Successful brands put plenty of hard work into developing fresh product lines regularly. They do a lot of research, testing, and refining before putting new goods out on the market. As you might expect, the process to get the word out when you kickstart and launch a product isn’t as simple as just posting ads and placing one’s merchandise in stores. It involves creating a marketing campaign that can not only effectively reach and attract your intended audience, but also convert them into paying customers.
5 strategies to launch a product with real buzz
Whether your business is selling activewear, makeup, food, or even wholesale dog toys, you’ll need to find creative and engaging ways to stand out to customers in today’s competitive market. In fact, businesses often begin launching a product way before their release dates to familiarize potential customers with their brand as early as possible. By the time businesses officially start selling the product, these customers will become far more likely to actually buy their new merchandise.
If you’re a retail business owner thinking of launching a product — whether it be anything from branded shirts, hats, to pet supplies, or anything else under the sun, we’re here to give you practical marketing advice. Here are five things business owners can do to effectively promote their new product lines:
Determine Your Marketing Channels
To adequately launch a product, businesses should tap as many marketing channels as their budget can reasonably accommodate. Companies with big budgets usually target a combination of traditional channels and online platforms to reach new customers. These include television, radio, social media platforms, and websites. Businesses also create email or text marketing campaigns that target either brand new or existing customers.
However, don’t just target general audiences with your promotional ads. Instead, carefully consider which channels are more likely to attract potential buyers who will push through with their purchases.
For instance, suppose you’re a pet grooming salon that’s planning to sell a line of dog shampoos. If your salon already has a sizable number of followers on Facebook and Instagram, it’s a good idea to concentrate your marketing efforts on these platforms. These audiences will likely be more receptive to your ads given that the product is relevant to their interests. Many social media marketing platforms also allow for geographical targeting, which means you can tailor and serve ads to pet owners located in specific cities.
Establish Partnerships with Influencers
The next step is to find influencers that can promote your brand. A good influencer can attest to the quality of your product and help boost your promotions because of the trust that their fans have in their recommendations. They can also create more buzz around your new product line to their specific audience, which allows you to reach a wider customer base that may have never heard of you before.
You can start by creating a list of popular bloggers, YouTube personalities, as well as high-profile customers that have shopped from you before. Once you have a list of candidates, contact each of them with a carefully crafted pitch letter and send them a free sample of your product. If they like your new merchandise, encourage them to share photos and details about it with their followers.
However, don’t just enlist any popular influencer’s help. Instead, think about collaborating with personalities that can truly represent your brand. At the very least, their principles should align with those of your business. For example, if your pet grooming salon is marketing a dog shampoo, it’s ideal to work with a fashionable influencer who loves to style their adorable dog for cute photos. If your brand advocates for adopting dogs, an influencer who volunteers at their local animal shelter can be a great ambassador for your brand.
Organize Giveaways and Contests
One of the most effective ways to launch a product and re-promote new products is to host giveaways and organize contests, as these kinds of activities usually leave a positive impression on people. If they end up liking the product you’ve given away, it will increase the likelihood that they’ll buy it for themselves or their friends and family in the future.
Contests and giveaways are also a great way to boost your follower count on social media. By requiring people to follow your social media page and tag friends to enter your contest, you’ll also get more eyes on your products and your social media feed. You can even use these activities to encourage people to try your new merchandise and provide you with valuable feedback for future iterations of your product.
Release Engaging Informational Videos
Another way to get people talking about your new product is to create free informational videos that highlight your product’s features and promote your brand’s philosophy. You can do this by posting short videos on Instagram and Facebook stories or uploading full-length videos on IGTV, Facebook Live, and YouTube.
Need some video ideas to launch a product? Try posting behind-the-scenes footage of your team preparing your new product or shots of your brand ambassadors trying out your offerings on-cam. Whatever ideas you have, make sure to create eye-catching content that would get your followers interested in what you have to offer.
Besides being informative, make your videos extra engaging by creating a script and coming up with a funny storyline that’s appropriate for your brand. If your promotional video is entertaining enough, more people are likely to watch and share it on their social media platforms.
Take Pre-orders for Your Product
Once your promotional efforts generate enough interest in your product, don’t be surprised to find customers who already want to place orders before you’ve even launched. You might even have loyal customers who want to be the first in line to purchase your new offering.
To prioritize these buyers, you can open pre-orders before you officially launch your product to the general public. Giving customers the chance to place orders before the actual launch is a great way to create hype, as they’ll likely talk about how excited they are to receive your new merchandise.
Indeed, launchig the product to potential customers takes time and effort. Besides getting the word out to a lot of people, you have to make sure you’re targeting the right customers as well. It’s also important to communicate the right message, as all your efforts should be on-brand. We hope the tips mentioned above help you successfully market—and sell—your next new product line!
