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Developing a new product takes a lot of resources; time, energy, capital and so on. But the work does not end there. After developing the product comes promoting it.
You’ve created the product to be consumed or used by a target market. And only through product promotion can this information get to the intended audience. So, how do you promote a new product?
Fun fact: Thousands of products out there are made for you, but somehow you’ve never heard about them. The difference between the products you know and use today and those you’ve never heard about (even though they are made for you) is product promotion.
The question now is; do you want your product to be one of those other products that no one knows about? You sure said no. So, here is how to promote your new product.
But just before that, in case you have a product idea but not sure how to develop it, here is a comprehensive guide on product development.
Even though most of your promotions will be online, there are a couple of other offline promotions strategy that you can also use. But let’s start online for obvious reasons.
Contents
How to Promote a New Product Online
The obvious reasons? Well, because almost everyone is now online these days.
Product promotion online can be done in countless ways. In fact, the options are almost limitless. Take a look at some of them
Email marketing
Email is one of the most effective marketing approaches since the advent of the internet. About 76% of email subscribers say they have purchased a product through an email marketing message. Yeah, email is that powerful. And affordable too.
In the post on how to develop a new product, you’d find that you can start promoting your product even before it’s ready. Along with social media, email marketing is very useful for this.
You can use email marketing to keep your target market anticipating your product while it’s in the making. Share the product development journey and all that you’re putting in place to make it a masterpiece. They will definitely look forward to it.
And when the product is finally ready, email is also an excellent way to make the announcement.
Here are a few tips to help you get the desired result from email marketing when using it to promote your new product
- Place more emphasis on what they stand to benefit from the product, not features
- State “the catch” in the subject line
- Make use of preheader text to boost the open rate
If you are new to email marketing and want to learn how to begin, check out this guide on email marketing.
Write blog posts
Most businesses don’t pay attention to blogging, and you can’t afford to make that mistake; especially as you set to promote your new product.
Influencer marketing and trending of hashtags seem to be the order of the day for announcing a new product. But what most businesses don’t understand is this approach, most times, don’t convert. Instead, it arouses curiosity to enquire more about the product. And that’s why blogging about the product comes in handy.
Having blog posts about your new product is a fantastic way of digging into more details about the product features and benefits.
You can go on to share links to the blog post on social media for your followers to read.
Talking of social media…
Social media
Every business needs a social media account, so you most likely have one.
You can promote your new product on social media through varieties of way. One has been briefly mentioned – influencer marketing and trending of hashtags. All amazing and useful. Other ways to use social media in product promotion include:
1. Social media posts
With this, you can announce your product launch with a series of posts on the platform. Use relevant hashtags while at this to increase visibility.
This guide will help you get engagement on Instagram when promoting your product.
2. Social media contests (giveaway)
Who says no to free things? Absolutely nobody. That explains why some of the world’s biggest brands still run contests and promos to promote their products. And you should too, using social media.
Give out some of your products in exchange for simple tasks which will all be promotional to your product. You may ask your followers to make videos of themselves using your product, and the videos with most engagements win. This is a typical contest you can run to promote your product on social media.
3. Social media ads
This one will cost you some money but quite useful too. Run ads on social media to reach new customers. Social media even has data of people on the platform, making it even easier to get the intended market.
You can target your ads considering gender, location, age, marital status, interests, profession and so on. Save for location; you can’t get all these even when you use electronic billboards.
How many times have you bought a product because someone else shared their experience using the product? Several times, maybe.
Word of mouth advertising remains of the most effective form of advertising. It is an unpaid form of advertising in which pleased customers go about spreading the word. And it works almost all the time.
To promote your new product, encourage those who have used it to leave a review, sharing their experience. And what do you do with such reviews? Share, of course.
Sharing customer reviews is the closest to the word of mouth advertising as it provides almost the same results.
So why did you develop this product? What problem were you looking to solve? Did you experience some challenges while developing the product? How did you raise funds? How about the team you worked with to develop the product?
These and more make up the product story you can share to endear people to the product further.
A brand that appears to be doing this so well on LinkedIn is Utiva. Anyone who follows the company CEO and almost any other Utiva staff on LinkedIn would attest to how they are doing with storytelling.
Simon Sinek said people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And there is no better way to share your why than through storytelling.
Referral program
This is another very effective way to promote a new product. Encourage users to refer family and friends to get different forms of rewards. The reward could be a free product, subsidised price, cash reward and so on.
This is quite effective and not too far from the word of mouth advertising. The only difference is that this one is not organic. And oh, you can do this offline also.
How to Promote a New Product Offline
Most marketing efforts these days focus online, and that’s quite understandable. However, the offline marketing approach cannot be wholly left out as it still converts too, especially if your product is not exclusively available online.
Having pushed your product online, these are the ways you can promote offline as well.
Introduce the product with a special offer
You can do this in different ways. Examples include
- Buy one and get one free offer
- Joint promotion with a complementary product
- Discounted pricing
- Free coupon or voucher on each purchase
Don’t forget to mention that this will not last forever when you start any of these promotions. That way, you let customers get a pressing sense of urgency to participate.
Billboards and newspaper ads
They may not be as trendy and effective as before, but they still are not a bad idea for product promotions offline.
For billboards, location is crucial as you don’t want to promote your product on a billboard where no one (or your target audience) will see.
Flyers, stickers and posters
Maybe old skool, but still cool. These are traditional ways of promoting a product that can be used today. Stickers especially, when strategically done, give excellent results.
Well, you may want to think twice about flyers as, more often than not, they end up in the trash can. However, if the product offers irresistible value and is well communicated in the flyer, best believe people will keep it and act on it.
Organise free events
A training perhaps. Or maybe a seminar. Just put together an event your market wouldn’t want to miss.
Covid is still very much with us, so organising a physical event won’t be a smart idea. And that leaves you with the option of organising virtual events. Just make sure the subject is exciting, and the speakers are authorities in the industry. And don’t miss the opportunity to subtly market your product in the event as that’s the whole essence of organising it in the first place.
Conclusion
All of these are effective ways of promoting a new product online and offline. But which is the best?
Well, the best is relative. The best will depend on your type of product and the channels your audience uses the most.
So, everything boils down to knowing your audience and communicating your product to them exactly where you can find them.
Have you promoted a new product before? How did you go about it and what was the result like? Leave a comment.
Thanks for stopping by. Glad you enjoyed the blog post.