Business of Craft Season 7 Episode 2 John Li on Competitive Research and Data

WELCOME TO SEASON 7 OF BUSINESS OF CRAFT

Welcome to Business of Craft, a show designed to help entrepreneurs with fabric or fiber businesses become more successful. Our guests share best practices and teach effective marketing skills, that help crafty business owners learn to grow and scale. Let’s start crafting a better business together!

Today we have John Li, the startup and co- founder of PickFu.com who believes in the transformative power of consumer insights to drive business success. Recognizing that better insights lead to better decisions, John advocates for frequent and in-depth market research. With experience spanning from tech giants like Microsoft to bootstrapped startups, he’s witnessed the exponential benefits of well-executed market research and the pitfalls of ignoring consumer voices.

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[02:10] We should start a little bit with having you explain a little bit about PickFu. Tell me about your story and why were you inspired to start it?

[05:11] Can you give us examples of types of polls that maybe a craft retailer might utilize PickFu for?

[07:12] Who are the people that are answering those questions?

[08:41] How many responses do people get, typically?

[10:23] Let’s start with KPIs. Can you explain what that is, why it’s so important to have KPIs and collect data?

[11:23] Could you give us an example of how your tool could be effective when looking at your competitors and is that important?

[14:54] How do you break all that down to make sure that you’re comparing apples to apples?

[16:18] Is there something like an order of operations to consider?

[19:19] How does the information about your competitor really translate into an actionable marketing strategy? Can you give us an example of how you’ve seen taking that competitor data and really taking it to the next level in your marketing?

[22:03] You mentioned that your respondents are highly invested. They give you really great responses. How do you motivate them to do that?

[23:10] How long does it typically take for someone to get responses back?

[23:59] Tell us about your membership levels and how our listeners would sign up for it? What do you charge for it?

[26:59] Can you pose open-ended questions?

[32:01] What would you recommend as far as just kind of dip your toe in the water as far as using PickFu and the polling tools?

Additional Resources

Two PickFu poll examples: targeting consumers who are into crafts/sewing/crocheting. Each one cost $45 and took about 25 minutes to complete:

Comparing different images from Amazon (if you were selling quilting rulers)
Polling about their favorite hobbies and time spent