Well, not yet for me.
Tried doing cold emails for a B2B cybersecurity biz, and also for a B2B web development business.
We'd scrounge up some emails, load them to an email bulk-sending platform and send them out...some unsubscribed, some reported us for spam, some stayed. Depending on your service and the strength of your sales writing, you could be sending out at least 20 - 50 emails per week/month before anyone really writes back or calls for a sale.
Put it in your bio that you're making six figures, and remind everyone why they're not making six figures whilst they're still in school
So it's an All-in-One platform, yes? Lead Gen and email marketing?
It sounds good, I think HubSpot and Mailchimp have mutated into all-in-one platforms.
First, you're going to have to ask whether you have the resource and talent capability to do all this. What I mean is all those things in isolation require a specialized skillset.
Lead gen is not easy, you'd have to know a lot about crafting sales copy, eBooks and media buying. Clients will want some guarantee your product can generate QUALITY leads and not some random leads to fill up a quota. Agencies usually charge thousands to craft content and give clients good leads. How will your SaaS incorporate this in its pricing?
Integrating a lead-gen component with an email capability also sounds complex. Your email component would have to match the speed and flexibility of sites like Mailchimp, HubSpot...pretty quickly.
Without it being a SaaS, why not just focus on being a hands-on lead-gen business first? See if you can generate quality leads for clients. Afterwards, get into email marketing. This way, you'll learn / master the ins and outs, what works, what doesn't.
If you're able to scale, you can then decide whether to go down the SaaS route or just be a hands-on service provider with deep marketing tech. My point is, take small steps first and give yourself room to choose the best 'big' play later.
If you want really fast results at a price point of your choosing then the only way to go is through paid ads. You can copy an ecomm template, put in $50 in FB or Google ads and see how many leads you generate. If results are satisfactory, then it's up to you to know more about that. At least you'll know what direction to go in.
You can do SEO, cold calling, word of mouth, but it will take waaaay longer to see results.
From what I've learned, what people mean by testing the market is to create a landing page / prototype to address the business pain point of their target profile or audience.
You'd need some capital for this and a threshold to determine if what you're building is worth continuing or not e.g. Using $X amount of dollars, we expect 20 sales/leads from our ad campaign. Or use other low-cost methods like cold calling / email marketing. What matters is that some kind of threshold between success / failure or 'pivot' is established.
But in the midst of doing this you'd need to develop your marketing skill-ability or hire an agency. But I advise to develop your own sales competency as this will forever be the most vital cog in any business.
For good marketing research, I had to read and watch the best sales and copywriting books / videos to pick templates (they are many of them) that now work in my favour. And I'll tell you this, great marketing research is time consuming and boring, but the rewards are always worth it.
I went to a good private school and have a Bachelor's degree, and as a result, I've been able to create a platform for employment and a safety net from severe poverty. So school essentially helps you build cushions for when and if you want to take yourself to the level of business owner.
Will academic achievement alone help someone achieve entrepreneurial success? No. Not in isolation. I've read a lot of sales and marketing books since college, and to put it simply, there are people skills and aspects of human psychology that academia cannot teach or would be inappropriate to teach.
If you'd want to close the wealth and entrepreneurial gap and not be employed forever, you should read and experience what it's like to sell something at a young age. This will help in determining what environment you'd require to succeed (as to talent and resources).
Looks like you did it right. Most people launch then validate after, typically a recipe for disaster.
Validation is also the most time consuming part of building a biz and it's where people tend to fall off. You're spot on though. address the pain point for direction but throw in some patience for longevity.
Right. That's what I was nudging you towards.
It will work because no one will refuse an offer that grows their business, only question is...will your system work? Have you ever spent more than $500 to generate leads for yourself? The nature of the business also typically needs 2 or more people, or you'll burn yourself out fast. Anyway, best wishes and good luck.