Muhammad Baig | 15 April 2020 | 6 min read
I developed a method for identifying which brands we should target in order to attract and retain initial users—for our marketplace mobile app.
Ibriiz is a demand-sided marketplace, and creating demand is the key to long-term success. As we create more demand, we'll be able to bring more, and better, deals to the app. However, in the short-term, it's critical to pay attention to what made the biggest marketplace companies successful, like Amazon and eBay. They focused on the supply side first, even though the branding and products were low quality. This early supply is what drove early demand. This made it clear to me that we needed to pursue the supply-side first. However, my process of identifying brands (supply-side) and influencers (demand-side) was based purely on assumptions. I needed a data-backed process. Enter Sparktoro.
In March 2018, before Ibriiz was even an idea, I subscribed for early access to SparkToro, an audience intelligence tool**.**
Two years later, long after forgetting that I signed up, I received my invite.
By the time I gained access, I had a specific need for it. I created numerous opportunities and generated momentum that led to this outcome. It might have seemed a small or even inconsequential effort when I signed up, but as the saying goes: success is the sum of many small efforts.
(FYI, I paid for my subscription.)
I began by creating an initial list of brands I assumed, based on various factors, that we wanted to target for partnerships. For each brand on my list, I ran four different searches to identify the influencers followed by our target audience, the consumers who would buy the products of brands that we wanted to partner with.