How can you know the habits, likes and dislikes of your customer?

Hey Slava! I actually have a ton of experience with this. For the last year myself and my partners have built out Rocketlaunch (www.rocketlaunch.co) to a growth agency focused on marketing and sales for Startups. We work on core items internally and outsource when possible. My caveat on outsourcing would be to ensure the work is good. We have worked with outsourcers in the Phillipines and Colombia and had some great successes. We have also had issues where we have passed work across to a client where we didn't do enough QA and it was poor quality. If you can find partners that deliver good work, consistently, nurture them and reward them as much as possible. We have been working with an agency in Colombia to great success, but we've also cycled through a few that didn't work out. QA is king, and if you can ensure the work is quality, reselling can be highly profitable (just ask any retailer). Feel free to PM me if you want to have a more direct conversation!

Khuram's reference to what I call the "gap technique" is spot on. Few people will rate something 10/10 or A+. This gives you the opportunity to ask them how to achieve that highest rating. Once you do that: "Shut up and listen!" :) -- One of the worst mistakes is to get a participant talking (and many people talk way too much) but then to cut them off even though they're giving you substantive information (obviously, if it's drivel, then you do want to move on). You also have to assess those you survey: some are founts of information and insight while others have nothing to say. All are not created equal, as it were. In all surveys, whether in person or on-line, I recommend open-ended (i.e., unprompted) questions (where possible) followed by close-ended (i.e., prompted answers) questions. In other words: What is your favorite brand of cookie (with no list specified)? Perhaps they say Oreos. Later on, after they've forgotten that, you have a list: Which is your favorite cookie brand: a) Little Debbie; b) Mrs. Fields; c) Oreo; d) Duncan Hines? Now if those two don't match up, how valuable are these answers? So that gives you the ability to test for validity. Once you present the prompted answers, you've poisoned the well, which is why they have to come later. Hope this helps and should you have any questions, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss with you. Best, Steve

The suggestion by James is great. Here is another good option that you can look into: http://www.amazon.com/Guerilla-Marketing-Inexpensive-Strategies-Business/dp/0618785914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383588504&sr=8-1&keywords=guerilla+marketing Great foundation for the basics of marketing.

I've worked in digital marketing since 1997, led business operations at two digital marketing agencies, and advise digital agency owners on improving the business side of their agencies. Agencies tend to use some version of the standard consulting phases: Discovery, Analysis, Recommendations, and Implementation. Some agencies like to give them cutesy, proprietary-sounding names. In my experience, I'm not sure that really fools anyone. You also want to convey that you understand their problem. When I evaluate proposals by agencies, the biggest problem is talking about the agency and not the client. Focus on how they'll benefit (including likely metrics and potential results), not what you'll do. Milestones and deliverables will depend on the nature of the project. If it's implementation work, you might list typical deliverables (e.g., landing pages, nurture campaigns, or eBooks). If it's strategy work, your deliverables will be the research, analysis, and meetings you do to make recommendations. Beware of getting too specific about granular deliverables -- you don't want to prescribe a solution before you [get paid to] diagnose the problem. Which leads to your second point -- don't give them the plan/strategy you have in mind until they pay for your help. Don't treat your strategy advice like the free coathangers at the drycleaner (so value-less that they're thrown in with your cleaned shirt). Many prospects won't like this. I think you should refuse to do business with them. When agencies deliver spec work (a la 1960s ad agency pitches from "Mad Men"), they're making it harder for everyone else (and themselves), by showing prospects and clients that strategy has so little value, you're willing to give it away. What can you do instead? Position yourself as an expert as solving their problems in their industry niche. (If you call yourself a "full service agency," you're already doing it wrong.) People hire specialists. If you need heart surgery, would you hire the surgeon who does general heart surgery or who's done your specific procedure 500 times? I know I'd pick the specialist-specialist! Instead of sharing specific recommendations, use case studies of how you've solved similar problems for similar clients before. And if you don't have similar clients yet, use the closest analogy you can. You've got to start somewhere. And it's a reminder about doing the same type of work over and over again, rather than jumping around to a million types of projects. Ultimately, don't over-invest in the proposal process. Once it becomes clear someone isn't a good match, gracefully bow out and invest your energies in working with clients who value your expertise by paying for it. Good luck on your proposals! I'm glad to do a call to answer any followup questions.

If your objective is to get a product funded, then getting on the news isn't necessarily the best route as this is a very broad approach vs targeted. Am assuming that whoever will invest in your product, will need to have a bit of understanding about what it offers photographers? From an editorial perspective, bloggers and journalists will write about something if it is genuinely newsworthy. Would need to know more about the product and how it would/could innovate to tell you if I think it is. Would always say, that a more targeted approach is best. One thing I have done many times is research into a specific niche (e.g. photographers) then create an influencer list from that to then target with a story/product etc. Would look for those that may have written about similar products. A modern PR agency should be able to do this for you and have skills in this area. Another route, beyond the photography blogs and specialist media etc. is to use things like social media advertising, targeting those that have an interest in photography. This is more guaranteed in a sense, and you could manage how much money you put into it and what the target cost per click is. Budget would play a factor, but social media ad platforms can provide a very targeted way to reach people and deliver highly favourable CPC rates, and as a result great ROI. Would compliment this with community outreach, targeting photography forums by approaching moderators and asking them what they thought of the product and how happy they wold be to post, or allow you to post to the community. For something like this, would say the best way is a combination of various tactics just one approach. You need people talking about it to create that groundswell, but you also need a guarantee in terms of traffic. Would be hard to guide anymore without a more in-depth understanding of the product and its benefits. Hope this is helpful, let me know if you'd like to chat more.