I’m working with a guy who has an audience of about 3,000 members, and we just launched a mini-product: a FREE AI prompting guide for businesses interested in using AI to generate product images. The guide is short. It only took a week to make.
He has the audience, but honestly? He didn’t know much about them. He posts content and sees the metrics, but he’s never actually met any of them. He didn’t know what they’d want to buy. And the product he wanted to build might not even be what his audience wants. He had no way to know without testing.
So we ran a market test. And the results tell us a ton.
The numbers:
- Thread to Offer Page: ~2% clicked through to the guide’s landing page
- Landing Page to Download: ~30% downloaded and left their email
- After 4 days: 8 downloads
Small numbers, yes. But actually a huge accomplishment. Here’s why:
1. We validated the audience. That 2% conversion told us his audience doesn’t have a huge segment of people wanting to create product images using AI. But there are some. On the download page, he had them fill in their job roles, and all 8 are people explicitly interested in using AI in their business.
2. He finally has real numbers. He knows exactly what his traffic can produce. 8 downloads makes a low-cost follow-up offer pretty uninteresting at this volume, but pitching a high-value consulting offer to those specific 8 people? That could be a great next move.
3. He has warm leads for the first time. Before: 3,000 faceless followers. Now: 8 actual people who’ve told him they’re open to hearing about new products and services. And more are appearing every day. He can use these contacts for validation discussions and potentially as pro-bono reference customers.
4. He conquered the launch. He actually did it. There was the fear beforehand, the stuff that went wrong (his analytics tracking had issues), the worry that it would be a total bust. But it happened, he learned a ton, and he knows he can do it again fast.
The Aftermath
After the launch, he suddenly had dozens of ideas on where to go next. We set up an in-person meeting with a potential client, using the guide as an example of what he could deliver.
That conversation taught us something crucial: businesses don’t just want a new capability. They want results. Not “now you can make AI images” but “these images will improve your conversion rates.” So he’s planning to A/B test his AI-generated images with a real product in a friend’s store. If the results are good, he’ll build a sales deck around the business ROI.
He’s also reaching out to his downloaders to explore how he might work with them. And he wants to try running ads to reach a broader, more business-focused audience beyond his current followers. His current traffic isn’t going to flood him with customers, but the channel works and now he knows how to use it.
Why this matters
This launch didn’t go “that well” by traditional metrics. I’ve had launches get 80,000+ impressions in a week and result in 120+ conversions. This wasn’t that.
But it was still incredibly valuable.
When you’re working on a product, everything is a bunch of guesses and hypotheses. It’s all in your head, and that lack of data makes the situation scary.
But when you run a real test, suddenly you know where you stand. You feel more confident. You can plug real numbers into your business plan. You can see exactly what needs to improve.
It’s a skill, and you can learn it. It just takes some planning.
If this sounds exciting or interesting to you, let me know! I’m happy to brainstorm experiments like this we could run for your business.