Early Adopters: Discover how to identify the buyers most eager for innovation in order to capture them

Early adopters are the first consumers to buy a newly launch product. They like to be pioneers and are not afraid to take risks. For this reason, they represent a strategic audience for companies to promote a product on the market. In this article, you will discover how to approach these consumers in marketing and sales strategies.

Guest Author

Aug 19, 21 | 12 min read
What are early adopters and how to find them?
Reading time: 10 minutes
Are you the type of consumer who wants to be the first to try a new product or who prefers to wait for other people to approve the product before purchasing it?

If you identify with the first alternative, then you are one of the early adopters in the market!

Early adopters are not afraid to embrace new

things: as soon as a product is launch, they are the first to buy it .

On the other hand, other consumers, who seek greater security when purchasing, wait for the impressions of early adopters before betting on an innovation.

Do you realize how this type of consumer has a great power of influence? And that is why marketing and sales strategies must pay more attention to this public.

In this article, you will better understand:

What are early adopters?
Why is selling to early adopters different?
How to segment campaigns for these passionate consumers?
Join us to find out everything!

What are early adopters?
Early adopters are people who embrace an innovation from the start, being responsible for driving the success of a new product or service .

They are willing to try new things, even at norfolk island email list 100000 contact leads the risk of buying a product that has not yet been approv by the market and may not be fully develop.

However, the risk is worth it to be one of the privileg few who have access to innovation and can influence the decisions of other consumers.

This term arose from the studies of Everett Rogers, one of the most renown scholars in the field of innovation. Intrigu by the success of innovative products, the university professor want to understand the path they took to conquer the market.

This is how he launch the book “ The Diffusion of Innovation ” in 1962.

In this work, Rogers launches the theory of diffusion of innovations, according to which a new idea, a new product or a new behavior is consolidat in society after passing through different public segments.

So, early adopters would be those consumers who drive the adoption of the innovation, so that only later it creates roots in the social environment .

The model propos is summariz in this graph:

early adopters chart
This model divides social segments into five groups, bas on their size and the time it takes them to adopt an innovation.

They are:

innovators (inovators);
early adopters
early majority;
late majority;
laggards.
In the consumer market, it works like this: after the product is launch, only a small group of innovators know about it. These are usually specialists or technology enthusiasts who like to explore new things on the market. With them, innovation takes off slowly.

Thus, early adopters form a larger group of first consumers, even in an environment of uncertainty; in the end, very few people know if that product is really good, if it will work or if it has a fair price.

When it comes to innovation, the market often does not even understand what it is for and what nes it can solve . It is these people, therefore, who push for the launch of an innovative product to make it capable of transforming its status quo.

From there, other consumers feel more confident in adopting the innovation . Then, bas on the first impressions of the early adopters, the initial majority (or early majority) begins to acquire the product and thus begins to expand in the market.

The product then finally becomes establish in the market with the late majority. This segment does not like to take risks with new products, preferring to stay in their comfort zone, but they do not want to be left behind either.

So it takes a while for them to adopt innovation

but they end up giving up when they notice that they are becoming outdat.

Finally, a smaller group of latecomers is digital marketing trends 2023 the last segment to adopt innovation, which has already caus transformations in social habits. This group prefers the traditional solutions to which it is already accustom and is reluctant to buy new products.

Therefore, this only happens when you can no longer escape, because only that product can solve your ne.

Want an example to see how this happens by lists with a real product? Think of the iPhone, as Apple is known for its innovation power.