The Keys of a Successful Product Launch Campaign
Brand extensions and new product launches are always exciting projects for marketers. Here’s a chance to unveil and introduce something to the world! That part sounds great, doesn’t it? The other side of the coin, however, is the massive pressure that comes with the territory. Everyone involved in conceiving, backing, developing, producing, and distributing the new product is counting on you to make customers interested in it. So much hinges on a successful product launch campaign. That said, if you follow a few simple steps, you will have a tried-and-true blueprint to help your product land with a splash!
Build Anticipation
The first phase of a proper new product launch campaign is the “tease” phase designed to build anticipation. It doesn’t matter if you’re introducing a new hybrid car or a new line of fleece fabric. If you can get your audience’s attention and intrigue them by telling them something big is coming, they’re likely to follow you to the next stop on the ride.
While teases are vague in their nature, ending with a launch date or website and social handles will help direct people to more information. These platforms can be integrated into your messaging, displaying a countdown clock, for example. Or, they can explicitly offer additional details or a longer tease than the one your audience has just seen.
Reinforce Your Brand
How many times have you seen a movie trailer that boasts: “from the director of (blank),” or “the team that brought you (blank)”? This isn’t just a trope, it’s standard practice. Why? It’s because every movie is a new product launch, and the director or team in these examples serves as a familiar brand. This messaging helps reinforce it. People remember what they liked from this brand before and are likely to sample their next offering if you remind them.
This same concept applies to launching virtually any new product. If your brand has any equity or goodwill with the public, associating the new product with it will help. You may say something like, “You already know (blank) makes great (blank). Now, they’re going to give you the newest, best (blank) you could hope for.”
Highlight Features
Being vague is an important component of the teasing stage of a new product launch campaign. Once you’ve moved to the selling stage, however, it’s time to get specific. It’s critical to highlight features that will be appealing to your audience. That means you must take the time and research who your audience is and what matters to them. Marketing a luxury automobile is far different than selling a rugged truck. Know your audience, and speak their language, highlighting the features that will stand out to them.
Explain Differentiating Benefits
After emphasizing new product features, you must go a step further and demonstrate how those features can benefit a potential buyer. One of the most effective ways to do this is a two-tiered approach. First, spell out in no uncertain terms what the feature will do for them. Great examples are “keeping your family safe,” or “saving you hundreds of dollars a year.”
Next, go a step further and differentiate yourself from your competitors. There are many ways to do this, like a subtle, “outperforming others in its class.” You can go harder by quoting stats about “customers preferring this product two to one over (blank),” if you have the data to back it up. You can even take a swat at the hornet’s nest and call them out by name. “(Blank) can’t even do that,” etc.
Call to Action
Now you have your audience’s interest. They’re ready to buy! The worst thing you can possibly do at this point is neglect to tell them how. Close by asking for their business and giving them an address, phone number, website, or social account to use to seal the deal.
Many new products will fail for no specific reason. Using these tried-and-true tactics to launch your next new product, however, should give it a fighting chance to succeed!
Keys to Marketing a New Product to Existing Customers
Developing and launching new products is crucial for your business growth. However, the success of your new products relies heavily on how well you market them.
Marketing a new product to potential customers is only one side of the spectrum. You must focus just as much effort, if not more, on your existing customers. Your current customers are more likely to buy your new products than potential customers. Hence why making them the center of your new product’s marketing strategy is vital.
What is the key to marketing a new product to existing customers? Well, there’s more than one. Let’s start with four of them here.
Learn All You Can About Your Existing Customers
One key to marketing a new product to existing customers is knowing them inside and out. You must know who your existing customers are, what they need, and how they do things. Customer analytics can help you learn a ton about your current customers.
Specifically, you want to familiarize yourself with product-focused information like:
- The types of products your existing customers want.
- How you can best deliver those products to them.
- What products they’ve already bought from you.
- Their reaction to previous new product launches.
- New product marketing messages that resonate most.
- How your existing customers engaged with other new products.
All in all, the insights you get from customer analytics tools can help you make informed, data-driven decisions about how to best market your new product to existing customers.
The success of your marketing efforts is also tied to how well you keep your existing customers at the forefront of your launch strategy.
Prepare Your Product Launch With Your Existing Customers in Mind
Many marketers focus solely on attracting and engaging new customers when it comes to launching a new product. As a result, they neglect to think about their existing customers when drafting the marketing messaging, visuals, and so forth.
And that means campaigns aren’t likely to resonate with existing customers at all, and they won’t be on the edge of their seats, waiting to purchase your new product.
So, ensure no task is overlooked by using a product launch checklist. A product launch checklist will help you organize your product launch strategy. It will also help you identify how you’re going to engage your existing customers.
Address the following before launching a new product to ensure you’re existing customers are excited about your new product from the moment it’s introduced:
- The product design and features that your existing customers will love most.
- Operational and logistic requirements for the new product.
- How you’re going to introduce and promote your new product to your new and existing customers.
- The role your other internal teams play in a successful product launch.
Another key to marketing a new product to existing customers is implementing upselling and cross-selling strategies.
Implement Upselling and Cross-Selling Strategies
One of the best ways to market a new product to existing customers is to show how well it compliments the product or products they already have. In other words, how does the value of their existing products go up when they buy your new product?
Depending on the products your customers already have, you can:
- Position your new product as an upgrade.
- Present it as a must-have add-on to their recent purchase.
- Put your new product in a special bundle with other products that complement what the customer already has and offer a discount price.
- Package your new product with another as a special offer.
Furthermore, you can create various email campaigns that explain how your new product compliments each product you already have. Then, based on the product your customer already purchased, they’d be enrolled in the email campaign that explains how their specific product works with the new product.
Lastly, be diligent and consistent in your conversation with your existing customers about your new product.
Continue the Dialogue
Even though they’ve already bought into your brand, your existing customers aren’t going to jump right away when you introduce a new product. The hope is that you’ll have them hooked with the first marketing message or video. But that just isn’t reality.
Think long-term when it comes to the dialogue you have with your existing customers about your new product.
For example, you could create an email marketing strategy that spans a few months before your product hits the market. This will help you build up excitement about your new product without the pushy salesman vibe. Another suggestion is to talk about your new product via a series of social media posts after its launch and drive traffic to a specific landing page on your website to learn more.
It’s also a good idea to have a strategy for continuing the conversation after your existing customers buy your new product. The last thing you want to do is make customers feel like all you wanted was a sale. Instead, continue engaging with your customers by sending them resources that help them best use their new product with those they’ve already bought from you.
Whichever way you decide to continue the dialogue with your customers, do so genuinely and consistently.
Conclusion
Marketing a new product to existing customers requires a solid strategy and a genuine appreciation for how important existing customers are to a business’s bottom line. Start with the tips above to design a strategy that successfully helps you market a new product to existing customers.