When it comes to promoting a new product or service for your business, it can seem like there are endless options. It can be difficult to figure out where to get started and which methods of promotion will give you the best results. Truth is, there are many ways to promote your products and what works for you may depend on your industry, offerings, and audience.
Take a look at these 10 methods below and see which ones make the most sense for your business.
Offer loyal customers an exclusive preview
Your loyal customers are a key part of how to promote your product because they are most likely to not only buy it, but also promote it to their networks.
This can take the form of a virtual pre-launch party, an online tour, preview, or demo. Or it could even be a special invitation to test it out and give feedback. These exclusive offerings are not only a great customer engagement strategy, but they also reinforce how much you value them—and engagement and loyalty are essential for any successful growth marketing strategy.
Use a special introductory offer
Rather than just announcing your new product or service, you can make it available as a part of a special introductory deal. For example
Discounted pricing.
Reduced-rate bundle or package.
Buy one get one free deal.
Free gift for every referral.
Whatever your promotion, be sure to emphasise that it won’t last forever. Customers whose purchase power is limited, either by time or inventory, will feel a more pressing sense of urgency to buy.
Make use of Google Business Profile
You can promote your new product or service using your Google Business Profile, provided you have an account.
When in your GBP dashboard, navigate to the Posts tab. From there you can create an “Offer” or a “What’s New” post.
If you’re just announcing the new product or service, you may want to go with a “What’s New” post. Just remember that Google Business Profile posts expire every seven days, so you’ll need to repost. On the other hand, if you’re running a special introductory deal, an “Offer” post would be best, as you can set a timeframe. Regardless of which post type you use, be sure to include a picture and a call to action to promote your business most effectively.
Run a social media contest
Social media contests are a fun, easy way of connecting with customers and bringing in more fans/followers and prospects for your business.
The winner(s) of your Facebook giveaway should gain the opportunity to be the first to get their hands on your new offering and get it for free or at a discounted rate.
Be sure to announce the content across all your marketing channels, and not just the social platform you’re using to run the main campaign. This includes your other social media channels, your website, email newsletters, and even paid ads.
In addition to generating more excitement and buyers for your new offering, the increased engagement with your social media account will likely drive more traffic to your website too.
Spread the word via email
Did you know that 82% of consumers open emails from businesses, and that 76% of email subscribers have made purchases from an email marketing message? Email is a fantastic channel for getting the word out about your new product/service. Plus, it makes a great incentive to get subscriber signups in the first place.
You can run an email campaign specifically about this new offering—perhaps even as a series of emails building up to the day of launch. Or you may want to announce it as the focus piece of your next email newsletter.
Write a blog post
When promoting your new product or service, you may not have a landing page for customers or subscribers to go to. After all, your new offering could just be an upgrade on an existing platform or account. In this case, your goal may not be to get more customers, but to get your existing customers engaging, or to re-engage dormant customers.
Having a blog post written on the newly launched item is a great way to go into depth on all the details, features, and benefits you would otherwise include on a landing page, and you can share the link to the blog post via your emails or social media channels.
Host an event
Events not only get customers excited about your new product or service but can also get new prospects personally engaging with you — a great way to win them over as customers.
Events don’t have to be fancy and super organized; something as simple as an open house or an info session will work for locations like salons, fitness centres, yoga studios, spas, and retail stores.
You could host a Facebook live session showing the product and highlighting its features.
Or run a live or recorded Q&A on the product itself.
Share customer reviews
One of the best ways to promote a new product or service is to let your customers promote it for you. If you take advantage of some of the ideas previously mentioned (like offering a free trial), you can then ask them to write a review of the new service or provide material for a testimonial.
Post on social media
If you’re using any of the tactics mentioned above to promote your new product or service, make sure to spread word of your deals and offerings via your social media accounts. This is an easy way to reach your audience, and your followers can easily share your post to their own profiles.
Another benefit is that customers/prospects can ask questions about the product in the comments section. Their questions and your answers can serve as an organic FAQ.
If you have a niche audience or loyal following, you may also want to use a custom hashtag in your promotion post. I have a great blog on how to use hashtags.
This will not only expand the reach of your campaigns but may also inspire customers to share posts and pictures to their accounts, using the custom hashtag.
Run Facebook ads
With 1 billion daily active users, Facebook advertising is a window to a large base of people who will be interested in your new product or service. Facebook ads are particularly useful because the personalised data voluntarily provided through users’ profiles makes for unbelievably specific audience targeting. You can factor in gender, age, location, interests, marital status and even profession. There are also several options for ad type, budget, and duration of campaign, so you can accommodate your goals within your means.
So what’s the best way to promote your new product or service?
The best way to promote your new product or service will depend on what channels your audience frequents and what their online behaviours are. Regardless, you should use multiple channels and cross-promote. The more cohesive and consistent your messaging is, and the more your audience learns about it, the more engagement you can expect. Try out the strategies above to get the results you want from your next product launch, or new service offering.
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