Launching and marketing a new product is not an easy feat. In fact, even the most seasoned marketers and business owners often get the jitters just thinking about it.
So, after putting in a lot of hard work and going over all the hurdles, is there a way to ensure a successful launch? Well, yes – there’s not just one, but rather several marketing strategies that you can use in promoting and marketing a new product. Here are some of them.
Marketing a New Product Tip #1: Do a pre-launch announcement
Contrary to what some people believe, you don’t need to launch a new product before marketing it. In fact, generating a buzz during the early stages can catch your potential audience’s attention and build hype around your latest product offering before you release it to the market. Do this correctly and you can be sure that you’ll be seeing sales from Day 1.
To accomplish this goal, you need to emulate how the big brands do it. Turn the announcement into an important event to get your audience ready for your newest offering. Give them an idea of what your new product has to offer and let them anticipate its release. Waiting has its own way of making a product look more desirable, so don’t be afraid to use it to your advantage.
Marketing a New Product Tip #2: Put the spotlight on your new product
When introducing a new product, highlight it on your homepage so people can readily see and buy it. Don’t make the mistake of burying your latest products deep in your website, or you’ll greatly reduce your chance of making a sale. So, go all out, put out all the bells and whistles without going overboard, and make sure it is the first thing your visitors see when they land on your site. Aside from featuring it on your homepage, customers should also be able to search for your latest product through your search filters.
Marketing a New Product Tip #3: Take pre-orders
After having made an early announcement, taking pre-orders can also help crush your growth goals. Who said you should wait until you have the stocks in your inventory before you start generating sales? You don’t have to! It’s perfectly fine to offer pre-orders. In fact, you’ll be on the winning end if you do.
Why should you consider this strategy when marketing a new product?
- Taking pre-orders allows you to generate sales and rake in profits even before your products are released in the market.
- It reduces the slow introduction phase most products go through.
- It gives your customers a sense of exclusivity, since they will have the product ahead of anyone else.
- It creates a sense of urgency to buy, since your customers may think that the product will sell out on the release date.
- It can give you an idea of the initial volume that you need for the initial release and help maximize your ROI.
Marketing a New Product Tip #4: Offer discounts
Instead of offering discounts on older products, why not consider temporarily marking down the price of your newest products? This may sound odd to most business owners, but offering discounts on your latest additions can actually work in your favor.
Let’s face it: Your customers are an intelligent lot. They know that your products will eventually go on sale, so many of them would rather wait for that day to make a purchase. However, some might lose interest or totally forget about your product along the way, which spells lost opportunity, right? Would you rather take that risk or offer a nice discount while they are still interested in your product to seal the deal? You decide.
Marketing a New Product Tip #5: Run a contest
If you want to generate more exposure, stimulate interest, and secure more sales for your product, consider giving it away. Yes, you read it right – give it away. While this may seem like a questionable strategy for some, it can actually give you an great competitive advantage, especially when you’re introducing a new product.
By running a promotional giveaway on popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you can score big without spending much.
According to a 2019 survey conducted by Easypromos, social media giveaways can increase social media following, increase brand visibility, and encourage user engagement. Additionally, this strategy can help foster customer loyalty, showcase a product or service, acquire additional leads, and drive web traffic.
With all these benefits, you may be wondering about the cost of running one, right? As mentioned earlier, you are not required to spend much – just the cost of the item you are giving away (in this case, the product you are promoting) and the cost of shipping it to the winner(s).
Marketing a New Product Tip #6: Feature it on gift guides
Most people love gift guides. Perhaps you do, too. After all, they come in quite handy when you’re looking for gift ideas for people you care about. Considering their popularity, including your product in relevant gift guides can expose it to thousands of people who are most likely to buy it. Imagine what it can do to your bottom line!
To obtain impressive results, look for websites and blogs featuring gift guides in your niche. Identify those with active readership and ask the owner if they can include your product on their list. Personalize your pitch if you want them to take your request seriously and follow up if they don’t get back to you within a week.
However, if you want to take it up a notch, consider setting up your own gift guide. You can do this by creating an entirely separate page in your website for your products or by publishing a blog post (or a series of blog posts) featuring your collections.
Marketing a New Product Tip #7: Use the power of emails
All things considered, email marketing is an extremely effective marketing tool. It works equally great for acquiring new customers and for keeping your most loyal ones engaged. However, while you shouldn’t ignore the benefits of expanding your customer base, homing in on your existing customers who have signed up to your list will provide more reliable results when using this strategy.
Why? Selling to your current customers is easier, since they are already familiar with your brand and are eager to hear about your latest products. In fact, studies indicate that there is a 60% to 70% chance of selling to a current customer, whereas you can only expect a 5% to 20% chance of selling to a new lead.
Moreover, research shows that acquiring a new customer is about six to seven times more expensive than marketing to current customers and that retaining as little as 5% of your current customers can make a huge impact on your profits. We’re talking about a 25% to 95% increase in profits here, so nurturing your list really makes a lot of sense.
Here’s another reason why you need to consider using emails when marketing a new product: Unlike other marketing channels, it doesn’t take time to produce the desired outcome. You can get immediate results and start generating sales right away.
Marketing a New Product Tip #8: Make Facebook your ally
With its extensive user base, Facebook is one of the best places for promoting and marketing a new product. Basically, there are two features that can help you accomplish the things you want to achieve – the Custom Audiences feature and the Facebook Shop feature.
Through the Custom Audiences feature, you can run hyper-targeted ads to reach your ideal customers across multiple channels. As you probably know, the more relevant your ads are, the higher your chances of securing the desired action from your audience.
Creating a Shop section on your Facebook business page also serves as an effective marketing strategy when promoting a new product for a number of reasons.
For one, it provides a venue where your fans can learn about your newest additions and discover their features and their benefits. Sounds good? Well, it gets better. Facebook Shop also allows your target customers to make an easy purchase! Moreover, Facebook Shop works seamlessly with Shopify stores so you can add it as a sales channel to further improve your profits.
Marketing a New Product Tip #9: Use Instagram
Your social media marketing efforts shouldn’t revolve exclusively around Facebook. While it brings positive results, using other platforms can also be a viable marketing strategy for a new product.
Why should Instagram be on your list? Here are some reasons why you shouldn’t ignore this platform:
- It has more than 400 million active daily users. Getting more eyes to your product increases the possibility of making a sale.
- Instagram Stories are easy to create. It literally takes just minutes and a little creativity to create an interesting post. Instagram even provides users with a treasure trove of tools (e.g., drawing tools, stickers, filters, etc.) to make this task easier.
- You can use it to improve your bottom line. Aside from giving you the freedom to add a link to your posts and advertise your product, Instagram also offers a shopping feature that allows interested buyers to make a purchase directly from the platform.
Additional tip: If you want to further extend your reach, consider using hashtags and geo-tagging your IG stories.
Marketing a New Product Tip #10: Promote with videos
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but video definitely trumps it! By sharing a video of your new product, you can provide all the information your customers need – including all the features and benefits they can expect from using it.
If there is one single best tool that can help you convince your ideal customers why they need to buy your product, this would be it. In fact, an overwhelming majority of consumers (about 90%) say that watching product videos help them make a buying decision, while 64% say they are more inclined to make an online purchase after watching a video about a particular product.
Many people don’t like to read and would rather watch a video instead, so give them what they want. Create high-quality videos showcasing your product and share them on your website. You can also extend your reach by sharing them on video-sharing sites like YouTube, posting them on different social media platforms, and including them in your marketing emails.
Marketing a New Product Tip #11: Write blogs
If you’re looking for an effective marketing strategy for a new product, don’t forget to add blogging to your list. Blog about your latest product on the days prior to its release (and even afterward) to promote it to your audience and generate new leads.
Despite the fact that your audience may think that you’re biased towards your own products, never hesitate to blog about your offering since it can help your business in more ways than you can imagine. Numerous studies indicate that consistent blogging can drive more traffic to your site, attract leads and generate new customers, and help you gain favorable attention from the media and other authority figures in your industry. Blogging can be an extremely powerful force in marketing a new product, so put it on your to-do list.
Aside from writing in your own blog, consider writing guest posts for other websites to magnify your results.
Marketing a New Product Tip #12: Reach out to bloggers and other influencers
Blogging is an extremely effective marketing and promotional tool, but how can you get the results you want if you don’t already have an audience? This can be a problem if you have a relatively new blog, but don’t be discouraged, since there is a way to solve the problem: Try blogger outreach.
Blogger outreach, or influencer marketing, is the process of reaching out and establishing a relationship with respected, well-established bloggers and influencers in your niche whose audience is similar to your target customers. Since people generally trust the recommendations of someone they know, getting a referral from these authority figures can create a huge impact on your bottom line.
Without a doubt, blogger outreach is an exceptionally effective marketing and promotional strategy. It can help build your brand and improve its visibility, connect you with your ideal audience, drive qualified traffic to your site, and improve your site’s SEO, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t implement this marketing strategy for promoting a new product.
Need help promoting and marketing a new product? We’re here to help you achieve the results that you’ve been dreaming of. Contact SevenAtoms today and let us help you crush your growth goals.
