With any new product, building brand awareness is key. But when your new product is something the world has never seen before, well, you need to do more than just make people aware, you have to educate them, too. As a DTC company, you might have a direct line to your consumers, but you still need to be able to show and teach them as much as possible, and then be there around the clock to answer their questions and hold their hand through the process. 

It sounds like a lot of work, but when the product is changing the game completely, you have to be ready to get your hands dirty. And that’s just what Matt Wall and I chat about today, who is the co-founder of Principle Faucets. Principle Faucets is a DTC brand that has created the first fully-integrated foot pedal system which not only saves water, but is more hygienic and improves faucet functionality. 

Matt dove into how he and his co-founders brought their foot-pedal faucet to the market, the amount of time it took to test and tweak to make it fit consumers needs, and then he goes into the process of what’s it’s been like to actually get it in front of people — a task made much harder when the pandemic caused them to shut down their mobile display unit. Here’s a sneak peak on what Wall had to say: it takes finding the right niche within the industry and then hyper-targeting your search and marketing terms toward that audience to be successful. Plus, Matt tells us how to market the environmental benefits of something like the Principle Faucet across all different geographies,who are experiencing various degrees of climate change. Enjoy this episode and use the code UPNEXT20 for 20% off on your order at Principle Faucets!

Main Takeaways:

• What’s Your Niche?: It’s easy to get lost in the deep sea of products that come up when they search a random keyword. You might see people finding your product or website, but the conversions won’t be what you want. By dialing in on keywords and long-tail search phrases, you can more easily target the people who are actually looking to buy your product and then get them to convert.
• Never Before Seen: When you think you have built a better mousetrap, you still need to do market research to see if consumers want what you have to offer. Bringing a brand new company into the world with a brand new product no one has ever seen before is a risk, and you have to do your research before you take the bet to go into a market with a product no one actually wants or needs.
• Ease Them In: If your product requires consumer education or a change in behavior, it’s wise to build in some tie back to what they are already familiar with. Asking a customer to do something completely new is scary, and will turn people off. It’s better to give them a way to do a gradual implementation into their daily lives.

For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.

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