Building a web app – 2 – Your Market

Earlier in the week I talked about goal setting when building a web app, now today I think its important to look at your target market. Who are you trying to sell this app to? Who is likely to use it? How much money is this group worth? Etc, etc.One of the biggest mistakes I hear about or read about regularly is “I am going to target XYZ industry, they don’t have anyone doing what I want to do. Everyone in this industry is my potential clientèle.” Basically if you re-read this statement a few times there are a couple points you can surmise: 1. No one else is interested in doing this for a reason (hint, find out WHY), 2. You are trying to please too many people.Ok, so lets look at the idea of targeting an entire industry. There is one flaw to that goal: how do you cater to everyone in an entire industry? Look at the marketing industry, there have to be a million people who work in this industry in the US alone. I think a better approach is to look at your market, and see who within that market you can serve. It’d be crazy to think one tool could serve every academic, investor, or marketing guy.So what am I trying to emphasize here? FOCUS. Either focus with your target market or your target features. Keeping your focus on features is another way to tackle this. If you keep them tight and concise, you’re bound to execute them better.Next up, marketing it.