we do it for a living at Cymark) then make sure we keep the contacts we have updated via email. There is a pretty good chance they didn't want to buy what you are selling the second they picked the phone up to answer your call, but similarly they probably weren't buying when they opened your email.
Find out who they are, you can say in the email . . "I called, and just wanted to let you have the latest details . . . "
Buying lists is definitely a really bad option after the Feb 2024 Google / Yahoo enforcement of email marketing.

 

[fisicx]

@Cymark - You can send an email to a non-specific company email. Eg mail@ or info@. No gdpr restrictions on this.