How To Market New Products

How To Market New Products

A new product launch is probably the most challenging marketing task. Companies often use their latest products to enter a new market or engage consumers that aren’t their traditional audience. On top of this, a new product also needs to engage current customers and improve their loyalty. That’s why every product launch requires detailed marketing strategy that defines messages, techniques, methods and channels that can be used for reaching and engaging the target audience. In this article, we’ve shared several innovative techniques entrepreneurs and marketers can use for spreading the word about a new product launch far and wide.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding communities help entrepreneurs and non-profits to find necessary funding for their projects, but they’re also used for promoting new products and prototypes. In 2015, the crowdfunding industry achieved $34.4 billion funding volume and online communities, like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, have millions or members from all around the world.

In order to use crowdfunding websites for promotion and receive significant funding while doing it, you need to have a unique product idea. Your product needs to solve consumers’ problems or make the world a better place. Product development is just the start of your crowdfunding project. The way you explain your product and its benefits to the community will define the success of your campaign. A good thing is that even if you don’t succeed in gathering the required sum, the information about your product will be shared across social networks by the members of crowdfunding community.

Social networks

In the Digital Era, social networks are the most logical place to start your product launch campaign. In the last couple of years, many new products have entered people’s minds through social media. One of the recent examples is Pokemon GO. The release of this augmented reality game was followed by Facebook and Twitter storm. The major newsreels were caught up in the hype, and they’ve published thousands of news articles about the adventures and mishaps of Pokemon GO players. During the last year, we’ve been seeing dozens of player gatherings and Pokemon GO quickly became the most popular mobile game that’s ever been released.

Giveaways

People like free stuff. Companies often give out samples of their new products to consumers. Depending on your target audience, you can organize giveaways on trade fairs, special events, on the streets or in supermarkets. If you don’t want to reveal your new product just yet, you can replace samples with other types of promotional merchandise. Entrepreneurs often use the ‘power of free’ to make their new product more competitive. For example, you can order customized non woven bags and give them out to the first buyers. One of the most notable examples how companies use the power of free to promote their products is the giveaway organized by King C. Gillette in the beginning of the 20th century. Gillette was giving out free razors in order to sell its disposable razor-blades. Today, thanks to Gillette’s innovative product launch campaigns, this company is known as the number one razor manufacturer in the world.

Video teaser

Video is the most popular content form on social media. Teaser videos are great for promoting new products and prototypes. Their purpose is to announce that something big is going to happen and to create suspense, intrigue and curiosity among consumers. Teaser videos are not hard to make, but this task still requires you to have at least some video editing knowledge. If you don’t have enough funds to buy expensive video editing software, like Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere, you can always rely on free and open-source programs, like Lightworks, OpenShot or VideoLAN.

Since you’ll need to promote your teaser on social networks, make sure you use the most common Facebook and Twitter video forms. Always add subtitles, because most people watch videos on their news feed in the silent mode, and try to tell the whole story in less than 5 minutes. If you don’t have time to master the use of video editing software, you can always outsource teaser creation and find skillful editors on websites like Upwork or Fiverr.

These are just some of the creative marketing strategies that can be used during or after the product launch. You can also use various guerilla marketing tactics and disrupting PR stunts. Whatever tactic or channel you choose, you should know that complicated product launch campaigns can be very costly, but with learning new skills and using free software solutions, even small business entrepreneurs can make them affordable enough.

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