Whether you are launching a new product or product line, it’s an exciting time for your business. That excitement could quickly wane if the product or product line isn’t reaching the right people, which means sales might not reach the level you had hoped. To prevent this from happening, you should implement the marketing tips outlined in today’s post.
Market Research is Vital for Any Product Launch
It doesn’t matter how many products you’ve launched in the past, you should always conduct market research, or else you run the risk of the product not going in front of the right people. Market research helps you understand consumers, your competitors, and the products and services similar to the ones offered by your company that are already on the market.
What is Customer Analytics?
Customer analytics should be part of the market research you conduct before a product launch. Customer analytics provide you information on the following items:
- Shopping habits
- Demographics
- Where customers originate from (newspaper, website, radio/tv ads, etc.)
- Customer engagement
- Customer satisfaction
Create a Product Launch Checklist
Marketing your product launch cannot be done without a solid product launch checklist. Some of the items that should be on your checklist include:
- Define features that help your product stand out from competitors
- Ensure you have acquired all regulatory certifications
- Make sure that the packaging for the product has the proper colors, labels, and warnings
- Ensure that production workers have been properly trained
- Decide how you will launch the product
- Choose the product’s colors, fonts, slogans, and logos
- Put a social media marketing plan in place
- Make sure sales reps have all of the product information
- Offer a quick start guide, if applicable
- Ensure that all documentation for the product has been reviewed and is complete and correct
Create Videos to Share on Social Media
Create videos that you can share on your company’s social media accounts. Shareable content is consumed heavily by the public online. Encourage your employees to share the same content to their personal social media accounts to help create a buzz for the new product. Make sure these videos are short, sweet, and to the point. They only need to be a couple of minutes long to explain the features of the product. Don’t create full-length tutorials that bore your customers.
Create a Product FAQ Before Launching the Product
Be sure to create a product FAQ before launching the product. Simply updating the general FAQ section on your website will not work when launching a new product. You should have a detailed FAQ section for every single product your company sells. Doing so makes it easier for customers to find what they are looking for, to educate themselves about the product, and to troubleshoot any issues they have. For example, if you are launching a coffee maker, you should answer questions about cleaning the product, using tap water, scheduling auto brew, and other information.
Build a Solid Team for the Product Launch
Ensuring that your product launch goes smoothly happens when you build a solid team to handle the project. A product launch team should consist of marketing professionals, manufacturing experts, engineering employees, customer service reps, and an accounting analyst.
The accounting analyst is one of the most important people you can have on the product launch team. An accounting analyst does the following:
- Inspects books and records to ensure that reporting is being done correctly
- Examine the quarterly and annual financial reports of the company
- Create statements that outline the overhead, profits, and tax deductions of the company
- Assessing the performance of the accounting department
The accounting analyst will be able to review your company’s profits and expenses, including how much it has cost to produce the new product, and determine how much it should be listed for when it hits the market.
Create a Product Launch Plan Today
If you have a new product or product line ready to hit the market, be sure to follow the marketing tips outlined here to ensure a strong product launch. Planning ahead and ensuring that you’ve done everything possible for the product to succeed can be done with a little bit of marketing finesse.
