Product Launch Promotion

Growth Hacking Tips for the new product.

By Michael Spencer, Sept, 2015.

Define your User Personas

Target your specific customer audience

Growth hack your product, for those specific segments you have identified.

Double-sided Referrals

You’ve finished your pre-order pre launch landing page.

Now make prospects an offer that excites them, refer a friend to buy the product and you & your friend get a significant discount + loyalty points for future products.

2 rewards, for the BOTH of you. If they refer a friend, the loyalty points can STACK for up to 2 friends. This is the kind of gamification incentive layer you need to boost referrals.

Abandoned Cart Emails

Many of your Ecommerce buyers won’t be sure and will abandon the cart at the last moment, to research more or just because they are not 100% convinced.

Send them a follow up Email that is an effective sales recovery technique. This will help you optimize your conversions.

Get Influencer Mentions

Every network has specialized influencers, who mimic your buying target audience and have relevance to them.

Give Influencers free product and bonuses per conversion. Vloggers, young celebrities, influencers, brand advocates.

Host a Giveaway

This creates buzz, not necessarily in your target audience, but more generally, if your product has general public appeal this may be a good idea.

http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/

Do a Campaign on Crowdfunding

Kickstarter, Indiegogo or Tilt

Increasingly popular that creates a win-win situation for product promotion & gaining financial support (that can be used for a marketing budget if you are a little startup)

Teaser Facebook Campaign

Build anticipation with concept material, R&D specs, employees working on prototypes behind the scenes, articles on why you decided to make the product, built a brand story way before launch.

This develops a brand narrative for the product, something people can identify with. Micro interviews of people involved. Followed by more commercial videos.

Create User Generated Content Contests

Utilize Instagram & Facebook, the two highest engagement networks to create UGC contests with lavish prizes.

These will not only boost your product, but create the potential for viral marketing. UGC should be visual or micro-video. They could also extend to YouTube.

Create Product Surveys that result in Infographics

Create interactive content on your brand and product that reaches the core needs of your target customers.

Prospects that fill out the surveys could get loyalty points or some other advantage.

Use the answers creatively, like by creating Infographics that boost the relevance of your product.

Gamify Every Conversation Optimization Technique

Give rewards if they refer a friend Give rewards for writing a

testimonial and for writing a review or rating the brand

Create a forum for the public where they can discuss the product, reward people who answers other customers.

Study your Competition Aggressively

Do SWOT analysis on similar products (even if you believe yours to be unique, chances are it isn’t).

Do SWOT analysis on how easy it is to copy and steal your product’s unique selling point and R&D, this will settle stack-holders and investors.

Review the marketing materials, ads, brochures, social media and website of competitors or similar products.

Re-Target the Ideal Customer

Take another look at customer segments and personas. You may have new data that changes your idea of who is MOST interested in your product.

Chart the user experience and utility of your product all through its lifetime according to different buyer personas, create follow up surveys for each of those. Get feedback, improve product.

Create a USP

Create a unique value/selling proposition. What makes your product special and useful? Is your angle really the most strategic one for your best target? Don’t settle yet for one, have multiple mottos, keywords and angles.

Score Partners and Press Outlets

To built buzz and brand advocates who actually care about your product, build a targeting list.

20% of your outreach will often yield 80% of the results, so it’s important to focus time in the right places.

I hope you have social skills on Twitter & write high-class copy on Email!

Social Proof

Your product landing page has to be optimized for social authority.

Video testimonials, reviews, authentic good & bad.

Facebook rating, with honest reviews.

Case studies, list of potential uses of your product (if applicable).

Active social media accounts.

Logos on your Launch Page

Showing your brand affiliations is a good way to boost your social proof.

Use logos of your biggest customers.

Use logos of News or sites that have mentioned you or your product, built this list methodically.

Monitor Stats & Analytics

Keep detailed records of statistics on your product.

Customers per demographic, sales data, stuff like that.

Then pick and choose which of these stats to display to portray your product in the best light.

Display last buyers, there location, name, age and how long ago. This gives an idea to other customers that this product is trending.

Cost per Acquisition & New User Experience

How much does it cost you to get a new unique buyer?

Create on ramp programs. How do you optimize experience of

new customers? Product packaging? Return policy?

Free-trial? Customer Service? Instruction manual? FAQ?

Reach

Be always brainstorming how to increase your product’s reach.

What channels & partners will help promote your story?

Online sites & magazines, Email lists, local News media?

You must use Email Marketing obviously, have a pop-up on your landing page to get them to sign up. A free Brochure in exchange, is a typical example.

Run Viral Contests

High ROI strategy, for launch, for seasonal events (X-mas)

Don’t expect too much from product Launch, think organic growth.

Utilize contests to promote online word of mouth

Don’t expect miracles, work on every approach.

Pull a Media Stunt

Sometimes any exposure is free advertizing, approach with caution.

Do altruistic things for the community, show you care about the community as a company.

Show your company culture, on your LinkedIn corporate site & Instagram.

Show the world why your product makes the world a better place, focus on positivity.

Pre-Launch Video

The swag and snazz is all in the pre-launch Video.

If you have investors and crowd funded properly, you have $ to spend to get this right.

This should be on the landing page of your product (video on the landing page for mobile is a golden rule)

It can be on your Vimeo & YouTube, embedded on Pulse articles on LinkedIn, shared perodically, etc.

Optimize your Email Sigs

Your brand, your marketing and sales team needs the best CTA on your Email sigs as possible, these will be seen often and are an often neglected lead gen technique.

Inbound lead generation has to be the topic of some meetings with your entire team, to come up with additional strategies.

Content Marketing

The quality of your blog, quality of your social posts, level of photography, ability for visual story-telling: all this is huge for developing targeting traffic to your product page and creating a brand.

You have to know the kind of brand you are portraying and how to reach your customer personas.

Brainstorm Headlines

With a new product you have to think of click-bait, good headlines and the best strategies for an article that are most likely to interest readers in your segments.

If you want quality conversions, you need to write targeted content.

Brainstorm headline ideas with your team, and article topics on a weekly basis.

A/B Testing

Always test before you do something or spend money on your launch.

Without a comprehensive marketing plan and testing, you are setting your launch up for failure.

Have roundtable discussions with people in your target demographics and gender.

Make sure your brochure, content, Email marketing, videos, PR and partners are all ready.

Get Beta Users

Get Beta users and get feedback, testimonials and recommendations from them. Always listen to your customers and show them you care what they have to say.

Then you can Launch with confidence.

Charge Early

Have different plans, packages, color choice, and bundles of your products.

Think seriously about packaging Offer bulk deals, incentives to buy

now. Money is the fastest way to

business validation.

Package the People of your Brand Your website should cover:

Give your brand advocates a vision, people and ideally videos on your product.

Overview Founder Bios Founder High-res Images Company Background Industry Expert Quotes Product Screenshots Logos Case Studies

Keep Learning

Trial and Error, sees what works for your product, your brand and your market

Keep documenting your growth hacking strategy

Adjust your marketing plan as necessary

For B2C, it’s less about sales and more about marketing. Good luck!